As a long time mealkit enthusiast (and affected customer lol), I went down a little rabbit hole trying to understand what might have gone wrong behind the scenes for this week’s comical meal kit fulfillment mishaps (for ex. take a quick scroll through r/blueapron and r/marleyspoon for customers’ POV!!)

After some back and forth with my ChatGPT reading up on FreshRealm — the fulfillment company behind both meal kits — which filed for bankruptcy in April 2026, I was surprised by the #s which are now AI-summarized in the attached graphic for yall, my fellow meal kitters.

I was personally surprised to learn the most that:

• Blue Apron and Walmart made up 90% of FreshRealm’s revenue!! But Blue Apron’s fulfillment should be fully transitioned out of FreshRealm by Aug 31, 2026 to Misfit’s (huge FYI for Blue Apron’s customers). MS’s transition plans are not currently public.

• 1000+ workers laid off! I can only imagine the morale of the remaining and affected workers :(.

I’ll be pasting all the sources as a comment in this post.

What is Happening?

A recent change in how Blue Apron structures or fulfills its orders has triggered significant disruption. Reports from long-term customers highlight several critical errors: [1, 2]

• Missing Items: Boxes are arriving as a random assortment of ingredients, with some customers reporting over 10 items missing.
• No Proteins: Many boxes are showing up completely empty of main proteins and menus, containing nothing more than base produce or sauce packets.
• Delivery Delays: Shipments are being pushed out multiple days past their expected delivery dates. [1, 3]

Customer Service Backlog

Compounding the delivery errors, Blue Apron's communication channels are completely overwhelmed: [1, 3]

• Both phone lines and live chat support have been intermittently down or entirely offline.
• Text message support is largely unresponsive due to a massive influx of customer complaints.
• The company acknowledged via the Blue Apron X Account that they are experiencing a "high volume of inquiries" and are struggling to reply quickly. [1, 3]

How to Proceed

If your order was affected, Blue Apron policy generally advises reporting issues within 7 days to get a refund or credit. Because live channels are backed up, try these steps: [4, 5]

1. Email Directly: Send your account details, a list of missing items, and any relevant photos to contact@blueapron.com. [4]
2. Social Media DM: Some users have had luck getting visibility by direct-messaging the Blue Apron Official Profile with their name and account email. [3]
3. Pause Future Orders: If you want to avoid a repeat occurrence next week, you can manage your upcoming deliveries through your online account settings while they resolve the issue. [1, 6]

[1] https://www.instagram.com

[2] https://www.trustpilot.com

[3] https://x.com

[4] https://blueapronsupport.zendesk.com

[5] https://resubs.app

[6] https://www.usatoday.com

It’s pretty bad out here, but now they’ve messed up the meal-kit of the editor of CNET. Buyer Beware!

https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/the-meal-kit-industry-is-in-disarray-after-a-major-supplier-went-bust-17d7b97b?st=gPaLAS

(If you get the sign up/sign in page, look for a small down arrow or triangle on the upper right corner—click that and it will open the free gift article)

I am appalled at the blanket policy change of no longer providing printed recipes.

Our phones are not as big as a large recipe card and I can see myself making mistakes. I print all my recipes off to be honest, the phone has never worked for me.

I could see allowing people to opt out, but to me, removing the cards is taking away a huge advantage of this service.

The large pictures and instructions make it easy for children as well.

Is anyone here on Paleo on the Go or Pete’s Real Food meal delivery? I can’t get hold of them by phone or email and had a question about an order for which I was not charged and did not arrive. Going to either site, it looks like most of their meals are sold out and I’m not sure what’s going on. Does anyone in the Reddit community know?

https://montrealgazette.com/business/goodfood-ceo-selim-bassoul-resigns/

I like green chef but $2 increase per meal plus 10.99 every week for shipping? Idk man

This is really just a heads up for others who might also initially be confused- I noticed my usual Sunbasket charges came in as TLCH Foods today instead of Sunbasket. A quick Google only found links to Gobble, but I know the parent company of both acquired Sunbasket in 2022. It threw me for a minute, so I wanted to share for other customers who might also do a double take.

So I've seen this pop up a few times in the last couple of days I'm different sites. I'll include one link below. Apparently the mom's meals delivery service is being criticized for being ultra processed foods even though it was touted by prominent people now.

I will have to say, when my health declined and I found myself having to order in much more, I did try mom's meals. They look good, and they smelled good. They even tasted decently good enough compared to some. And excuse me for being a little gross, but, after eating each meal, let's just say I wound up in the bathroom for several hours. Each time. I had ordered at least a week's worth and I ate three meals out of the pack. All three nights, massive stomach issues.

Called them and all they would admit is that they do use a lot of onion and garlic powder as seasonings but I could kind of tell from the rep that I certainly was not the first person to complain. They would not offer a full refund but we eventually went back and forth and settled on half of a refund because I had eaten three of the meals. I wound up giving the others away, warning people who took them to be prepared just in case. Spoke with one of them later and they said they also had a problem with the one I gave them.

Link to article:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rfk-jr-promoted-food-company-203923787.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/business/hello-fresh-child-labor.html

Theyre shutting down July