What’s happening?
Blue Apron, the biggest meal kit company in an increasingly crowded market, has been floundering financially. The delivery service fired its CEO last month, replacing co-founder Matt Salzberg with CFO Brad Dickerson. The change made Blue Apron stock jump … for the first time since the struggling company filed its IPO last June. That’s not a good thing.
Is Blue Apron in trouble?
Yes. Tl;dr, the company is spending too much to get new customers, and people aren’t sticking with the service. Blue Apron had a rough first year as a publicly traded company, and according to Motley Fool, its business model spends too much on marketing and doesn’t give enough value to retain customers for it to be viable on a larger scale.
Competitor HelloFresh went public in November and boasts higher revenue than Blue Apron; however, it reportedly has similar woes when it comes to losing customers.
Not a long-term relationship …
On today’s show, Chef Patrick talked about the latest in food news, including the Blue Apron trend – meal kit companies that deliver fresh ingredients with a recipe, aiming to let you cook at home without the hassle. Chef Patrick noted that these companies have gotten a lot of buzz but still aren’t making money. Will meal kits stick around once consumers fall out of love with them? It’s not looking promising.
Listen to the full segment (above) to get Chef Patrick’s take on more food trends like the mobile grocery store. Part farmer’s market and part food truck, a grocery store on wheels has been proposed as a solution for people living in areas with few options for buying fresh food.
To see more from Doc, visit his channel on TheBlaze and listen live to “The Morning Blaze with Doc Thompson” weekdays 6 a.m. – 9 a.m. ET, only on TheBlaze Radio Network.
BlazeTV Staff