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- Racked tells the history of Dress for Success, founded in 1997 by Nancy Lublin when she was still a law student.
- Fashionista talked to Vogue's executive director of communications (formerly the DNC's national finance director) for its “How I'm Making It” series.
- The Wall Street Journal reports on a survey of millennials' spending habits. One finding: they “overwhelmingly prefer to spend their money on experiences rather than goods.” Millennial readers: Does this ring true for you?
- Eight businesswomen spoke to Elle about how they gained confidence at work.
- Find out who's talking the most — men or women — on your next conference call by using this handy site.
- The New York Times shares an excerpt from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's new book, My Own Words.
- Here are two stories on the new JAMA Psychiatry study about the birth control pill's link to depression: a news article from Self and an opinion piece in The Guardian.
- Any Blue Apron fans out there? BuzzFeed News‘ investigation at one of the meal-kit company's facilities found “health and safety violations, violent incidents, and unhappy workers.”
- For some news closer to home, we're excited to announce that Corporette is a finalist in the “Website or Blog of the Year” category in the 2016 Stevie Awards for Women in Business.
- For your Laugh of the Week: Sad and Useless rounded up some funny tweets on the imagined origin of certain animals.
- We talked about what to do when kids are having trouble in school.
- Kat shared some clothes for working moms, including some maternity basics and washable office clothes.
Senior Attorney
I love Blue Apron and get it every week, but I’m distressed enough about the BuzzFeed story to think about switching. Has anybody used HelloFresh or Plated? Thoughts?
Lana
I’ve been happy with Plated. I think it is very similar. Sometimes I wish the meals were a little simpler but I’ve tried several and haven’t found one that I like better (though I’ve heard Peach Dish is delicious so I’m trying it next instead).
Mary
I use Hello Fresh (haven’t tried Blue Apron) and have found it to be quite nice. It’s added at least 2 new recipes to the household repertoire, and I haven’t had any particular issues with difficulty or weirdness.
Mrs. Jones
We’ve used Hello Fresh for a few months and like it.
Senior Attorney
Okay I’m gonna branch out. Looked at Hello Fresh and Plated and the recipes from Plated seemed more up our alley so I signed up and will try a week with them and if I like it I think I will switch.
Anonymous
So, counter-point on Blur Apron. It sounds like they are trying to work through their issues. They had to scale quickly and were likely not ready for it.
Their west coast DC is in a city that is very economically depressed and has been left behind during the tech boom. It is bringing much needed jobs to the area.
So, while I wish things were better, I do support Blue Apron for trying to do the right thing.
Meg Murry
Yes, scary but true that Blue Apron doesn’t sound that much different than any other factory or warehouse I’ve been to that relies on temporary workers. It sounds like the worst combination of: crazy kitchen/food service/back of the house restaurant mixed with warehouse mixed with factory, run by people who have no experience with any of that. Don’t get me wrong, the conditions sound bad, and OSHA should be cracking down on them – but I promise you that a lot of the products you buy were made under similar or worse conditions.
For instance: “Cal/OSHA initially proposed $13,050 in penalties for Blue Apron for violations the agency said could have resulted in head trauma or even death.” It would have cost Blue Apron more than $13,000 to fix their parking lot, forklift tires and hire certified, trained forklift operators. Someone (either consciously or by inaction) made the decision that they’d rather roll the dice on potential fines than on workplace safety and training. That’s really not uncommon in factory and warehouse work, sad to say.
But yes, Blue Apron has grown way faster than they can handle, and I don’t think they are going to be able to maintain their current volume and price structure for the long term. I’ve never tried it, but I think SA is probably right to consider another source right now – because Blue Apron isn’t going to change if people keep buying their product.
Anon
I also feel like the article is a little unfair. Is it really Blue Apron’s fault if employees get into fights and they have to call the police? It sounds like they are handling these issues well. An employee groped another. The groper was fired. The groper threatened to kill someone. They called the police on the groper.
Anonymous
If conditions sounds typical, than why assume a competitor is better? Wouldn’t that mean switching to a company that just hasn’t been exposed by BuzzFeed?
Senior Attorney
The thing that pushed me over the edge was that BuzzFeed reports their similarly-situated competitors have had few or no such safety violations.
Meredith
Really, because it seems like they are failing to do the mandatory minimum.
I don’t think doing nothing and continuing our patronage of labor rights abusers is ok because figuring out what to do is too hard.
Ellen
I have an ONLINE supscription to the NYTIMES that Dad gave me b/c he thinks I can find a smart guy if I read the NY Times. I have been readeing the NYTIMES for 5 year’s now and NO DECENT guy has meteriealized. FOOEY!