The surge in demand for Blue Apron led to problems with staffing, too. (“In the few instances when OSHA has visited our Richmond facility, as they do with thousands of other workplaces each year,” Blue Apron told BuzzFeed News in a statement, “they identified routine improvements for us to make, all of which were welcomed and promptly addressed.”) Blue Apron later cut back on its marketing costs to improve its labor and hiring practices. On the same day, Blue Apron’s Richmond facility had two different threats of violence from employees. Some employees report being choked, bitten, groped, or punched while working at the facility, and in August 2015, BuzzFeed News reports, Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators met with company management to give the company nine workplace safety citations. Police have had to meet with Blue Apron about the frequency with which they have been called about problems at the warehouse. In some instances, employees reported being injured using equipment they weren’t certified to use in others, police were summoned to the facility because of bomb threats, assault, and weapons. With pressure mounting to push out product, Blue Apron employed sometimes lax hiring practices and questionable safety standards, according to employees who spoke to BuzzFeed. The four-year-old New York-based start-up, which is projected to surpass $1 billion in revenue over the next year, has, in an effort to meet high demand for its subscription-meal kits, sometimes cut corners in the past at its three-year-old warehouse facility in Richmond, California, BuzzFeed News reports. Blue Apron, the $2 billion meal-subscription service that sends perfectly portioned ingredients and recipe cards to customers’ homes, may be growing too fast for its own good.

The blue apron