Would you consider buying a Juicero?

[mhendo]

@DCnDC

I buy a half gallon of OJ from the supermarket every 2 weeks for $3. It would take nearly a decade to save back just the cost of the machine, let alone the packs.

Fuck that noise.

I started this thread, and i’ve ridiculed the Juicero plenty, but let’s be clear about the different types of juice and juicing, and what part of the market the Juicero is competing for.

If you want to make your own fresh-squeezed orange juice, you can get a perfectly good electric citrus juicer for $50 or less. If you’re willing to use muscle power, you can get a mechanical juicer for much less.

We bought this electric citrus juicer five years ago (it was $45 at the time), and it does a great job. And i guarantee that the juice produced by a juicer like this is far superior in taste to anything you get in the supermarket for three bucks.

Then there are juicers designed not for citrus, but for more “solid” fruits and vegetables, from apples and carrots and beets to kale and spinach. Among those types of juicers, there are the fast centrifugal juicers, and the masticating or slow juicers. These are the types of juicers that the Juicero is competing with, because they are used by people who want more than just a glass of OJ.

We have an Omega masticating juicer at home. When we bought ours, it cost us $200. I wasn’t especially interested in it, but my wife wanted it, and she likes being able to make her own juice from all sorts of different fruits and vegetables. I admit that some of the concoctions she produces with it are pretty delicious. She loves adding ingredients like ginger or parsley, and it makes for some interesting flavors.

Masticating or slow juicers tend to be more expensive. The alleged benefit of these juicers is that the slow (or “cold”) pressing of the juice reduces oxidization and makes for a better, healthier and tastier juice. I don’t know if this is true, or bullshit, but it’s also the principle behind the Juicero.

The big difference with the Juicero is that you can’t choose and shop for your own ingredients; you have to buy their pre-packed bags. That also means that you’re restricted to their choice of flavor combinations, and you can only get your juice from the same people who sold you the juicer.

[Dewey_Finn]

Now the company is offering refunds to all of its customers.

[John_Mace]

@DCnDC

I buy a half gallon of OJ from the supermarket every 2 weeks for $3. It would take nearly a decade to save back just the cost of the machine, let alone the packs.

Fuck that noise.

In my experience, fresh squeezed OJ goes bad after a few days. No? I’ve never had it last 2 weeks.

[mhendo]

@Dewey_Finn

Now the company is offering refunds to all of its customers.

This was probably a necessary PR move, and i’ll bet it will hardly cost the company a dime.

The reason they’re offering the refund is that some people have expressed annoyance with the fact that the juice packs can be squeezed by hand, and do not require the actual machine. But the company will only sell its juice packs to people who own the machine, so if you own a machine and return it, you won’t be able to squeeze your juice packs by hand because they won’t sell you any more juice packs.

Also, my sense is that the type of person who will pay $400 for a web-connected juice machine, and up to eight bucks for an 8-oz bag of juice ingredients, is probably not the type of person who is very interested in squeezing the juice bags with their own hands.

[jz78817]

@John_Mace

In my experience, fresh squeezed OJ goes bad after a few days. No? I’ve never had it last 2 weeks.

store bought OJ goes through so much processing that it might as well not be orange juice anymore.

Why 100% Orange Juice Is Still Artificial

[DCnDC]

@John_Mace

In my experience, fresh squeezed OJ goes bad after a few days. No? I’ve never had it last 2 weeks.

I buy the one with Donald Duck on it. I’d imagine it’s good for well over 2 months, let alone 2 weeks.

@mhendo

The reason they’re offering the refund is that some people have expressed annoyance with the fact that the juice packs can be squeezed by hand, and do not require the actual machine. But the company will only sell its juice packs to people who own the machine, so if you own a machine and return it, you won’t be able to squeeze your juice packs by hand because they won’t sell you any more juice packs.

A strange business model. Generally the big profits in this sort of thing is selling people the consumable bit, forever.

[John_Mace]

@DCnDC

I buy the one with Donald Duck on it. I’d imagine it’s good for well over 2 months, let alone 2 weeks.

Oh, OK. Donald Duck changes everything!!

[Dewey_Finn]

@jz78817

@John_Mace

In my experience, fresh squeezed OJ goes bad after a few days. No? I’ve never had it last 2 weeks.

store bought OJ goes through so much processing that it might as well not be orange juice anymore.

Why '100% Orange Juice' Is Still Artificial | HuffPost Life

When I drank orange juice regularly, I always bought the same brand and variety (Tropicana Pure Premium, with no pulp). I marveled at the fact that the taste never varied, even though presumably the oranges came from different trees and different farms.

[mhendo]

@DCnDC

A strange business model. Generally the big profits in this sort of thing is selling people the consumable bit, forever.

That was my thought too. You can get a laser printer for fifty bucks, but the cartridges each cost about the same as the printer. Why not sell $8 juice packs to anyone who wants to squeeze them with their hands? Surely there’s a profit in that.

[DrCube]

@mhendo

That was my thought too. You can get a laser printer for fifty bucks, but the cartridges each cost about the same as the printer. Why not sell $8 juice packs to anyone who wants to squeeze them with their hands? Surely there’s a profit in that.

Don’t forget “venture capitalists”. Any old schmoe can hawk bags of vegetable parts. Silicon Valley wants to buy users. The wifi connection and the app it comes with are what the VCs are investing in. They want to harvest user data to sell to advertisers. Specifically, the until-now hard to reach data about what users are doing in their kitchen and when, plus probably some fitbit-type health metrics. The juice and the juicer are just irrelevant side details.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

@Periwinkle

I would vastly rather have a Vitamix blender. I haven’t bought one yet but I probably will one of these days.

QFT. They are amazing blenders. My mom’s has a function on it where it can make hot soup. In a blender!

[psychobunny]

And it’s over.

Juicero Inc., the vegetable and fruit juice startup that raised more than $100 million from investors, said it will suspend sales, offer refunds to customers and search for a buyer for the company.

[snfaulkner]

If it’s not the juice loosener, I don’t want it.

[mhendo]

This company’s failure is just so satisfying.

[I_Love_Me_Vol.I]

@mhendo

This company’s failure is just so satisfying.

Also delicious, fresh, and fortifying.

[Musicat]

@mhendo

This company’s failure is just so satisfying.

They were squeezed by the competition.

[Mangetout]

I’m sorry to hear of any company going out of business, but the DRM in this product was the worst kind of bullshit. Good riddance, and my sympathies to anyone who either bought it and now has a useless piece of scrap, or worked for them, and now needs a job.

[Ike_Witt]

I am curious, how many machines did they sell? How many buyers renewed their subscriptions for juice (god that sounds weird) after the initial period ended? Most importantly, how many machines did they tell their investors they were going to sell?

[Mighty_Girl]

@Merneith

You could buy a pack of carrots and crush them with your teeth for even more nutrients. It only costs a buck and the carrots won’t spam your phone with updates about their expiration date.

But, that’s so primitive!