Grocery shopping can be a bummer. Prices are always changing and you almost always forget to buy at least one thing once you leave the store. Plus, if you are in a big city, getting to and from the grocery store is a challenge in itself. Companies realize this and are now coming up with innovative ways for consumers to still cook food without the hassle of buying groceries. Subscription-based companies like Plated and Blue Apron allow you to get ingredients and recipes delivered to your door along with interesting and different recipes for every meal.
Blue Apron was founded in 2012 and was inspired by the blue apron apprentice chefs in France had originally worn. This goes with their idea that we are all apprentice chefs that have the tools to make any of their creative recipes. Their service is $9.99 per person per meal and provides all the ingredients and directions needed to make their dish. Meals have only 500-700 calories per serving, take an average of 35 minutes to prepare and are already pre-portioned so you don’t even have to measure anything before hand. All meals come each week based on your preferences and can be canceled anytime before the weekly deadline.
Plated is very similar to Blue Apron but a little more customizable. Focusing on their food being domestic and sustainable, Plated starts at $12 a plate and subscription is flexible to change the number of dishes and delivery days to what works with your schedule. While Blue Apron focuses on dietary control, Plated takes this to a higher degree offering dairy, gluten, spicy, peanuts, soy, nuts or pasta to be excluded from their meals.
Both of these companies are already starting to flourish with Blue Apron already delivering 700,000 meals per month and Plated delivering 100,000 meals per month over the summer. Do you think that the prices of these meals are worth not having to grocery shop? Or do you feel like grocery shopping isn’t that bad? Either way it is nice to know that there are more and more options appearing for consumers in our generation!
