Artist's Note:
I've tried one of these subscriptions, and I find myself baffled by it. I actually subscribed to HelloFresh awhile back, and the kit was very bulky, wasteful, and not worth it. But then again, I actually know how to cook. So this may be something that would work for someone who has no idea what the do in the kitchen...?
Writer's Note:
Somehow, over the past few years, app mania has given way to subscription mania. It used to be that businesses were happy to just sell you stuff as one-off deals, but now they're trying to hook you up to an IV and drip feed you their products for life. While it's marketed as a convenience, it's just another psychological trick that, much like loot boxes in video games or the cloud software bundling used by tech oligopolists like Microsoft and Adobe, generates consumption far beyond what consumers actually want. This translates to greater sales for those companies at the expense of their consumers.
But...it also seems like these subscription services provide almost all the advertising dollars that support my favorite podcasts, so I'm slightly conflicted, but only a little.
