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Comment by Someone1234 | Hacker News Reader

Expensive relative to what?

If you're making your own meals ($3/meal), yes, it is expensive. If you eat out then it is much more reasonable. A single eat-out costs ballpark around $6/meal, so assuming you did that twice it would break even.

I agree re. sample size. $85 in one go is hard to justify to the +1 when all you're really buying is food. $6 here or there is easy to ignore, but $85 is a weekly grocery shop in everyone's mind.

I wonder if price will come down as they expand? It might be wishful thinking to be honest, but I do suspect there are a fair few people who would happily try it if it was closer to $4/meal rather than $6/meal per now (i.e. $8/day from $12/day).

PS - I have to admit my three reasons for not trying it is: price, manufacturing problems/delays, and also I remain unconvinced that we know enough about nutrition to create this product that won't caused health defects in the medium to long term.

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Where are you eating out for $6 a meal?

Togos daily meal deal is less than that, with tax, without chips, and exactly $6 before tax, IIRC, with chips.

Not exactly the height of the culinary arts, but then neither is Soylent.

Also worth noting that Soylent will have to pay tax if they get large enough, just like Amazon does in many states now.

For food (at least, under many state sales tax regimes in the US), food that isn't sold in a restaurant (roughly, the exact rules are a bit different) isn't subject to sales tax. Its not a size issue, its a what they are selling issue.

I could name local places but they won't mean anything to you. However even Burger King's combo meals are around $6/meal [0] as are KFC [1] and McDonalds [2] (all within $1 of $6, some less). Local places are even better value.

However I get the sense this "question" wasn't asked because you legitimately wanted an answer. You just wanted to raise doubt that $6/meal is a thing. As I've shown, it is.

[0] http://www.fastfoodmenuprices.com/burger-king-prices/ [1] http://www.fastfoodmenuprices.com/kfc-prices/ [2] http://www.fastfoodmenuprices.com/mcDonalds-prices/

Can we also at least agree that enough is known about nutrition to determine that soylent is nutritionally better than the $6 options you provided? So as long as we're comparing alternatives to soylent in price, let's also compare them on the qualities of nutrition that we do know.

Where do you live?

The US has remarkably cheap fast food, far cheaper than anywhere else I've been. As an example, compared to Canada the prices are easily 25-30% cheaper (around here finding a decent meal at lunch for less than $8 is nearly impossible, and closer to $10 is typical).

Ahhh, I suppose it depends on where you are in the US. In ultra-affluent places like some DC suburbs, the prices are closer to those Canadian ones you mentioned.

At the absolute bottom fast food chains (McDonalds and Taco Bell) you can get meals <$7, but at any other nationwide fast food chain it'll be $7-9. Local places (fast casual) are typically $10+.

The price comes down with bulk and subscription (save 20% on sub). you cited "$6/meal per now" and I believe that was a mistake. If a week (7 days) supply is $85, you have $12.14 per day and about $4.05 per meal, which hits your target of "closer to $4/meal". On a separate note if you buy a months supply (don't have to eat it in one month) that is $300 for 28 days (84 meals) it comes to roughly $3.57/meal.

I do agree that the manufacturing delay was easily the worst part of the experience, but other than that I'm loving the product. I hope that many more people trying it will lower the price more because this has done a dent on my daily food bill, and it'd be great to see it come down more through widespread use.

> If a week (7 days) supply is $85, you have $12.14 per day and about $4.05 per meal, which hits your target of "closer to $4/meal".

Many people don't spend $6 or even $4 on three meals a day. They buy lunch and dinner, both costing around $6 if they eat out or around $3 if they make a packed lunch (more for dinner).

There might be someone somewhere who buys a premium breakfast for $4 a day and then spends $4-6 at lunch and dinner, but those people are a rare exception.

Most people are going to compare it to the meals they actually have now and what they spend. It doesn't become cheaper just because they recommend you have it for breakfast too. Breakfast is dead for the vast majority of the adult population (unless coffee counts?).

> On a separate note if you buy a months supply (don't have to eat it in one month) that is $300 for 28 days (84 meals) it comes to roughly $3.57/meal

That's irrelevant because the issue is getting people into the product who think it is too expensive. Suggesting they spend $300 as a buy in is not only unhelpful but also makes them much less likely to want to try it.

Also that's only $1.50 cheaper per day than the base price. Hardly a saving. Still costs above $10/day. Adding breakfast doesn't save any money, it is just a way to make it seem cheaper than it actually is...

> Most people are going to compare it to the meals they actually have now and what they spend.

Fair enough. Before switching to Soylent, I was regularly (meaning "nearly every work day") spending $8-$12 a day just for lunch. What I was spending on lunch for just one day is enough to fund several days of Soylent lunch. Or, during times when I am on a 100% Soylent diet, enough to fund more than an entire day's worth of meals. (I never could drink an entire pouch in one day.) So Soylent is very much saving me money. YMMV.

I would hazard a guess that a majority of people that realize a significant savings in Soylent live in places where things run a bit more expensive. I'm in Berkeley. Sure I can get a lunch for $5 but it won't be a quality lunch. And dinner? I can't think of any place where I can touch dinner for <$10 (unless I'm going to the same places I can get a $5 lunch). Granted, we usually cook dinner at home. And Honestly, I have no idea how much dinners cost at home. There are 5 of us. I buy food. We eat food. I assume it is cheaper than going out. But I can state with near certainty, it is more expensive (per person) than Soylent. It is funny when people talk about how they could never drink the joyless slop when they can cook fabulous meals at home for $3/meal... and then go on to describe meals that probably do only cost $3 but seems just as joyless as Soylent.

Side note: I've lost ~20 lbs over the last 4-5 months that I will attribute 80% of to Soylent. Even if some of that is just psychological, it is still working for me. Again, YMMV.

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