Meal kits are another example of a premium/luxury service being offered to the rest of the population for a price that researchers have crunched the numbers on to maximize profit while also making it seem like a "Good deal". I often see these as wealth extractors because outside the first box and maybe the second box, the price per meal is often much higher than buying the groceries outright. I have used Hello Fresh and have kept the menu/recipe cards and have revisited them in the past for meal ideas.
The rich have used premium\luxury services to avoid having to learn or do the hard work (why learn plumbing when I can hire it out. Why take care of my lawn if a company will do it for me). I believe our general lack of ability to cook and understand nutrition is a net negative for the overall health of our nation.
The best thing my spouse and I did was to create a menu on Friday night to cover the next Saturday-Friday menu. It allows us to know exactly what we are going to the store to buy so we buy less impulse items and we know what is for dinner that night instead of looking at the fridge at 5 trying to think of what you can make with what you have.
Yeah that's pretty true, especially that bit of the general lack of ability to cook and understand nutrition.
Of course it isn't black and white though, A lot of people just don't have the the time to cook meals, not just the cooking time, but also the prep and clean up time which adds a lot the time it takes to cook it. Plus your class dictates a lot on what you eat, and some people might be too poor to afford nutritious food, or might be in an area that barely has access to healthy foods.
But a big factor is that lack of education on food and nutrition, I'm only just discovering how to get my nutrients and come up with recipies now, didn't really get taught that, and I'm in Australia.