As we reported back on Wednesday, the $700 Juicero juicer — later discounted to $400 — did not get rave reviews once it was released. A Bloomberg report shows that you apparently don’t need the machine to press juice out of their proprietary Juicero bags, squeezing it out just as easily as one could using the expensive juicer. It’s not a good look for the company that amassed “$120 million in venture capital funding” according to Gizmodo and claims their machine revolutionizes the intake of fresh fruits and vegetables.
The company didn’t release a comment during the initial reporting, but CEO Jeff Dunn has now posted a blog post that only addresses the reports and tries to defend the product, it also offers those who purchased the machine an extended chance to get their money back. First, he has to explain why this machine is far better than just squeezing the juice out with your hands:
1. The first closed loop food safety system that allows us to remotely disable Produce Packs if there is, for example, a spinach recall. In these scenarios, we’re able to protect our consumers in real-time.
2. Consistent pressing of our Produce Packs calibrated by flavor to deliver the best combination of taste and nutrition every time.
3. Connected data so we can manage a very tight supply chain, because our product is live, raw produce, and has a limited lifespan of about 8 days.
Having a juicer that is connected to WiFi just seems like a bad idea in this age where everything is being hacked, but the company means well. He also included a video showing the head of Juicero’s communications, Chrissy Trampedach, cutting open the bag and dumping the contents out into a bowl to muck around with:
Now as Libby Watson points out over at Gizmodo, the Bloomberg reporters did not cut open the bag to dump out the contents. In fact, they didn’t cut the bag at all to perform their demonstration:
We received an important update from Olivia Zaleski, one of the Bloomberg reporters who squeezed the juice bags. According to Zaleski, they “didn’t snip a hole on the end of the bag as your article says” but “simply applied light pressure to the bag and the juice poured out.”
“I know it’s hard to imagine that there is little more to this situation than a light squeeze,” Olivia added.
To counter the bad introduction for the juicer, Dunn is offering a chance for a full refund on the product through the company’s “Happiness Guarantee”:
So, for the next 30 days, we’ve decided to extend our Happiness Guarantee to any Juicero customer — new or old — who feels that we aren’t making it easier, more enjoyable and delicious to form a healthy habit. That means that if you send us your Press, we’ll refund the money you paid for it. Period.
That’s good for people who bought the juicer. It still seems odd that people put their money up for this type of contraption, but juicing is one of those things people clamp onto. Tie in the allure of Silicon Valley and it’s hard to turn down a fancy new piece of tech.
(Via Gizmodo / Engadget)
