There has been a new craze to hit mailboxes everywhere: the monthly subscription box. And you'd be surprised by just how many there are.
There are clothing subscriptions that pair you with a personal stylist like Stitch Fix, Le Tote, Trunk Club (which has a box for men and women), Golden Tote, and Front Door Fashion. There's even a lingerie subscription from Adore Me. Plus there are exchange sites that totally bypass Plato's Closet, like thredUP and Tradesy.
Then there's the food subscriptions: boxes that send you gourmet ingredients to prepare meals at home (Green Chef, Blue Apron, plated, HelloFresh), boxes that send you healthy snacks that you might not be able to find elsewhere (Bulu Box, Vegan Cuts, graze, Prospurly), boxes that send you assorted and exotic snacks (Mantry, Cravory Cookies, Taste Trunk, Try the World, Candy Club, skoshbox - a Japanese candy box), not to mention beverages boxes like Beer of the Month Club, Crafted Taste (a cocktail kit), and coffee boxes (Bean Box, Coffee Cargo, Driftaway, Starbucks Reserve).
There's boxes for kids too! Whether it's for moms with kids (Baby Bin, Wittlebee - essentially Stich Fix for kids) or the actual tykes themselves (Green Kids Crafts, Little Passports, Kiwi Crate - they have a box for every age range), or both (bluum), there's a box for them.
There's boxes for make up (ipsy, Lip Monthly, Birchbox, GlossyBox), for jewelry rental (Rocksbox), for crafting and DIYing (Sketch Box, Olive Box, Art in a Box, Ginger Mail, Darby Smart), for nerd paraphernalia (NerdBlock, 1Up Box, Loot Crate, Gamefly - video game netflix), even for religion (faithbox, Believer's Box), pets (meowbox, BarkBox), toothbrushes, razors (Dollar Shave Club), books (BookCase Club, The Book Drop), weddings (StudioWedBox), yoga (BuddhiBox), flowers (BloomsyBox), and even that time of the month (The PMS Package).
Hell, even Walmart and Target have gotten in on the action. They both have beauty boxes and Walmart even has a baby box. Fancy.com has started selling boxes curated by various celebrities, pandering in the most obvious fashion. Plus there's this lady at My Subscription Addiction who has made a career of sampling and reviewing these boxes. Panera now has an in-app purchase option and they leave your meal in a bag on a shelf (a random person could walk off with your food!) Of course you can always get GrubHub to bring your food straight to you. And then we have companies like Havenly where you can get a shopping list for living room decor.
When did we lose the time to shop (i.e. hunt) for our own stuff? When did we get so busy that we can't take a trip to the grocery store? Where do we draw the line with modern conveniences? When did we get so lazy? And when did our incomes become so disposable?