on 13-Dec-2016 (Tue)

La Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV) y los bancos del país no registrarán operaciones este lunes 12 de diciembre, cuando se celebra el Día del Empleado Bancario, que coincide con el festejo religioso de la Virgen de Guadalupe.

la Ley para la Transparencia y Ordenamiento de los Servicios Financieros establece que, en caso de que la fecha límite de un pago corresponda a un día inhábil, el pago podrá efectuarse al día hábil siguiente.

Vicente Yáñez

Las decisiones de la Reserva Federal de Estados Unidos y del Banco de México, esta semana, darían un nuevo impulso a la moneda mexicana, aseguran analistas.

Durante esta semana, los participantes del mercado cambiario estarán atentos a la decisión de política monetaria de la Reserva Federal y del Banco de México, en donde se verían incrementos de 25 puntos base a las respectivas tasas de referencia, de acuerdo con las previsiones.

La decisión de la Organización de Países Exportadores de Petróleo(OPEP) de reducir la producción por primera vez en ocho años hizo que los precios del petróleo se dispararan

en los mercados financieros se da por un hecho que mañana será anunciada un alza en la tasa de interés por parte de la Reserva Federal y que el jueves el Banco de México hará lo propio.

La ganancia de ayer en nuestra moneda se debió en buena medida al incremento de los precios del crudo, tras el acuerdo de reducción de producción que se obtuvo.

Para los importadores, el dólar caro ha sido costoso y creo que inevitablemente tendrá repercusión en la inflación.

Pero para otros sectores se trata de una bendición. Este fin de año se pronostica como el mejor en una década para el turismo nacional, por la reducción de viajes al extranjero

A menos de un año de su entrada al mercado de las OTT, blim superó a Claro video en el segundo lugar de preferencia de los clientes detrás de Netflix, que domina con 4.43 millones de clientes.

El fuerte posicionamiento de Netflix y en menor medida de Claro videoen el negocio de contenidos bajo demanda levantó muchas dudas sobre el éxito y viabilidad de blim, plataforma lanzada en febrero pasado por Grupo Televisa.

a menos de un año de su entrada al mercado, la plataforma se posicionó en el segundo lugar de preferencia en los consumidores, al desplazar a Claro video, propiedad de Carlos Slim.

El banco central azteca gana credibilidad y mantiene su compromiso de bajar la inflación, expone Manuel Sánchez, integrante de la Junta de Gobierno del Banxico y quien culminará su mandato en unas semanas

El Banxico ha ido evolucionando, haciéndose cada vez más una institución sólida que ha ganado credibilidad en su política monetaria. Eso no comienza con mi llegada ni terminará con mi salida. En ese contexto, puede destacarse en estos años una mayor apertura. Banxico ha publicado una serie de documentos que reflejan una mayor transparencia, en particular las minutas de las reuniones de política monetaria.

La mejor contribución que hace la política monetaria al crecimiento económico es mantener la inflación baja, que se traduce en un ambiente de mayor confianza

El Banxico decidió desde hace algunos años publicar los estados financieros completos cada tres meses. Una tercera avenida dentro de esta mayor apertura es el hecho de que ahora los miembros de la Junta —en particular yo— valoramos mucho la posibilidad de comunicar las decisiones de política monetaria y nuestra visión de la economía en diferentes foros.

Con frecuencia se plantea un falso dilema entre mantener la inflación o favorecer el crecimiento. Creo que la mejor contribución que hace la política monetaria al crecimiento económico es mantener la inflación baja, que se traduce en un ambiente de mayor confianza. En la Junta siempre tomamos en cuenta la fase del ciclo por la que atraviesa la economía. Es un insumo importantísimo en la decisión. Cuando la economía tiene un bajo vigor, es un elemento importante que puede ayudar a predecir las presiones futuras de inflación. Siempre se toma en cuenta el crecimiento económico.

Entre los analistas se te ha caracterizado como un “hawkish”. ¿Lo eres?

___Esa distinción (hawkish y dovish) que es un poco pictórico o hasta folclórica, tiene más que ver con esta necesidad que tienen algunos comentaristas de predecir cómo va a ser la votación en la Junta, pero la realidad es que, como decía, siempre se toma en cuenta el crecimiento económico. Lo que me parece inadecuada de esa clasificación es que parece sugerir que las personas que se preocupan por la inflación desprecian el crecimiento.

¿Cómo visualizas al Banxico en la coyuntura del próximo cambio del gobernador Carstens?

