The Next Bubble: Could It Be The App Market

[JoeKitchen]

The Millennial Urban Lifestyle Is About to Get More Expensive

Interesting article in the Atlantic on how so many apps used by millennials make 0 profits.  It kind of makes sense and this could certainly be the next bubble. 

Although I am very very hesitant to short any stocks, since the amount you could potentially loose is limitless, it could make sense. 

I find the tidbit on Meal preps apps to be really interesting.  I love to cook and have doing so since I was 8 or 9.  I find it a travesty that more people cant cook, especially since it is by far the easiest way to share your culture with others.  Needless to say, I have a big internal issue with meal prep companies.  But as it turns out most subscribers of meal preps end up canceling after a 4 or 5 month period because they learned how to cook.  So I guess they are not so bad anyway, well for society, but the companies often don't making more off of each subscriber then what they spent on that subscriber. 

[Alan Goldhammer]

I guess you also were not an investor in WeWork.   Derek Thompson is one fine economics writer and I also read the piece.  There are lots of bubbles happening all the time and trying to figure out what the next big thing is always proves to be difficult.  A lot of the failures never reach the IPO stage so trying to figure out whether to short a stock is irrelevant.

The meal prep companies work well in areas where people want to save cooking time.  I have done 95% of the cooking in our household over the years and always found it relaxing to come home after work and prepare dinner.  My daughter and her then boyfriend had 'Blue Apron' for about 4-5 months before they broke up.  She said the recipes and food were good and I think they had a 3 meal/week plan or something like that.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

I cancelled one of those prepared meals after only 2-3 weeks, for one simple reason: dealing with packaging was a major pain in the neck. Iced gel that you need to wait many hours to melt, and then spend half an hour to slowly pour it down the drain, not to mention discarding (properly) the outsized card boxes. Also, once you narrow the selection to your preferred diet (e.g., low carbs), the choice tends to be smaller and repetitive.

[Alan Goldhammer]

Our local Whole Foods now has these 'self-assemble' meals in the refrigerator section.  they look interesting but nothing that I couldn't do myself.  Once you get some good kitchen skills, prep time goes pretty fast.  It's usually the cooking time that takes the longest.  I've bot a pot of kambocha squash soup with kale and ginger cooking up right now.  the great thing about soup is you can make a lot and put it in the feezer for lunch/dinner use.