Amazon Might Start Doing Meal Kits

Blue Apron’s value dropped by 1/3 after the announcement.

I know I’ve been doing a lot of Amazon stories lately, but they are having a killer year:

Blue Apron stock gets toasted as Amazon cooks up rival service

Blue Apron (APRN) shares plunged as much as 11% on Monday following news that Amazon filed to trademark a prepared food-kit service. About one-third of Blue Apron’s value has vanished since the company went public late last month.

Wow, a company that just acquired a major grocery chain is now going to start selling food kits? I mean, I’m not surprised.

But I’m also a little… it’s like the feeling you get when you see the same person win all the awards or get all of the big opportunities. It’s not that they don’t deserve it, but it would be nice to see some of that wealth spread out a little.

On the other hand, I spent part of this weekend watching the BBC’s four-hour Emma miniseries on Amazon Prime Video as part of the Seattle Public Library’s Book Bingo challenge, and I read three short books on Amazon Kindle, and my own book had its best Amazon sales weekend ever. When I made my donation to Mary’s Place yesterday, the biggest button on the website was “donate with Amazon,” so I did.

So if I draw wealth from Amazon and pour wealth into Amazon and share wealth through Amazon, I shouldn’t very well be asking them not to create opportunities for me to give them more.

I wonder who will fund all of those podcasts, though, if Blue Apron and HelloFresh disappear.

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