Juicero

Juicero was a company that produced and sold high-end marketed juicers, called the Juicero Press, and fresh produce packets to use in the juicer. Juicero was founded in 2013 by Doug Evans. The company faced major controversy beginning in April 2017, after it was revealed that their costly and supposedly high-end juicers produced only marginally better results than squeezing the produce packets by hand. As a result, Juicero was closed on September 1, 2017.

Juicero was founded in 2013 by Doug Evans, who was also the company's CEO from 2013 to 2016. He created the Juicero Press, which was released in March 2016 and met with low sales and mixed responses. In October 2016, Jeff Dunn became the company's new CEO. A former Juicero executive stated that Dunn's leadership resulted in higher sales. Dunn began production on another similar but cheaper cold press juicer called V2, which it aimed to release in 2018. From its founding to its demise, Juicero raised nearly $120 million in funding from many well-known investors, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Campbell's, and more.

The Juicero Press was a cold press juicer, which differs from the typical centrifugal force juicer in that it slowly presses fruits and vegetables to release their juices, as opposed to grinding them, which creates heat and destroys some of the nutrients in the process. The press worked by pressing, with thousands of pounds of force, Juicero's own bags of freshly prepared produce, which it sourced directly from organic farms. The produce was packaged in squeeze pouches and labeled with QR codes, which were scanned by the press and referenced against an online database to ensure the contents were not past the expiration date. This meant the press had to be connected to WiFi to operate. The press would not squeeze a packet past its expiration date, nor would it squeeze any packet not manufactured by Juicero. This caused controversy as some consumers believed it crossed the threshold into digital rights management by the company. Juicero was originally available to ship only in California due to the locations of its suppliers and produce packaging facilities. In April 2017, its availability expanded to fourteen additional states for a total of seventeen.

The Juicero Press was first priced at $699. The high price became a focal point for critics, and many wanted to know why the machine was so expensive and if sales were high because of it. Evans deflected sales number questions; when asked in a September 2016 podcast how many he'd sold so far, he replied, "Oh, come on. We're not releasing sales numbers but [...] we could sell ten during this podcast. You probably know at least ten people that bought it." The price was later reduced to $399 in January 2017, due to low sales. After the price cut, Juicero said their customer base doubled. It is estimated the company sold between 2000 and 3000 machines from launch to close. Although critics widely agreed the press was overpriced, even after its large price slash, Juicero actually operated at a loss to create them; each unit cost them $750 to manufacture.

In April 2017, an article published on Bloomberg.com revealed that Juicero's produce packets were easily and effectively squeezable by hand, essentially defeating the need for the company's expensive press. Juicero claimed its press had four tons worth of force behind it, but it was quickly proven by the article findings that nothing close to that amount of force was actually needed to press the juice packets. Juicero did not officially comment on these findings, but someone close to the company stated the machine produced a more consistent and less messy result. An informal experiment done by Bloomberg's reporting team found they were able to squeeze out seven and a half ounces of juice in one and a half minutes using their hands; the Juicero Press produced eight ounces in about two minutes. Evans stated that his inspiration behind the machine and its fresh prepared produce packets was to save users time and spare them from the hassle of cleaning up, like they would need to with a regular juicer. In a podcast with Evans, a host commented: "I thought it was juice in a bag and you just squeeze it into your glass. For some reason I just thought that." Evans replied, "Yeah, you wouldn't need a $699 device to do that."

The Juicero Press was criticized for being over-engineered in order to market it as a top-of-the-line machine so that consumers would be willing to pay more. Evans said the press was made with 400 custom parts, including multiple printed circuit boards, a scanner, a microprocessor, a wireless chip, a wireless antenna, and latches that support 16,000 pounds of force. He described the Juicero Press as "a monster of a machine inside this veil of this nice aesthetic."

On September 1, 2017, Juicero announced it would be immediately halting all sales of its products, as well as offering buybacks for machines. The company later stated less than 5% of its customers returned their machines during its allowed one-month window, despite the fact that the machines would be rendered useless without the company's produce packets. The company was thereafter rendered defunct.