Delivered Meal Kits: Doomed to Fail

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Meal kit companies won’t last. Well, I guess one might, after buying out some others and offering a huge range. And maybe one more if it targets the wealthy. But the others won’t.

No first mover advantage. It is the opposite. With time many people will want to try something new, and will move to a new service offering a bargain first few weeks. Food is like fashion, it has frequent change, especially at the low end.

Delivery doesn’t suit everyone, especially those in apartments.

Not profitable. I guarantee that all the current services are breaking even or losing money. When they put up their prices, people will leave. And any economy of scale from getting more customers will be lost by delivering to them – as they have all started where delivery is the cheapest.

Fad. Just like diets, a lot of current customers are experimenting with a new of doing things, but will soon resort to their old ways.

Supermarkets. Even here in Australia, they have started stocking meal kits. No subscription required!

The future – small stores, conveniently located, that sell meal kits and gourmet frozen meals. Yes, 7/11 etc could stock them, or they could be standalone specialist stores. People will pay a premium to not be in a subscription. Not being subscription means  not knowing how many of each to stock. So you stock less so that by a certain time you have run out, and some customers don’t get to buy. This works if the food is desirable enough. And anything that hasn’t sold by 8pm is half price.

Tree Money

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Plantation trees are are a very solid, long-term investment (looks like a 7% return, long-term). I can’t think of any investment that takes so long to mature, yet has a quite steady value.

This could make it a good fit for crypto-currency.

If each “tree dollar” was actually a part-ownership of a tree farm, and that investment might take 15 years or more before it has an income, then that encourages long-term stability.

When the original trees start to produce an income – decades later – “tree dollars” can be redeemed for hard currency. The most desperate people will bid lower. This will be a balancing act to keep the currency stable – value of wood v desperation to redeem.

Those who aren’t in a rush to redeem will see their tree dollars reinvested in more trees.

If plantations were all around the world, risk would be mitigated. If trees with differing maturity rates were invested in, that would increase liquidity.

I think this is the only crypto-currency that is pretty much guaranteed to naturally grow with time.

*thanks to my Dad, who when I was a teen, said tree plantations were the best investment.

 

Trash Money

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In South Australia, you can hand in used bottles and get back the 10c deposit paid at purchase time.

What if that 10c was in the form of a crypto-currency?

What if little kids could use the very same crypto-currency? Or homeless people?

What if kids and homeless people got to crowd-source the name?

I predict an unpredictable economic system not witnessed before.

  1. Bottles and cans have a Q-Code on the label.
  2. When bottles are redeemed, the code is scanned. Every bottle has a unique ID, so redemption rates and per-product data can be known
  3. At redemption, a smart device with NFC (or card) receives the credits

Not redeemable for cash!

This is the key. It only has value to those that earn it – their specific needs.

It could work in conjunction with a non-profit that sells affordable/subsidised healthy snacks and drinks. Exactly what kids and homeless folk need. Maybe anyone who has ever earned $10 worth of credit gets access to an elite community centre, with WiFi and showers and newspapers and comics and pay TV.

It would also help provide a form of currency for those with little of no actual cash. It can be traded for goods/favours between users. But nobody else would want it, as it has no value to those who are not poor. So theft or skullduggery is a not a risk.

Possible redemption:

  • Charity stores / op shops
  • Libraries / community centres
  • Bike share
  • Swimming pools
  • Attending sporting events
  • Cinemas
  • Off-peak public transport
  • Entry to Shows (as in the Royal Melbourne Show)

Places to be where you can feel that you have earned the right to be there.

And if you were wondering if there are enough cans/bottles laying around to support this… I suspect that local residents will make connections with people in need and give them their cans/bottles in exchange for them being taken away. Just like the scouts used to do when I was young.

People with more credits than they can use, can gift them to others.

Ultimately it means the young and marginalised get access to food, clothing and society.

Baja California Entrepreneur Economic Zone

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Baja California is close to California, and easily defined geographically. It is popular with Americans.

Concept: attract internet companies to bring their money to Mexico.

