Juicero, Maker of the Infamous $400 Juicer, Is Shutting Down (fortune.com)

Beth Kowitt, reporting for Fortune: Juicero has run out of juice. The San Francisco-based maker of counter-top cold-press juicers said today that it is shutting down operations and suspending the sale of its presses and produce packs immediately. The announcement on the company's website comes after the startup said in July that it was undergoing a "strategic shift" to more quickly lower the cost of its $399 juicers and $5-7 juice packs filled with raw fruits and vegetables. As part of the shift, the company said then that it would lay off about a quarter of its staff. At the time, Juicero CEO Jeff Dunn wrote in a letter to employees obtained by Fortune that the current prices were "not a realistic way for us to fulfill our mission at the scale to which we aspire." But Juicero realized it couldn't bring down the cost of its products as a standalone company. It was too small to achieve the required economies of scale on its own. The company will now focus on finding a buyer, it wrote in Friday's blog post. From an article in April: 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.

Comments

it was a scam

[nimbius]

The juicer was nothing more than a cpu and a stepper motor that wrung out a sack of pre shredded vegetables into a glass. Investors immediately called this out, which is likely why juicero isnt around anymore. Not to mention the device was only compatible with DRM juice bags pre-purchased at $40 per week.
complete hardware teardown available here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:it was a scam

[llZENll]

It is a cpu and stepper motor, but an insanely awesomely built one! If you watch the video you posted you will see, there are massive solid steel worm drives, gears, and bearings (many custom for this piece). The press plate is a giant 1"+ thick solid piece of CNC machined aluminum, it honestly looks like you could crush small car pieces with this thing, the marketing of how powerful it is seems like it could be true. The tear down guy obviously knows his stuff, and is very impressed with it, he said it cost upwards of $1000 to make, which explains why they had to sell the juice subscription with the machine.

Although it's not the dumbest idea in the world, it certainly seems like it at face value. If you didn't have to subsidize the machine, you could sell juice packs for probably half as much or less. Then simply sell a levered press you clamp to your counter, which would cost well below $50 and have a few moving parts and last forever. Although this plan is better in nearly every way (cheaper to make, cheaper to sell, better for the environment, less to break, easier to make, simpler for the consumer), it has ZERO attraction in a VC sales pitch, which is why we end up with wifi/kcup/iot crap like this.

Fun Fact: Juice isn't good for you

[WillAffleckUW]

Actually, juice is highly correlated with diabetes if done to excess.

Vegetable juices are fine, but fruit juicers can lead to substantial increases in both pre-diabetes and adult onset diabetes, if not part of a varied diet.

And having robots take away the exercise of squeezing it is just making it worse. Calories need to be burned somehow.

Re: Fun Fact: Juice isn't good for you

[ShanghaiBill]

[citation needed]

Citation: Fruit Juice Intake Predicts Increased Adiposity Gain in Children

Citation: Reducing childhood obesity by eliminating 100% fruit juice

Citation: Fruit consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes

Citation: Intake of Fruit, Vegetables, and Fruit Juices and Risk of Diabetes in Women

Citation: Soft drink and juice consumption and risk of physician-diagnosed incident type 2 diabetes