S05.E29: Cookware, Water Balloons, iPad App

[yeswedo]

 

Reusable storage box; reinvented cookware; an iPad app that measures foot sizes; a solution to tying water balloons; follow-ups on past entrepreneurs.

 

Season finale!

[leighdear]

The water balloon thing was genius. A BIG seller if they get in the right retailer.  I hope it works for those guys. 

 

I think Lori made a mistake with the whiny box girl.  That kind of begging may work with parents, but it was an extremely unprofessional display in my view.  I'm betting Lori will take the design & end up dealing with the girl as little as possible.   And I'm totally with the sharks in that the time saved was minimal, versus the cost.   

 

The muffin pan was irrelevant for me.  A normal rectangular pan is easy to store and will fit in my toaster oven.  That oval-type wouldn't. And $35.00?  Really? 

 

I'm probably the only brownie fan that doesn't like the corners & edges.  I like the soft & chewy ones from the middle, so I never bought that pan, even though I've seen it for years....*LOL*

 

And out of curiosity, I Googled "app to measure children's feet" and came up with at least 5 other available apps.  Do people mail-order kids shoes?  What if they don't feel good?  When I was a kid, part of the fun of getting new shoes was trying on a bunch of pairs & then wearing them out of the store. 

 

More "solutions" to problems that don't exist!  :)

Edited May 17, 2014 by leighdear

[TimetoShine]

I missed it. What was the point of the muffin pan? I've also never seen their brownie pan before (although, I'm not a baker, so I wouldn't be looking).

[leighdear]

I  must have blanked out on what was so revolutionary about the pan but here's their website that describes the pans.

 http://www.bakersedge.com/product_bmp.html

[yeswedo]

They said the pan used less metal due to the unique honeycomb design. That would make it less expensive to manufacture. And the design is also supposed to make it easier to fill than a traditional muffin pan. I've never found that to be difficult.

 

@leighdear I'm with you on the brownies. I like the middle brownies much better than the edges!

 

I've never mail ordered shoes because the size is only one factor in whether I buy them and it's a pain to return ones you don't like. Maybe kids shoes would be easier because there are less options. I don't recall if they mentioned any sales figures for online purchases to indicate the market size. This is one I would like to get an update on to learn what happened after the deal.

 

And I have seen boxes like that before. Pitching it as time saving was a mistake IMO. It really does not take that much longer to tape together a box. I've done it numerous times during moves. I'd have gone with the stability and appearance angle. When using them for storage and not just moving they look nicer than a traditional box. Storing them in between moves would probably take up more space because they don't lie as flat.

[leighdear]

I moved 9 times in 11 years, and I can absolutely say that the time needed to "construct" the box is pretty minimal.  True, using all new, uniform boxes makes it easier to stack & organize a moving van and/or stash belongings in a storage facility, but there are still numerous different sizes and shapes of boxes, so even that advantage is minimal.  And the WGB (whiny girl box) absolutely took up more room to store.  And no way I'd throw out such an expensive box! 

 

It's also very easy to take traditional boxes and tape them together (without taping both bottoms) to accommodate very tall items.  It didn't look like you could do that with hers. 

 

The only time I've ever mail-ordered shoes was when I had a pair I liked, and then found the same shoe online in a different color.  @yeswedo, sounds like you & I are more particular about our shoes than many people...*LOL*

Edited May 17, 2014 by leighdear

[starri]

I was shocked that Lori was still willing to deal with the box woman after her inability to show any kind of dignity, not to mention her really rude treatment of Kevin.  I know how generally disrespectful he is to both the presenters and the other Sharks, but her begging Lori to the point of tears while basically ignoring him, that was the rudest thing I've seen this side of the Copa di Vino asshole.

 

The two moms hit the Shark Tank hat trick:  special mom knowledge, use of own child as a prop, "passion" as their edge over the competition.

 

Also, do not put your feet on my iPad under any circumstances.  Thanks.

Edited May 17, 2014 by starri

[Euphony]

I prefer the middle pieces of baked goods as well. What a strange and baffling product....

