I'm not sure what the target market is. The half lazy? Too lazy to pick up a few ingredients, or go out to eat, but not lazy enough to actually cook it.
Based on the comments here and elsewhere, there is a legitimate target market--which might be more charitably described as people who want to cook at home but don't have the time/inclination to do the other tasks required to cook.
But I actually agree that the use case for these services is pretty narrow. I know they don't really work for me. If I could get quality grocery delivery where I live I might get meal kits as part of that but as a standalone offering the tradeoffs just aren't right. Every time I think about signing up for a delivery in a couple weeks I look at the recipes and go "Eh, maybe I'll just buy the ingredients for that next time I go shopping."
I can't get the same quality of ingredients locally (some are not available) without a tremendous amount of time spent traveling around town.
As far as going out to eat, many of the meals rival anything I could pay to have served to me at a restaurant (as well as the time spent traveling).
I'm not sure how valuable your time is, but mine is better spent having somebody deliver me the exact ingredients I need to create a delicious meal with minimal effort on my part (aside from cooking, which I enjoy).
Maybe you enjoy waiting in lines and traveling? I do not.
I use BA. I average about one order every 4-6 weeks. I'm also an avid cook, so at first it seemed like cheating/lame. However the workflow I've developed is to watch for weeks where 2 of the 3 options are something out of the ordinary that I'd never normally to think to make for myself, particularly when they use an out of the way ingredient.
Particularly for the latter purpose, I appreciate that they give me exactly what I need, because I probably don't want to use it again any time soon.
One order every 4-6 weeks, isn't exactly their target audience. Sounds like you just like to try something new once in a while, and Blue Apron happened to have it.