___Lo visualizó como la continuación de una institución sólida que funciona muy bien, con una Junta de 5 miembros. Estoy seguro de que el reemplazo será de una persona capaz y calificada. El Banxico tiene una arquitectura institucional muy sólida. Esto no significa que el liderazgo del gobernador Carstens sea irrelevante. Ha sido muy importante su liderazgo y ha contribuido a la credibilidad del Banxico. Lo va a extrañar el Banxico, pero eso no significa que la institución tenga ningún demérito en su funcionamiento y estoy seguro de que el que lo vaya a reemplazar va a hacer un extraordinario trabajo.

El aumento en el precio de las viviendas se debe al incremento en insumos para construir, como el cemento, la varilla, y la malla de acero.

"Definitivamente sí va a subir, yo creo que entre un 15 y un 20 por ciento (para los segmentos residencial y de lujo)", advirtió Gustavo Núñez, vicepresidente de Operaciones de la Asociación de Desarrolladores Inmobiliarios (ADI).

Aunque algunos proveedores de la industria de la construcción han buscado absorber parte de estos incrementos, lo natural es que terminen trasladando el costo al los desarrolladores, indicó Benjamín Cárdenas, presidente de la Cámara Nacional de la Industria de la Construcción (CMIC) en Jalisco.

Va a subir el costo (de la vivienda) por los incrementos en los materiales, por el incremento de la energía y por los incrementos que hemos tenido constantemente de las gasolinas y ahora también viene un incremento fuerte de la mano de obra que también tendrá que verse reflejado. Esto va a causar inflación, no cabe duda", advirtió Guillermo Salcedo, presidente de la Cámara Nacional de la Industria de Desarrollo y Promoción de Vivienda (Canadevi) Delegación Jalisco.

Para 2017 se espera que se encarezcan las mercancías por efecto del gasolinazo.

Según estimaciones de la Cámara Nacional del Autotransporte de Carga, el precio del diesel subirá entre 15 y 20 por ciento para el siguiente año.

Según estimaciones de la Cámara Nacional del Autotransporte de Carga, el precio del diesel subirá entre 15 y 20 por ciento para el siguiente año.

Este aumento, considera la Cámara, podría ser trasladado al costo del flete, el cual podría subir entre 6 y 8 por ciento, pero eso dependerá de las negociaciones que cada transportista logre con sus clientes.

Este aumento, considera la Cámara, podría ser trasladado al costo del flete, el cual podría subir entre 6 y 8 por ciento, pero eso dependerá de las negociaciones que cada transportista logre con sus clientes.

Refugio Muñoz, vicepresidente ejecutivo de ese órgano empresarial, explicó que el combustible representa, en promedio, entre 30 y 35 por ciento de los costos operativos de los transportistas, y en algunos casos llega al 40 por ciento.

Según estimaciones de la Cámara Nacional del Autotransporte de Carga, el precio del diesel subirá entre 15 y 20 por ciento para el siguiente año.

Este aumento, considera la Cámara, podría ser trasladado al costo del flete, el cual podría subir entre 6 y 8 por ciento, pero eso dependerá de las negociaciones que cada transportista logre con sus clientes.

Refugio Muñoz, vicepresidente ejecutivo de ese órgano empresarial, explicó que el combustible representa, en promedio, entre 30 y 35 por ciento de los costos operativos de los transportistas, y en algunos casos llega al 40 por ciento.

No creo que haya un solo (transportista), por pequeño o grande, que quiera absorber el incremento en el combustible; de por sí los márgenes están muy castigados. Cualquiera que quiera comerse el incremento, una de dos: o está comprando diesel robado o está operando con pérdidas"

Leonardo Gómez, presidente de la Asociación Nacional del Transporte Privado, explicó que las empresas con flotas propias afiliadas a esta institución tendrán un impacto menor, porque el combustible representa 20 por ciento de sus costos.

Se apuntaba al Rajawali Group, un extenso conglomerado local conocido por sus vínculos con políticos poderosos como el Primer Ministro plagado de escándalos de Malasia. Pero menos conocido es cómo algunos de los bancos más grandes del mundo han ayudado a Rajawali —y otras potencias agrícolas globales— a expandir sus imperios de plantaciones.

El año antes de la tala de árboles en Kalimantan Occidental, la división de plantaciones de Rajawali obtuvo 235 millones de dólares en préstamos —fondos que la compañía indonesia usó para adquirir el control mayoritario de un socio y reforzar su tenencia de tierras— de bancos entre los que se contaban Credit Suisse y Bank of America, según un análisis de The New York Times de los datos de los préstamos.