[A Boston Gal]

I remember when this pan was on Oprah's Favorite things, and my first thought  was the same as Euphony, Leighdear and Yeswedo's: soft, fudgy centers of the brownie are far more delish than the hard, dry end pieces, which I try to avoid whenever possible. Otherwise, the calories consumed are hardly worth the sacrifice!

 

PS: Whiny Box Girl was annoying as hell, and I was cringing by the time she was half way through her tearful pitch. You all are right: the box would work better as a display piece or giftbox. No way it's worth the cost and extra storage space to use for moving.

Edited May 17, 2014 by A Boston Gal

[sadiegirl]

I thought I was the only one who preferred the middle, chewy pieces . Glad to know i'm not alone.  What bothered me about them was the fact that they said their muffin pan design used less metal, so cheaper to produce. Instead of passing that saving on to the consumer, they were going to charge close to $40.  That's what gives businesses a bad name, IMO.

 

About the boxes . I hadn't thought about gift boxes, but that is the perfect market for those things.   But I'm not sure i would buy them even as gift boxes, because I found her whole presentation cringe-worthy.  I was just uncomfortable during that whole segment.  And I'm not watching this show to feel uncomfortable.

 

And the ipad app.  I wonder how accurate it really is, if the measurement is taken while the foot is in the air, as they showed.  I'm pretty sure the shape of your foot changes a bit when you actually stand up...and they were annoying, so there's that.

[A Boston Gal]

But...but...they're MOMS....!

[CoolMom]

All I could think about the foot measuring app was that toddlers would then think it is ok to STAND on their parents IPads to try to measure their little feet on their own.

 

I thought the box was a good idea since I have moved my college student twice in the past year and will move her again at the end of summer.  We used bankers boxes that were easy to open/close but the lids were not storage friendly.  I would buy those even at a higher price then store them on a shelf in the garage until we needed them again.  I don't see using them to move an entire house though.

[leighdear]

I think the water balloon guys need to sell their contraption to colleges & universities.  Every fraternity & social club would buy them.  They could even get their own logos printed on them. 

[LittleIggy]

I looked at the shoe size app in the iTunes Store, and there were a lot of bad reviews of it. The major complaint was that it was wildly inaccurate. People said it gave sizes that were way to big for their rug rats.

I like the crunchy brownie edges with the moist part. All good!

[leighdear]

So the BZ box bimbo got me thinking about storage.  Not about her crappy, wannabe boxes, but about legit collapsible storage boxes.  I found this place by just Googling, and have ordered several of these for my office files.    Amazingly, they were all in stock.  *LOL*  American made, too.  

 

http://www.packaways.com/#

[MrMattyMatt]

I think I'm going to make my own water-balloon tying stick.  It was a great idea.

 

Add me to the list of "center-of-the-pan" brownie lovers. 

 

I was SMH at the collapsible-box girl.  At least she's trying to break free of that dreadful stereotype.

[Meushell]

I looked at the shoe size app in the iTunes Store, and there were a lot of bad reviews of it. The major complaint was that it was wildly inaccurate. People said it gave sizes that were way to big for their rug rats.

I like the crunchy brownie edges with the moist part. All good!

Kind of funny, the reviews I read said it messures too small. Either way, it's not accurate. Every review I read rated it one star. Two stars seemed to be average. Ouch.

Yes, I like the contrast between the crispy side and gooy middle of a brownie. That pan looks like it would just make the whole brownie hard, difficult to get the brownie out, and much harder to clean the pan.

Edited August 24, 2014 by Meushell

[JBC344]

I was shocked at the box invention.  Not because of the woman or her breakdown, but I didn't understand trying to sell it on assembly time.  As soon as I saw her boxes the first thing I thought of was decorative.  The design on them was beautiful and I think it would be a great decorative piece to have on a shelf or in an office or home.  I would of sold it as beautifully designed "storage" that you can display instead of trying to shove it in a closet or a garage.