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

Posted by msmash on from the enough-already dept.

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.

27 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. it was a scam by nimbius · · Score: 4, Informative

    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?...

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:it was a scam by amicusNYCL · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't think it was a scam per se, the people running the company are just idiots. Selling bags of pre-crushed fruit and vegetable juice is great if they can do it efficiently and cheaply, there was no reason to tack on some $400 machine to remove the juice from the bag. Or, make the machine a $20 add-on to buying the juice if you really want a machine to do it for you, it really doesn't need to be a complex machine and there's certainly no reason to restrict it to only work with a single brand of bag, that makes it less useful. They shot themselves in the foot by making the machine their primary product instead of the juice. It's just short-sightedness, they didn't even realize what their product was.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    2. Re:it was a scam by JohnFen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Honestly, the machine they made was a case study in how not to design a consumer machine. It was seriously over-engineered and therefore overpriced all by itself.

    3. Re:it was a scam by Pascoea · · Score: 2

      Yes! An AVE\Boltr link! That channel is 100% gold. Many many many hours spent laughing my balls off.

    4. Re:it was a scam by llZENll · · Score: 2, Informative

      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.

    5. Re:it was a scam by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You can't squeeze blood from a stone, and you can't squeeze juice from a lemon that has already been completely squeezed dry.

      Force does of course come into the equation ... to a point. Once all the fruit's cells have been squished and drained of all fluid, no amount of force will yield any more. And that happens way, way before you apply 2 tons of force.

      Besides, raw squeezing power isn't the best way to harvest juice from a fruit. The best way actually depends highly on the fruit. Some you have to squeeze, some you have to shred and squeeze the shreds, with others again it's best to shock-freeze them and then "beat" them... simply applying pressure isn't exactly the best way to get juice from (most) fruits.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    6. Re:it was a scam by whoever57 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't think it was a scam per se, the people running the company are just idiots.

      I imagine that they thought they could be the juice version of Keurig.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    7. Re:it was a scam by tomhath · · Score: 2

      He spent other people's money, and (I assume) kept some of it for himself in return for his visionary ideas and management skills.

    8. Re: it was a scam by guruevi · · Score: 2

      Force is a tricky measurements. I can lift 2 Teslas worth of weight with my bare hands too, give me either a lever or make the area I apply force to small enough (although it would probably go through my hand at that point).

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    9. Re:it was a scam by petermgreen · · Score: 2

      The thing is k-cups are about 60 cents per serving. That is cheaper than popping down the coffee shop. Yes it's expensive compared to bulk coffee but k-cups let you conveniently keep a variety of hot drinks available.

      Juicero on the other hand seemed to start at about $6 per serving. That is just way too high.

      --
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    10. Re:it was a scam by hey! · · Score: 2

      Or engineer the packs so they cannot reasonably be squeezed by hand.

      Nothing is easier than eating more veggies. You just eat more veggies. But I think we've reached -- or at least are approaching -- a tipping point where food in its unpackaged state is no longer perceived by many people as food.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  2. Fun Fact: Juice isn't good for you by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:Fun Fact: Juice isn't good for you by Luthair · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So you think that celery is a fruit?

    2. Re:Fun Fact: Juice isn't good for you by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 4, Funny

      So you think that celery is a fruit?

      I think we found a Juicero investor!

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      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    3. Re: Fun Fact: Juice isn't good for you by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

      [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

    4. Re:Fun Fact: Juice isn't good for you by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 2

      You mean like this?

      large scale medical study of Americans and fruit or fruit juice intake diabetic risk factors

      now stop pretending you have any idea how google or tech works - AND DO YOUR OWN SEARCHES

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      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    5. Re: Fun Fact: Juice isn't good for you by Major+Blud · · Score: 2

      It's crazy how few people know this. 12 fl oz of orange juice contains slightly more carbohydrates as a can of Coke Classic:

      12 fl oz Coke = 36.05
      12 fl oz O.J. = 38.4

      https://www.google.com/search?...

      https://www.fatsecret.com/calo...

      I'm a Type 1 diabetic, and when I have bouts of hypoglycemia, the Dr. recommends I drink orange juice if I don't have any glucose tablets handy for this very reason.

      --
      If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
    6. Re:Fun Fact: Juice isn't good for you by dgatwood · · Score: 2

      I'm suddenly reminded of a conversation I had in which a product was described as containing Chihuahua cheese, and I snarkily asked how one milks a chihuahua.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    7. Re:Fun Fact: Juice isn't good for you by pjt33 · · Score: 3, Funny

      If you think that's bad, I've heard of a product called American cheese...

    8. Re:Fun Fact: Juice isn't good for you by dgatwood · · Score: 2

      Wow. I bet you're fun at parties. :-D

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    9. Re: Fun Fact: Juice isn't good for you by Aighearach · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Odd list of citations, since 3 of them are re-tellings of the same study which contradicts other past studies in some regards, 1 of them isn't even a study it is just a link about promoting a message of reduced fruit juice consumption, and the other is a study that says if you give fat kids fruit juice they get fatter, and if you give them whole fruit they lose weight. That actually just tells you that those kids are eating too many total calories and the fruit juice had a lot of calories; the rest of their diet was unchanged, after all. It tells you nothing about what happens if you eat the same amount of calories, but some of them were from fruit juice vs something else.

      You make it sound like you found 5 studies, but you found 1 study and it relies on self-reporting and it says in the conclusions that participants might have reported fruit "punch" as fruit juice. Regionally in the US "fruit juice" is actually the colloquial name for it even when it is only 5% juice. It was a pretty good study, but other people recalculating the results to generate additional charts is not the same thing as having additional studies that verify the results.

  3. Re: $55k by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Umm, creimer, is that you?

    I'm neither APK nor 110010001000. I'm honored to be the third most recognized name on Slashdot.

    Where's your Amazon referral link?

    Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: How People Make Orange Juice

  4. What did you expect? by burtosis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The appliance was trying squeezing the juice out of customers using some bizzare combination of the pricing model of printer toner combined with a predatory monthly app subscription and a keurig. Not sure who the hell thought people would actually swallow this. At least do something novel like having the machine hold 30 different packets and custom order a drink. As it is it was an outright money grabbing scam.

  5. I am like SO SAD by Drunkulus · · Score: 2

    We all thought Juicero would redefine the paradigm of disruption. Some people said it was as dumb as Snapchat or Bitcoin, and maybe they were right, but it's still just a tragic loss for all those visionary investors.

  6. funding? by argStyopa · · Score: 2

    https://www.crunchbase.com/org...

    Burning through $150 million in funding since 2013 ($88000 per DAY including weekends), they might as well have been juicing actual money.

    --
    -Styopa
  7. Are They Dumping Them On eBay Yet? by careysub · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can I buy a Juicero on eBay for $50 (shipping included) yet? There are probably things I need to crush, now I'll be set. (Yeah I know I'll have to Arduino the controller.) Yes, I see people trying to recoup their losses by offering their ill-advised purchase for $180 (and up) starting bids on eBay.

    But this guy has the right idea selling a "Juicero 2.0", a hand cranked roller press, which he says (no doubt truthfully) is twice as fast as a Juicero, and costs only $150.

    --
    Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
  8. Very Expensive Hand Squeezed Juice by pubwvj · · Score: 2

    "You can squeeze the Juicero bags with your bare hands."

    Which makes for a very expensive $5-$7 cup of juice.

    46 oz of V-8 Original is only $2.84.