El trato forma parte de al menos 43 mil millones de dólares en préstamos y seguros a empresas vinculadas con la deforestación y la quema de bosques tan sólo en el sureste de Asia, de acuerdo con Rainforest Action Network, con sede en California, la consultoría holandesa Profundo y la organización no gubernamental indonesia TuK Indonesia. Más de un tercio de eso proviene de bancos estadounidenses, europeos y japoneses. Esa cifra casi seguramente está incompleta porque no todo el financiamiento se hace público.

El dinero ayuda a un proceso que los científicos dicen destruye los ecosistemas, desplaza a comunidades indígenas y cubre la región cada año con un smog denso y asfixiante que se extiende desde Yakarta hasta Hong Kong.

La deforestación —y los incendios que frecuentemente la acompañan— también genera una décima parte de las emisiones del calentamiento global totales, lo cual hace que la pérdida forestal sea uno de los mayores contribuidores al calentamiento global, de acuerdo con la Unión de Científicos Preocupados.

“Destruir los bosques del mundo hace que combatir el cambio climático sea casi imposible”, dijo Andrew W. Mitchell, director ejecutivo del Global Canopy Programme, grupo pensante sobre la silvicultura. “El sector de las finanzas está realmente rezagado en desarrollar esa consciencia”.

Al financiar las plantaciones de aceite de palma de Rajawali, los bancos parecen haber violado sus propias políticas de sustentabilidad. En su política, Credit Suisse indica que no financiará ni aconsejará a compañías con operaciones en “selvas tropicales húmedas primarias” como las de Kalimantan Occidental. Bank of America afirma que no financiará proyectos comerciales que resulten en la tala de selvas tropicales húmedas primarias.

El trato del 2014 financió la incursión de Rajawali en el aceite de palma. La demanda por el aceite de palma se dispara a nivel mundial, impulsada por los ingresos al alza en mercados como China e India y el rechazo de estadounidenses y europeos de las grasas trans.

Las preocupaciones climáticas se han puesto de relieve marcadamente por la inminente Presidencia de Donald J. Trump, que ha calificado al cambio climático como un engaño. Trump ha dicho que sacará a Estados Unidos del Acuerdo de París, un compromiso de 195 países de tomar medidas concretas para reducir las emisiones de carbono que calientan el planeta.

Las emisiones diarias de los incendios forestales de Indonesia el año pasado en ocasiones excedían las emisiones producidas por toda la actividad económica en EU. Un estudio reciente halló que los incendios causaron 100 mil muertes prematuras en el sureste de Asia. El Banco Mundial estima que los fuegos costaron 16 mil millones de dólares a la economía de Indonesia.

Rajawali originalmente operaba su negocio de plantaciones de palmas, Green Eagle Holdings, como una coinversión con el conglomerado francés Louis Dreyfus. Pero en el 2014, Rajawali tomó el primer paso para consolidar el negocio del aceite bajo su control e invertir en infraestructura nueva.

Las empresas de outsourcing son vulnerables al lavado de dinero debido a que muchas de ellas operan de manera irregular y mantienen en la informalidad a sus trabajadores, advirtió Edmundo Escobar, presidente de Asociación Mexicana de Empresas en Capital Humano (Amech).

la Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera de la Secretaría de Hacienda emitió una opinión en la que se destaca que esta actividad es vulnerable para operaciones de lavado de dinero, por ello es menester establecer lineamientos de calidad y crear una norma para formalizar a las empresas irregulares.

Las empresas de subcontratación operan bajo diferentes figuras: cooperativa, organizaciones civiles, sindicato o un régimen conocido como asimilables a salarios.

La Amech trabaja, en conjunto con las Secretarías del Trabajo y Previsión Social y de Economía, en la conformación de una nueva Norma Oficial Mexicana que ayudará a regularizar el cumplimiento de las obligaciones laborales y el pago de impuestos en todas las empresas de subcontratación del País.

La política de "una sola China" hace referencia a las relaciones chino-taiwanesas, y es vista como un interés fundamental y principio imprescindible por Beijing. Durante las últimas cuatro décadas, sin importar la ideología de las sucesivas administraciones, Estados Unidos respetó ese principio. Sin embargo, el ahora Presidente electo, Donald Trump, amenazó con dejar de aceptarlo, lo cual podría afectar gravemente la relación entre China y Estados Unidos.

