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Silicon Valley's $400 Juicer May Be Feeling the Squeeze (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader shares a Bloomberg report: One of the most lavishly funded gadget startups in Silicon Valley last year was Juicero Inc. It makes a juice machine. The product was an unlikely pick for top technology investors, but they were drawn to the idea of an internet-connected device that transforms single-serving packets of chopped fruits and vegetables into a refreshing and healthy beverage. Doug Evans, the company's founder, would compare himself with Steve Jobs in his pursuit of juicing perfection. He declared that his juice press wields four tons of force -- "enough to lift two Teslas," he said. Google's venture capital arm and other backers poured about $120 million into the startup. Juicero sells the machine for $400, plus the cost of individual juice packs delivered weekly. But after the product hit the market, some investors were surprised to discover a much cheaper alternative: You can squeeze the Juicero bags with your bare hands. Two backers said the final device was bulkier than what was originally pitched and that they were puzzled to find that customers could achieve similar results without it.
Here I thought you would stick fruit containers in it, and it would pulp them up. But using bags of... juice? Did no one along the line wonder what the device was actually for?
It is so simple (and I'm guessing more economical) to go to the grocery store and get some veggies and/or fruits and throw down a regular juicer.
Hell, I have a Breville multi-speed one for about $200....why would someone buy a $400 machine that requires you to buy prepackaged produce to be squeezed out of it...?
How did so many people think this was a bright idea?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
It's not a juicer if it doesn't even make juice. All it's doing is squeezing already made juice out of a fancy bag. So if anything, it is a $400 (after the price drop, looks like it was originally $700) juice dispenser, not juicer. Looking at the photos in the article, it looks like what we would have if CapriSun was made by Apple.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
This article and the recent ones about Tilt makes me thing that these "investors" decide where to invest almost entirely based on how dynamic and likable the pitchman is, nothing else.
As for this juicer, you can buy frozen fruit at Costco and juice or make smoothies for pennies on the dollar of this product. But too any good juice or smoothie is just too sweet to be healthy in the first place. Another "health food" gimmick as are almost all of these diets, supplements, programs and devices.
I don't know, but it works for me.
Too many people fall for the 'jucing' meme every year, which is why shitty companies keep producing them. You want to eat healthier and be healthier? Eat whole fruits and vegetables instead. Goal attained, and you saved hundreds of dollars in the process. You're welcome.
Silicon Valley is one of the weirdest places you can visit on Earth.
Strange things happen when you take naive, out-of-touch leftists and then give them huge amounts of money that they didn't really earn in any meaningful way.
For example, you end up with a city like San Francisco that's supposedly "liberal" and has immense financial wealth, yet it also has the highest concentration of homeless in America. What's worse, they aren't just homeless, but they act in the most uncivilized ways possible. They urinate and defecate on sidewalks, for example, and then turn around and sleep in their own filth! There are entire districts of the city where this is a typical scene.
You end up with absurd property zoning bylaws that prevent anything resembling modern high-density development. So not only are there many homeless, but housing becomes increasingly scarce and nearly impossible to afford even for those who should be able to support themselves. It even gets to the point that highly-paid professionals, who in other cities live in very nice housing, end up living out of their vehicles.
You end up with a large number of adults who have a mentality that's comparable to that of a child. What's worse, these people somehow become CEOs and other executives at companies. They expect all sorts of unreasonable accommodation, and you shouldn't be surprised to see them crying (yes, with actual tears and pouting) if they don't get their way, or especially if somebody says something "mean" to them.
You end up with technology that's utterly asinine in its concept and execution. For example, just look at the UIs of software like Firefox and Chrome. They're total rubbish. Or you end up with devices that cost a huge amount of money for delivering very little practical value.
When visitors come to Silicon Valley, one of the first things they notice is that they're saying "What the fuck?!" to themselves constantly. The more you learn about the region and its people, the more idiotic it all seems. Things happen there that would be laughed at and ridiculed everywhere else, yet these things are considered perfectly normal by the local inhabitants, despite how much stupidity and idiocy is often involved.
Silicon Valley is all about "What the fuck?!"
Thankfully stories like this are a sign that serious air is coming out of the startup bubble. The fervor from just 2-3 years ago has settled down, and now you see at least a little more skepticism when someone pitches iToast type BS.
At this point anything "internet connected" or controlled by an app has lower value to me. I want simple crap that works, with REAL buttons/knobs, can't get malware, doesn't require constant updates, can't get "orphaned". Less is more.
what exactly is the purpose of this "juicer"?
Provide a gravy train of free investor money for a select few at the head of the operation. Duh.
Dumbass investors saw this as a Kuerig for vegans. A new device that accomplishes the goal of selling the most amount of cheap material crap to people at a exorbitantly marked up price, with a potentially successful marketing message of a "better way".
Somehow people bought heavily into the concept of Kuerig, even though you have had small (even single) serving coffee machines for decades and decades. But no, now you can buy a wasteful and expensive single serving cup that you drop in and there's a water tank and a pump that will eventually fail too, all for the low price of 5-10 small, simple, almost never failing, thermosiphon drip coffee maker. Oh and you get to pay tons more for your easy to use coffee cups now too! Yay!
A lot of people seem to think their lives get better as they acquire more technology. Doesn't matter what it is. If it has a button and a screen and it does something that didn't have a screen before, its better. Now it even has the internet so it can do... even more things or something.
TL;DR Why? Because stupidly blind and wasteful consumerism.
It puts a smile on my face to see such an expensive shit device like this fail so hard.
I fucking HATE facebook, that place is divisive and spammy as hell, i told my (real) friends they have my phone number and email address and they wont find me on facebook
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Per the article: $5-$8 per bag. 8 oz juice/bag.
Your office manager has to be a special kind of stupid. All costs are opportunity costs, you could have an 'endless' bowl of fresh fruit and a weekly keg of good beer in the office for less. I'd be bitching about wasting bene money on overpriced crap.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
At the same time, while, on the whole, it may be cheaper to do it yourself, if you don't use your juicer a lot then it may be more expensive in the long run when you have to buy many different ingredients that don't last that long.
No, the point is that it's $400 cheaper, with exactly the same results, if you don't buy the juicer at all. Also: No, you could use a standard juicer and throw away half your ingredients (probably much more than that), and it would still be cheaper than $5/eight ounces.
There's a convenience cost, and for the people willing to pay it that second point is less important, but the first point is the mark of a scam - this product is unnecessary.