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Comment by ajacksified | Hacker News Reader

> seems like there isn't much difference between ordering from a decent Indian restaurant and you guys

I know it seems absurd on HN, but there are people who live in areas without decent Indian restaurants.

That's fine, but then the question becomes "How many people who want fancy 'high quality' Indian food also live far from decent Indian food". At this price point, your demographic seems to be people who have a decent amount of disposable income who also want QUALITY Indian food who also don't want to have to prepare it themselves and who don't live near Indian restaurants of comparable quality to the product. How much of that 5 Billion dollar pie have you carved away from your product when it's framed like that?

I have to agree with OP. I wish you well, but if I want to pay this much money for Indian food I'll likely go to an Indian Restaurant near me. I'm supporting a local business and being provided with a restaurant experience.

(of note: I worked in restaurants for over a decade, so my food spending tends to fall into "dining experience at a great restaurant" or "ingredients to prepare my own food because it's cheaper than convenience foods". I was going to be a hard sell from the start).

The play here would almost certainly need to be around supply chain and/or some advance in the quality/ease/lifespan of fast prepared meals.

That's a fair point, but also not the only demographic. When the options are either eat at an Indian restaurant or make it yourself, you come up against issues of overspending on time or money. There's a large population of people who enjoy Indian food, live near restaurants, could even make it themselves if they want to, but would rather get a quick, tasty meal that tastes homemade for the same amount of money and effort as a microwave meal.

Appreciate the support :)

There's also the group of first generation Indians who have kids, would like to feed their kids Indian food, but don't have an hour each day after work to prepare a fresh meal. Combining these packets with homemade daal and rice would make an easy weekday meal for a small family (although in NYC you can find housewives who'll come to your house once a week and prepare a week's worth of fresh food for cheaper than these packets).

Coming from small-town Missouri and having traveled very little even within the US, I had literally never heard of any specific Indian dish (authentic or not) until I moved to San Francisco. I had no idea what naan or chicken tikka masala were until my company in SF ordered some.

So before you moved to SF, you never ate any of these products. Most people don't start eating new cuisines from a product like this, they start at restaurants (under the assumption that these cooks have experience cooking the food and will likely make a good product) or after having a meal prepared for them by another person.

That's not to say you wouldn't see this product at a store and go "oh, I've heard of Indian food and always been interested!" but that's not the common buyer behavior. People tend to pick convenience foods based on established food preferences/familiarizes.

You should probably know that chicken tikka masala is British, not Indian then. :)

Yes, I did learn that. I threw in “authentic or not” to avoid attempting to define what is “actually” Indian food.

> You should probably know that chicken tikka masala is British, not Indian then.

You have to be careful posting such comments, you might start a war :)

Right. A war over something as meaningless as this.

There have been more fiercely fought wars over more trivial things.

This is HN, bike shedding is a thing.

Sure... and Vindaloo is derived from a Portugeuse dish. Which is not to say they aren't associated with India today.

The difference being the government minister Robin Cook to claimed that chicken tikka masala was "a true British national dish."

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