Startups Like Blue Apron Make Cooking Easier — And More Expensive

Increasingly trendy meal kit companies like Blue Apron (said to be considering an IPO) have built hot businesses on the promise of making cooking at home easier. But not—even with their perfectly measured portions—cheaper. A new survey from NPD Group found that the average meal from a kit costs about $10 per person—more than double the price of shopping for yourself, according to NPD, and about equal to the average cost of eating out. This dynamic plays out differently depending on the market, of course, but it makes the economics of meals in a box a little less appetizing outside big, expensive cities.