Es el reconocimiento de que existe un único país en el mundo llamado China, y su representante es el Gobierno de Beijing. Estados Unidos y el resto de los países que lo aceptan mantienen relaciones diplomáticas con Beijing y no con Taiwán, que China considera parte integral de su territorio.
Es una de las principales bases de la política exterior de China, un país que vivió de manera traumática la pérdida de territorio a manos de las potencias extranjeras durante su siglo de oprobio, entre mediados del siglo 19 y 1949.

En 1949, las Fuerzas comunistas de Mao Zedong se habían impuesto en la Guerra Civil de China.

En 1949, las Fuerzas comunistas de Mao Zedong se habían impuesto en la Guerra Civil de China. Derrotados, los nacionalistas del Presidente Chiang Kai-shek buscaron refugio en la isla de Taiwán, donde establecieron su propio gobierno, que denominaron República de China. En Beijing, los triunfadores proclamaron la República Popular China. Cada parte aseguraba representar a toda China y ser su verdadero gobierno.
Estados Unidos, que había apoyado a Chiang durante la Guerra Civil, reconoció a la RC. Los países del bloque comunista, a la RPC.
Las diferencias ideológicas entre las dos grandes potencias comunistas, China y la Unión Soviética, crearon un espacio para el acercamiento entre Beijing y Washington durante la presidencia de Richard Nixon. Un acercamiento que se consolidó con el restablecimiento de relaciones en 1972. En 1979, Estados Unidos dejó de mantener relaciones diplomáticas con Taiwán, un paso que han seguido la mayoría de las naciones.

En la actualidad, Taiwán sólo mantiene relaciones diplomáticas con 22 Estados, la mayoría de ellos en África y América Latina. Pero muchos otros, encabezados por Estados Unidos, disfrutan de amistosas relaciones informales. Para Washington, el principio de Una sola China, y los tres comunicados conjuntos suscritos con Beijing, se complementan con su Ley de Relaciones con Taiwán de 1979, que le permite vender armamento a la isla. Según declaraba el ex Secretario de Estado adjunto James Kelly en una audiencia en la Cámara de Representantes en abril de 2004, Estados Unidos promueve una firme relación bilateral entre el país y la PRC, y una firme relación no oficial entre Estados Unidos y Taiwán. El Gobierno de Taipéi ha buscado varias veces su reconocimiento de Naciones Unidas, bajo las denominaciones de "República de China (Taiwán)" y "República de China en Taiwán".

La política de Estados Unidos considera la situación de Taiwán como indeterminada: no reconoce la soberanía de China ni la independencia de la isla.

elasticity is simply a measure of how sensitive one variable is to change in the value of another variable

Income elasticity of demand is defined as the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in income (I), holding all other things constant, and can be represented as in Equation 25.

Equation (25) 

EdI=%ΔQdx%ΔI=ΔQdxQdxΔII=(ΔQdxΔI)(IQdx)

Although own-price elasticity of demand will almost always be negative because of the law of demand, income elasticity can be negative, positive, or zero.

Positive income elasticity simply means that as income rises, quantity demanded also rises, as is characteristic of most consumption goods.

We define a good with positive income elasticity as a normal good

It is perhaps unfortunate that economists often take perfectly good English words and give them different definitions. When an economist speaks of a normal good, he is saying nothing other than that the demand for that particular good rises when income increases and falls when income decreases. Hence, if we find that when income rises, people buy more meals at restaurants, then dining out is defined to be a normal good.

For some goods, there is an inverse relationship between quantity demanded and consumer income. That is, when people experience a rise in income, they buy absolutely less of some goods, and they buy more when their income falls. Hence, income elasticity of demand for those goods is negative. By definition, goods with negative income elasticity are called inferior goods .

Again, the word inferior means nothing other than that the income elasticity of demand for that good is observed to be negative. It does not necessarily indicate anything at all about the quality of that good.

Typical examples of inferior goods might be rice, potatoes, or less expensive cuts of meat.

One study found that income elasticity of demand for beer is slightly negative, whereas income elasticity of demand for wine is significantly positive.

One study found that income elasticity of demand for beer is slightly negative, whereas income elasticity of demand for wine is significantly positive. An economist would therefore say that beer is inferior whereas wine is normal

Ultimately, whether a good is called inferior or normal is simply a matter of empirical statistical analysis. And a good could be normal for one income group and inferior for another income group. (A BMW 3-series automobile might very well be normal for a moderate-income group but inferior for a high-income group of consumers. As their respective income levels rose, the moderate group might purchase more BMWs whereas the upper-income group might buy fewer 3-series as they traded up to a 5- or 7-series.)

for some goods and some ranges of income, consumer income might not have an impact on purchase decision at all. Hence for those goods, income elasticity of demand is zero.