  • no business or personal income tax for qualifying businesses
  • special temporary resident visas
  • minimum staff numbers and revenue requirements
  • 2% of corporate revenue and 15% of personal income must be invested in new Mexican businesses, with exclusions like real estate
  • Outside of the top 20 employees, 50% of salaries in value must be paid to Mexican citizens

Long-term goal, like one or two generations away, USA/Canada/Mexico will be like the EU. Better for everyone.

Memo Alert

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Many companies, recently Google and Facebook, have been embarassed by internal memos that were leaked to the public.

I propose a memo system where staff members receiving a bulk memo can click on a button to say “I think this memo could damage our company if it got out”.

It is anonymous. If enough people vote against the memo, the authors or their superiors could look into it.

 

Uber Semi-scheduled

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This is my typical Uber use – I’m planning on being at X for a few hours (bar, pool hall, friend’s place) and then catch an Uber around X time to the next place.

Because I am going from one social situation to another, I don’t want to book a ride for a certain time. But I am fairly sure of the journey and a time window. It would be helpful to Uber if they knew what my loose plans were.

I could be rewarded for letting Uber know my loose plans in advance, if I tend to actually do as I plan.

And Uber can know when 30 people are all expecting to catch Uber when their work party finishes, or whatever. They can have some cars in the area, and maybe rides that take them near there can be cheaper…

Hybrid Food Service

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There are many “food kit” delivery services, where all the ingredients arrive, chopped up, and you cook them.

For me that’s a once a week thing – every other night I want it easier.

Here’s the plan, but it can be altered to suit…

1 food kit per week
3 “just microwave me ” meals per week
Supermarket vouchers for healthy stuff

Your commitment to cook is once per week. When you shop at the supermarket, you want the healthy bargains. Lazy nights are covered by the microwavable but healthy meals.

People need to cheat, and if the cheating is also healthy, that’s a win

The Citizen Postal Service

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Roads are getting more congested, and posting letters is getting more expensive.

Congestion tax works OK, but for many people the extra cost won’t put them off driving in congested areas. They need a different pain point. Like inconvenience.

You will be required to plan your journey. If there is post that needs picking up and dropping off within reasonable distances of your route, you will be required to deliver it.

There are major problems with this idea, such as if the post is free will people abuse the system, overhead costs, and the most congested places aren’t easy to pull over and deliver mail.

The idea is that we should investigate other pain points other than money, like:

Community Service – so many hours equal hours of congested driving
Forced Car Sharing
Income Tested – rich people pay more
Car-Worth Tested – luxury vehicles pay more
Electric vs Non-Electric
Driving Record – people with speeding fines are forbidden from congested areas for X months

The Future of Toilets

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In the USA the courts have decided that transgender folk can use the toilet for the gender they identify with. To save me from discussing whether we need some kind of ID card that states our gender identity, we can just take it to the next logical step – wouldn’t that discriminate against those who are gender fluid or non-binary?

If gender fluid folk can therefore use any toilet they choose, then people with ill intent can just wander into toilet they want, and claim to be gender fluid. That’s where we will end up.

Aside from different functional needs (tampon disposal, urinals), and potential embarrassments, there’s another strong reason why most toilets are segregated. Many women do not feel safe going into a private area where strange men might be. Possibly most women.

So here’s my prediction. Rather than a toilet entrance that leads to booths, all booths will be directly accessible. Each booth will have its own internal hand basin and mirror, so they’ll be a bit bigger. A separate urinal room will be for people with penises only. It’ll be more like portaloos at an outdoor festival, and less like the office toilets we know today.

Mystery Bot

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Dear Elon Musk,

I have 50 ideas each day, just like you. Mostly mine never get done. So I’m gifting this one to you.

A little robot, like a robotic vacuum cleaner, that wanders around your house. And that’s it. People who buy it don’t know its purpose. That purpose will be revealed one day. Until then, it is a mystery.

People will go crazy not knowing why it exists. People will refuse to own one because of what it might see or hear. Which means everyone else will own one because they have nothing to hide.

It will be the most viral, perverse thing ever.

Oh, and to activate it, you need to give it access to your Facebook 😉