Meal-Delivery Startups Show Tech, Disrupted

Blue Apron, the leading meal-delivery startup, pitches itself as “disruptive tech,” but a recent BuzzFeed article shows that the tech is what’s being disrupted. This company is at the mercy of physical-world constraints just like the brick-and-mortar businesses it’s competing with. As tech looks to muscle its way into more parts of the economy, this may become a theme.

The customer experience via Blue Apron is indeed optimized by technology: A few clicks of a mouse or taps on your smartphone, and meal kits begin to arrive at your door every week. But the infrastructure needed to support that process is anything but optimized. Like Amazon, Blue Apron needs large fulfillment centers to manage orders and process inventory. It has to abide by OSHA and food-safety regulations, and has large warehouses where people work in near-freezing temperatures.