For normal goods, a rise in income would shift the entire demand curve upward and to the right, resulting in an increase in demand. If the good were inferior, however, a rise in income would result in a downward and leftward shift in the entire demand curve.

any variable on the right-hand side of the demand function can serve as the basis for its own elasticity.

Recall that the price of another good might very well have an impact on the demand for a good or service, so we should be able to define an elasticity with respect to the other price, as well. That elasticity is called the cross-price elasticity of demand and takes on the same structure as own-price elasticity and income elasticity of demand, as represented in Equation 26.

Equation (26) 

Edpy=%ΔQdx%ΔPy=ΔQdxQdxΔPyPy=(ΔQdxΔPy)(PyQdx)

For some pairs of goods, X and Y, when the price of Y rises, more of good X is demanded. That is, the cross-price elasticity of demand is positive. Those goods are defined to be substitutes .Substitutes are defined empirically. If the cross-price elasticity of two goods is positive, they are substitutes, irrespective of whether someone would consider them “similar.”

two goods whose cross-price elasticity of demand is negative are defined to be complements . Typically, these goods would tend to be consumed together as a pair, such as gasoline and automobiles or houses and furniture

If, when the price of one good rises the demand for the other good also rises, they are substitutes. If the demand for that other good falls, they are complements.

For example, grocery stores often put something like coffee on sale in the hope that customers will come in for coffee and end up doing their weekly shopping there as well. In that case, coffee and, say, cabbage could very well empirically turn out to be complements even though we do not normally think of consuming coffee and cabbage together as a pair (i.e., that the price of coffee has a relation to the sales of cabbage).

For substitute goods, an increase in the price of one good would shift the demand curve for the other good upward and to the right

For complements, however, the impact is in the other direction: When the price of one good rises, the quantity demanded of the other good shifts downward and to the left.

Although the concept of different elasticities of demand is helpful in sorting out the qualitative and directional effects among variables, the analyst will also benefit from having an empirically estimated demand function from which to calculate the magnitudes as well. There is no substitute for actual observation and statistical (regression) analysis to yield insights into the quantitative behavior of a market. (Empirical analysis, however, is outside the scope of this reading.) To see how an analyst would use such an equation, let us return to our hypothetical market demand function for gasoline in Equation 13 duplicated here:

Equation (27) 

Qdx=8,400−400Px+60I−10Py

The basic model of markets is the demand and supply model. The demand function represents buyers’ behavior and can be depicted (in its inverse demand form) as a negatively sloped demand curve. The supply function represents sellers’ behavior and can be depicted (in its inverse supply form) as a positively sloped supply curve. The interaction of buyers and sellers in a market results in equilibrium. Equilibrium exists when the highest price willingly paid by buyers is just equal to the lowest price willingly accepted by sellers.

Goods markets are the interactions of consumers as buyers and firms as sellers of goods and services produced by firms and bought by households. Factor markets are the interactions of firms as buyers and households as sellers of land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurial risk-taking ability. Capital markets are used by firms to sell debt or equity to raise long-term capital to finance the production of goods and services.

Demand and supply curves are drawn on the assumption that everything except the price of the good itself is held constant (an assumption known as ceteris paribus or “holding all other things constant”). When something other than price changes, the demand curve or the supply curve will shift relative to the other curve. This shift is referred to as a change in demand or supply, as opposed to quantity demanded or quantity supplied. A new equilibrium generally will be obtained at a different price and a different quantity than before. The market mechanism is the ability of prices to adjust to eliminate any excess demand or supply resulting from a shift in one or the other curve.

If, at a given price, the quantity demanded exceeds the quantity supplied, there is excess demand and price will rise. If, at a given price, the quantity supplied exceeds the quantity demanded, there is excess supply and price will fall.

Sometimes auctions are used to seek equilibrium prices. Common value auctions sell items that have the same value to all bidders, but bidders can only estimate that value before the auction is completed. Overly optimistic bidders overestimate the true value and end up paying a price greater than that value. This result is known as the winner’s curse. Private value auctions sell items that (generally) have a unique subjective value for each bidder. Ascending price auctions use an auctioneer to call out ever increasing prices until the last, highest bidder ultimately pays his/her bid price and buys the item. Descending price, or Dutch, auctions begin at a very high price and then reduce that price until one bidder is willing to buy at that price. Second price sealed bid auctions are sometimes used to induce bidders to reveal their true reservation prices in private value auctions. Treasury notes and some other financial instruments are sold using a form of Dutch auction (called a single price auction) in which competitive and non-competitive bids are arrayed in descending price (increasing yield) order. The winning bidders all pay the same price, but marginal bidders might not be able to fill their entire order at the market clearing price.

