Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/843963
hen Sara Lerner fi rst heard about Stitch Fix, she thought the concept was silly. "I'm not going to pay for someone to go shopping for me," the 29-year-old recruiter remembers thinking. But after she kept complimenting a coworker whose outfi ts came from the online personal stylist service, she decided to try it. Lerner is part of the new convenience economy, a $57.6 billion business every year in the U.S. As modern life gets busier and we increasingly value time over money, companies are popping up to capitalize on our desire for effi ciency, speed and simplicity. Take planning meals and cooking dinner − Blue Apron delivers premeasured ingredients and detailed recipes to your door. Have to take your dog to the vet or pick up the dry-cleaning? Favor runs errands for you. Need something to eat right this minute? GrubHub can get local takeout to you ASAP. Millennials are particularly smitten with getting things on demand — after all, this is a generation that's grown up with the kind of technology, namely smartphones, that makes all this possible — but people of all ages are trying out the services of convenience startups. In addition to freeing up time, you can also free up mental energy. A New Yorker article calls the subscription e-commerce services like Birchbox (beauty products) and Quinciple (groceries in New York) "little boxes of decision avoidance" — aka, a way to cut through the huge number of choices Americans have for products of all kinds. Major corporations are taking notice. American Express partnered with Uber to give its customers double points when using the ridesharing service, and AccorHotels recently acquired Onefi nestay, an Airbnb for high-end homes. Founded: 2012 Founded: 2012 Service: Preportioned ingredients and recipes for cook-at-home meals Worth noting: Blue Apron jumped from 500,000 meals a month to 5 million in 18 months. Service: On-demand groceries delivered fresh Worth noting: Instacart is backed by investors like Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator. Meet the major players of the convenience economy "Absolutely loving my new top!" she recently p o s t e d to social media, alongside a smiling photo. "It's neon, it's coral and it's comfortable. It's like it was made for me." 14 | | Fall 2016