CEO of Silicon Valley's $400 Juicer Promises Refunds After Hand-Squeezing Demonstration (techcrunch.com)

Anthony Ha writes via TechCrunch: Jeff Dunn, the former Coca-Cola executive who became CEO of Juicero last year, has responded to a wave of coverage suggesting that the company's juice press isn't all that was promised -- and he's offering dissatisfied customers their money back. A Bloomberg report showed that Juicero's packs could be squeezed by hand, no expensive juicer required. Dunn's response? He doesn't deny that hand-squeezing is a very real possibility, but he does quibble about what you'll find inside, saying it's "nothing but fresh, raw, organic chopped produce" -- see, it's not juice yet because it hasn't been pressed. "What you will get with hand-squeezed hacks is a mediocre (and maybe very messy) experience that you won't want to repeat once, let alone every day," he argued. More importantly, he said, "The value of Juicero is more than a glass of cold-pressed juice. Much more." At the beginning of his post, Dunn said his goal was to "demonstrate the incredible value we know our connected system delivers." And if you're not convinced this is worth $400, well, there's another option for disillusioned Juicero buyers -- Dunn said the company's "Happiness Guarantee" (i.e. its return policy) has been extended to cover anyone who's ever purchased a Juicero Press. So for the next 30 days, anyone who's bought a Press should be able to return it for a full refund.

Comments

Expensive bullshitmachine

[Anonymous Coward]

They definitely squeezed a lot of horseshit through the salad shooter to get so much VC puppy love, didn't they.

In other news, VCs can be fucking stupid.

The jokes on the investors for this Keurig-for-hippies soft-serve nightmare.

Re:Expensive bullshitmachine

[hey!]

In other news, VCs can be fucking stupid.

Or they think that consumers are fucking stupid, which is a pretty safe bet. The tricky thing is to find a way in which people will be predictably stupid which nobody has thought of exploiting before.

This thing is pretty much in the right ballpark; it's an attempt to exploit a cultural weakness: people want to add things to their lives that have the same effect as taking things out of their lives -- e.g. they want to eat something that will make them lose weight. Among the few things that actually fits that bill are vegetables. But if you're drinking vegetable juice you aren't eating vegetables any longer; you're eating pre-digested vegetable concentrate.

Trying to get the benefits of vegetables by reducing them to a convenient candy slurry you can slurp down quickly is futile, because many of the key benefits of vegetables that people are pursing are entailed in the fact that they take time to eat and are difficult to digest. But this does't make selling that proposition to consumers a bad idea. Setting consumer off on a futile quest can be profitable, which is why the cosmetic industry doesn't just pitch looking good -- it tells women they need to pursue eternal youth.

The trick is to package futility so it's convenient and price it/pitch it so that it is either an impulse buy or an object of intense longing. That's not easy. Keurig got all the parameters right, starting with the story they tell you about how your life will be different with their product. You get up in the morning in a caffeine-withdrawal fog, you pop the pod into the machine and your coffee comes out. Then you toss the pod in the trash. What they are selling is the will-o-the-wisp of convenience, and they've managed to sell it at a staggering markup. The truth is that it's just as easy to make that cup of coffee with an Aeropress, especially if you have an electric tea kettle, and it's a hell of a lot cheaper.

Why would he care?

[msauve]

Why would he care if people used a machine or their hands to squeeze a $6+ per 8 oz serving juice pack? It's razors and blades - the profit is in the packs.

Re:Why would he care?

[Duds]

At $400, I suspect the profit is in both in this case.

Skip the juice packs also

[Swave An deBwoner]

Remarkable news! You can skip the juice packs too and eat your vegetables and fruits using those whitish sharp things in your mouth.

Re:How can we give a fuck?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a followup to the earlier article. It's relevant because it's coverage of an excellent example of the insanity in the VC world of anything that can claim to be "innovative" or "disruptive" technology even when it makes no damn sense.

Re:How can we give a fuck?

[stealth_finger]

This article shouldn't be on this website.

Don't click it then.

Re:By hand?

[CustomSolvers2]

LOL. I wish my stupid butler didn't spend all the mod points.

Re:How can we give a fuck?

[thegarbz]

Oh fuck off.

The packs made of very inorganic plastic

[Viol8]

... which will take centuries to decompose in landfill. So much for the eco living BS.

Re:vocabulary

[Anonymous Coward]

When have you had juice that is not "cold-pressed"?

Today. Go look up how apple juice is made at industrial scale.

Re: How can we give a fuck?

[Enigma2175]

According to the article, it's so they can recall the packs. Here is the quote from the CEO:

"The first closed loop food safety system that allows us to remotely disable Produce Packs if there is, for example, a spinach recall. In these scenarios, we’re able to protect our consumers in real-time."

I don't know about you, but I have never been affected by a food "recall" and I don't know why they would anticipate such a need happening. I know there have been recalls of food (even the spinach in their example) but they are usually pretty narrow in scope and in my view shouldn't need a machine enforcing them. If you put bad spinach into your product, how about sending me an email, or calling me, or publicizing it through the media? Once I buy something I would like to do what I want with it, in most situations I no longer want the company involved. If I want to squeeze expired packets or packets from another manufacturer, that's my business.