Markets that work freely can optimize society’s welfare, as measured by consumer surplus and producer surplus. Consumer surplus is the difference between the total value to buyers and the total expenditure necessary to purchase a given amount. Producer surplus is the difference between the total revenue received by sellers from selling a given amount and the total variable cost of production of that amount. When equilibrium price is reached, total surplus is maximized.

Sometimes, government policies interfere with the free working of markets. Examples include price ceilings, price floors, and specific taxes. Whenever the imposition of such a policy alters the free market equilibrium quantity (the quantity that maximizes total surplus), there is a redistribution of surplus between buyers and sellers; but there is also a reduction of total surplus, called deadweight loss. Other influences can result in an imbalance between demand and supply. Search costs are impediments in the ability of willing buyers and willing sellers to meet in a transaction. Brokers can add value if they reduce search costs and match buyers and sellers. In general, anything that improves information about the willingness of buyers and sellers to engage will reduce search costs and add value.

Economists use a quantitative measure of sensitivity called elasticity. In general, elasticity is the ratio of the percentage change in the dependent variable to the percentage change in the independent variable of interest. Important specific elasticities include own-price elasticity of demand, income elasticity of demand, and cross-price elasticity of demand.

Based on algebraic sign and magnitude of the various elasticities, goods can be classified into groups. If own-price elasticity of demand is less than one in absolute value, demand is called “inelastic”; it is called “elastic” if own-price elasticity of demand is greater than one in absolute value. Goods with positive income elasticity of demand are called normal goods, and those with negative income elasticity of demand are called inferior goods. Two goods with negative cross-price elasticity of demand—a drop in the price of one good causes an increase in demand for the other good—are called complements. Goods with positive cross-price elasticity of demand—a drop in the price of one good causes a decrease in demand for the other—are called substitutes.

The relationship among own-price elasticity of demand, changes in price, and changes in total expenditure is as follows: If demand is elastic, a reduction in price results in an increase in total expenditure; if demand is inelastic, a reduction in price results in a decrease in total expenditure; if demand is unitary elastic, a change in price leaves total expenditure unchanged.

The company works with local farmers to create delivery boxes of perfectly portioned dinners that minimize food waste and allow users to try new ingredients and recipes, at an affordable price of $10 per meal per person.

Blue Apron creates and captures value by solving a prescient problem facing many Americans today: they love to cook but feel they don’t have the time.

Blue Apron curates meal kits, boxes of ingredients and instructions for cooking exactly three dinners a week. They are sold on a subscription basis for two or four people. As of December 2015, Blue Apron delivers 5 million meals a month, up from 500,000 just 18 months ago¹.

Blue Apron delivers value both to its customers and suppliers. For its customers, Blue Apron offers the opportunity to learn to cook delicious new recipes with seasonal ingredients at a better value than the local grocery store. As COO Matt Wadiak says, “everybody who wants to cook is our customer¹”.

The business model focuses on removing the biggest obstacle to cooking – deciding what to cook.

The service is convenient, offering free delivery in refrigerated boxes whenever best fits the customer’s schedule. The step-by-step recipes are appropriate for beginner and experienced cooks alike. The menus, which change weekly based on seasonal needs, are created by the culinary team and renowned guest chefs.

For its suppliers, Blue Apron works with family-run farmers and artisans to source the highest quality ingredients.

On the recipe cards, they provide an information sheet that highlights the farms which provided the produce alongside information about how to cut and cook.

Blue Apron aligns its operating model with its business model through:

