By Ilene
The Blue Apron business model appears, perhaps, flawed. While the service is convenient, I think it would appeal mostly to very busy people who don't have time to shop for food — but enjoy cooking — and have enough money that the trade off between paying for food delivery vs. spending time shopping is worth it. Here's the unfortunate stock chart and some numbers from Yahoo:
The company has been losing money, and is projected to lose money again next year. Revenue is projected to decrease in 2019 from the 2018 level, but pick up again in 2020, though still below 2018's revenue. Maybe a larger company that could integrate APRN's services into its existing infrastructure should acquire APRN and save it from its apparent trajectory (Amazon?).
This is not a stock recommendation, but an introduction to a funny/prescient article about Blue Apron from two years ago:
This box contains the ingredients and recipes for this week’s Blue Apron meals. We know you’ve come to expect a high standard of quality from Blue Apron and normally we are happy to provide you with the best quality recipes and ingredients possible, but look, stuff has been rough for everyone lately and we’re doing our best. Things kind of got away from us this week…
Scrambled Eggs
Prep Time: 45 seconds
Cook Time: 1 minute
Servings: 2This is four eggs. We were going to do a whole soufflé thing, but we had a bunch of stressful meetings and then someone turned on CNN in the office kitchen and everyone got kind of depressed…
