However, currently the competition is pretty stiff - fast food and current delivery services have huge flaws in their lack of nutrition and the daily time cost of obtaining them, but they're dirt cheap.
$10/meal is nice, but it doesn't scale all that well. If I go grocery shopping (the worst possible solution, time-wise), I'll probably spend ~$300 or so for a month's (30 days) amount of food for myself. That comes out to a meal cost of ~$3.50 (let's round up, it makes sense in a moment).
Fast food and delivery are more expensive. If I used fast food every day for 30 days, I would estimate that cost around ~$7 per meal (see?), or double the cost of grocery shopping. At this point, costs are already soaring, as we're in the neighborhood of ~$600/month for food!
Now throw on an additional $3 per meal, plus delivery charges, and you're sitting somewhere around ~$900 I'd have to spend every month to make sure I won't die. That's a lot of cash, especially compared to the ~$300 I could spend just buying groceries.
I want a way to spend closer to $300 than $900 to get this time waster solved for me. Am I asking too much?
Then consider the much bigger time-sink: cooking the stuff! Even if you consider a mere 30 minutes a night for cooking and cleaning dishes, you're talking another 15 hours a month (or $750 given our aforementioned rate).
Just a thought.
Frankly, I'd value it higher, though that only further supports your claim. :)
Also, it should be noted that people are perfectly capable of cooking low quality food themselves.
For some reason when you have to scientifically measure the nutritional value and compete on taste, the intersection of "healthy" and "tasty" seems to shrink dramatically. A coincidence, I'm sure.
Gobble has given us a fifth and better option, and I think that will be the cornerstone of its appeal to customers.
So true.
Gobble completely disregards food safety. Many of the "local chefs" are just local restaurants from which Gobble orders in bulk and then repackages into individual portions. While primary food preparation happens in a real commercial kitchen, the repackaging happens without food safety oversight ("In our old office, we would just repackage all the food in the office"). Food is often handled with bare hands, and sanitation/washing is not a significant concern.
The vague language regarding food safety on their FAQ doesn't increase one's confidence in the service. There is no mention of any certification of their facility, or of their own staff. https://www.gobble.com/faq
I wouldn't eat their food if you paid me.
Gobble has a higher variance on arrival time and portion size, and once couldn't find my apartment. Gobble food is more like a well put together take out, and it's cheaper. So far it has tasted fine but a 2 hour window on arrival is kind of meh. The range in portion size means that sometimes I wish I had ordered a side or appetizer but there's no way to tell in advance whether I should.
Munchery meals are like restaurant meals at a nice place. They offer a cheese plate, and I think the meal quality is similar to that of good meals you'd get at a place that had a cheese plate :)
Gobble apparently has better vegetarian options according to my wife so that combined with the price will probably mean we keep Gobble.
It just makes eating seem so... mechanical? In my house, so much family time was structured around food – grocery shopping, cooking, eating, choosing a restaurant to go out to, driving to grab take out, etc.
I guess it just depends on the food culture you're used to. I do appreciate that this is helpful for a certain subset of the population who don't have any interest in food (if you have interest but are too busy, maybe you should make yourself less busy), but I guess I was just surprised to see unanimous support in the comments.
The only options near me are a pizza place and a chinese and while both are excellent...not every night.
Personally I just wish there was a pill I could take every day that would take care of all dietary needs and hunger occasionally I eat for pleasure the rest of the time it's just fuel and gets in the way.
I'm aware of Soylent but I'll give it a few years before I consider it (there are some things where been a beta tester may not be a good idea..).
Couple other options for those of you in SF/East Bay:
-Sprig (eatsprig.com)
-SpoonRocket
Personally, I haven't had SpoonRocket before, but I've loved Sprig's service and the food. Having Google's former Head Chef doesn't hurt :)