• Control of the supply chain. Blue Apron’s model centers on delivering fresh ingredients. To maintain control of quality, the company manages its own distribution channel. The company sources farms differently for each of their three regional fulfilment centers, so the food is local and fresh and the delivery costs are low. The boxes are delivered in refrigerated boxes to maintain freshness, however, so delivery is outsourced to the cheapest partner for a given shipment.
• Bulk purchasing, portioned delivery. Blue Apron built its model on the idea of reducing food waste. At each fulfilment center, workers on assembly lines pack boxes with poultry, meat, vegetables and condiments to be delivered anywhere from 1-7 days later. Purchasing in bulk allows the company to negotiate prices with farmers, who are happy to receive a slightly lower price for a guaranteed volume. By only offering 6 recipes per week, Blue Apron can allocate the ingredients in a way that reduces food waste. Everything subscribers receive is pre-measured to the precise proportions the recipe requires, meaning less spending on unnecessary produce and less food waste.
• Data analytics. As a subscription business, Blue Apron collects data on its customers that allows for predictive modeling of demand. They built an internal suite of tools that manage the workflow of purchasing, fulfilment operations, ecommerce and order processing, shipping software, customer service software⁶. The software can estimate how many customers will cancel an order in any given week, for example, which allows the company to plan meals based on the expected availability and price of certain crops. Using this data helps create processes that improve operational efficiency and lower costs, supporting the $10 per meal price.
• Supporting Suppliers. There is a team at Blue Apron responsible for negotiating with farms to source ingredients, but they also work closely with farmers on crop rotation and management. This allows the company to work with farmers to plan production in a way that is more seasonal, more efficient and utilizes their resources better, all of which results in higher quality crops at lower prices for consumers. Additionally, by helping farmers to plan to rotate “heavy feeder” plants with less hungry plants like legumes, the farms use less pesticide and fertilize, resulting in healthier farms.

Blue Apron focuses on bringing their customers an easy way to cook through a high quality food delivery service that has never bene available at scale before. Key operational decisions about supply chain control, supplier relations, and use of data to drive decision making, help the company succeed in its goal of delivering fresh ingredients at a low price, helping people cook great meals any night of the week.

According to Blue Apron, the majority of its members are couples. But even men who aren’t in a relationship are taking advantage of it. “It’s good for a date night, if you want to impress someone,” said Ricky, 29, who tried it out for two weeks.

when I asked cofounder and COO Wadiak whether men were their target customers, he quickly dispelled that notion. “Everybody who wants to cook is our customer,” he explained over the phone. “But we have actually found that we have a high percentage of customers who have never cooked before.”

Wadiak worked for years as a chef, both in restaurants and in people’s homes. “If you ever teach a class to someone who has never cooked before, you really learn quickly what people can and can’t do,” he said.

Aside from the simplicity of their recipes, variety is said to be another major factor in a guy’s decision to sign up for the service.

“You don’t have to be thinking about what you’re going to make when you get home at night,” explained 32-year-old Henrique. My husband—who only knows how to cook one or two meals off the top of his head—agreed with Henrique’s reasoning. “I don’t have to come up with new recipes,” he said. “If the planning were left to me, I would just eat the same thing over and over again.”

[culinary director] Chris Sorensen’s

[culinary manager] Tim Kemp’s hands.”

a farmer named Patrick Johnston, explains to his eager guests from a startup called Blue Apron that the zucchini have already been sold to someone else and that the corn Blue Apron has contracted to buy is farther down the road. But Matt Wadiak, Blue Apron's master chef, barely hears him. He's focused on a little yellow flower he's spotted growing in the field. "Who's taking your zucchini blossoms?

Johnston, who farms 800 acres in Oakley, Calif., is at a loss for words. He'd met Wadiak two years before at a sustainable agriculture conference down the coast, and he's already selling Blue Apron--just three years old--entire acres of sweet corn and beans.

Founded in 2012 by Wadiak along with Matt Salzberg, a Harvard M.B.A. with venture capital experience, and Ilia Papas, an engineer and former consultant, Blue Apron ordered 3 million pounds of produce from 100 family-run farms this summer.

Blue Apron is tapping a rich vein. Americans spend $1 trillion each year on food, about $400 billion of that on dinner, but they're not spending as much time as they used to cooking the food themselves.

Startups of all stripes have been eager to step in. Munchery, Sprig and Maple, for example, have bet tens of millions on cutting out the restaurants and cooking hot meals to order in centralized locations.

Blue Apron's approach, the meal kit, offers the convenience of delivery while keeping home cooks in the kitchen. The precisely portioned dinners minimize waste and allow consumers to try ingredients they might not otherwise buy, at a price they'd have trouble matching--roughly $10 per meal per person.

Blue Apron, which has raised more than $190 million and has been valued at $2 billion, has not yet demonstrated profitability and faces well-funded competitors.

Blue Apron is one of three fast-growing, venture-backed meal kit startups are based in New York City.

Plated, which was founded by Salzberg's former business school classmates, scored a Shark Tank deal and has annual revenue estimated in the tens of millions.

