Grab one and you’ll understand. Transporting a box that can easily tip the scales at 15 pounds once it’s filled with ingredients, gel ice packs and protective padding is expensive.
The Washington Post recently noted that shipping expenses for a meal kit represent roughly 20–30% of the service’s price.
Strip away the introductory coupons that slash a meal box’s cost in half or the referral discounts that make meal kits feel more affordable, and you’re typically looking at $50 to $60 per delivery. A single $10 or more might be eaten up simply getting your dinner from the packing facility to the brush beside your front stoop.
Caitlin Dewey of The Washington Post reported that Blue Apron ships orders from one of three fulfillment centers in New Jersey, Texas and California.
“The company keeps adjusting both the exact box insulation and the carrier it uses, on a ZIP code-by-ZIP code basis,” Dewey wrote. “In other words, even if you and a neighbor both order from Blue Apron, two totally different trucks might deliver your (differently insulated) packages.”
Steep Prices for Major Convenience
We’ve never claimed meal kits cut your grocery bills. What they buy you is time. If wandering supermarket aisles aggravates you and planning meals makes you groan, the $60 a week to have someone plan and portion everything might be worthwhile.
And no one’s concealing the downsides of food boxes (we’d uncover them anyway). The safety of perishables inside insulated delivery containers isn’t always perfect. We still don’t fully understand the environmental toll of shipping so much pre-portioned food to individual households. And reports about working conditions in the warehouses that pack your sprigs of herbs are at best mixed.
Still, simplifying grocery shopping and meal planning is a massive industry, with a Blue Apron IPO on the horizon and Amazon ready to reshape the grocery landscape entirely.
We Crave Free Shipping — But For How Long?
We all love free shipping — and the promise of hassle-free returns — but it’s easy to forget those “free” services usually have costs built into the item price.
UPS recently announced surcharges for deliveries during peak holiday periods. Amazon recoups only about half of what it spends getting your purchase to your door, even with Prime.
Sooner or later, online buyers will face a decision, whether you’re ordering a new pair of trainers or a week’s worth of meal kits: do you prefer to pay a visible shipping fee for actual delivery costs, or absorb a higher item price and keep believing the company is sending it “free”?
We’ve been trained to hunt for rock-bottom prices, but concessions may be coming. If you’re trying to trim meal costs while keeping convenience, check options like cheapest meal delivery service to see where you can save without sacrificing ease.