HelloFresh, which was founded in Berlin but operates a regional headquarters in New York, just raised $85 million at a valuation of $2.9 billion and has global revenue of about $40 million a month (HelloFresh declined comment).

Food? Delivery? Talk of a bubble? People could be forgiven for mistaking Blue Apron, Plated and HelloFresh for Kozmo and Webvan, two delivery companies that were among the notorious flameouts of the first dot-com era. Or they could be the future of food.

Blue Apron's distribution center in New Jersey, Salzberg and Papas weave through packing boxes stacked ceiling high to the command center, where a large screen shows the shipping schedules for packages destined for cities as far away as Chicago.

Software predicts incoming demand and costs, and workers on custom assembly lines pack boxes with meat and vegetables that could land on dinner tables that day. IPads attached to each line track its pace and check for missing items.

A technical consultant in Boston, Papas had just given up on the idea of moving to New York and was planning to settle down with his girlfriend. But then he and Salzberg connected on an idea: a Kickstarter-like crowdfunding platform for research scientists that they would call Petridish.

The company did outsource delivery, building a matrix to determine the cheapest partner for each shipment.

When Salzberg landed a $3 million Series A investment round led by Bessemer and First Round Capital, Blue Apron was ready to hire staff and try to ease some of the founders' burden. Within six months the company was serving nearly everywhere east of the Mississippi. The following year it opened a San Francisco-area facility. A bigger facility in Jersey City and a rapidly growing headquarters in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood came next. Eventually a third facility in Dallas gave Blue Apron coverage of the entire country, all served by 2,600 salaried employees.

As a subscription business Blue Apron knows a lot about its collective customers, including how many will cancel an order in any given week and what ingredients will be needed months down the road. That allows it to plan meals based on the expected availability and price of certain crops, as well as to win a better price with farmers, who'll gladly charge less to lock in a bulk order for pork chops or broccoli. And with just the three central hubs, Blue Apron avoids the major overhead costs of food waste, maintaining grocery stores and cooking food locally.

Blue Apron says that when customers leave it's generally because they find they don't have enough time to cook three meals a week or because they tire of having their meals dictated by someone else.

Blue Apron says it acquires many of its customers through word of mouth.

while the company did make its packaging more eco-friendly, it has also instituted a box-return program.

Plated, which once projected 2015 revenue of $100 million, is much smaller than Blue Apron, and the gap is growing.

So far Plated has been charging about $12 per meal and Blue Apron about $10. While many have speculated about how good a deal this is for consumers, the real question may be whether Blue Apron can make money at that price. It claims that its overwhelming buying power does in fact allow it to sell its boxes for more than the cost of its ingredients. But if you include the cost of marketing, the meal kit companies likely lose money for at least a few weeks on each user before breaking even.

Meal kit businesses could face price challenges from VC-backed meal delivery startups, says Battery Ventures executive-in-residence Jonathan Sills.

Kozmo and Webvan struggled to sustain their growth. Ultimately, they both burned through millions of dollars of investment capital around the turn of the millennium by chasing market share with murderous discounts for services that weren't ultimately in demand. "The problem with the most promising companies in today's market," says Paul Madera, managing director of Meritech Capital, "is that they are priced for perfect execution on their business plans over the next five years--and then they go public at very favorable valuations. And that means there is no room for the setbacks and adjustments that 99% of companies face."

Blue Apron is another reinvention of the CSA model — in which subscribers commit to purchasing a "share" of a farmer's seasonal crop, with the produce then distributed throughout the year.

Blue Apron provides a lifestyle upgrade, granting subscribers access to well-balanced meals without the stress of meal planning.

It's the joy of cooking distilled to its essence: Chop the provided ingredients, combine as directed, and enjoy your basically-homemade meal.

Integrating that locally-grown food into your diet requires paying careful attention to hyper-local seasonality — as well as the growing schedules of nearby farmers.

Currently, 31 farmers are working with Blue Apron to create their "ideal crop rotation," Wadiak says

ts team of recipe developers works with farms months in advance, creating a planting schedule that best suits their soil and scheduling the resulting produce into a meal plan.

Blue Apron detractors often point out environmental impact.

Advocates argue that because delivery companies use local farms, they're avoiding a lot of the waste that comes when your tomatoes are flown internationally to your grocery store.

The footprint of food is usually much bigger than the footprint of packaging," she says. "If the packaging can extend the shelf life even a small amount, it is worth it."

"Because we're buying direct, our product comes in crates instead of corrugated boxes. Consumers don't see a lot of the packaging on the early end of the supply chain, which we've completely eliminated," he says.