There’s no sense in dancing around the issue. Blue Apron Holdings Inc (NYSE:APRN) has been an unqualified disaster. The APRN stock price is down 70% from its June IPO price and is still knocking on the door of new all-time lows.

Some investors were surprised, though frankly, many weren’t. Blue Apron was waving many of the tell-tale red flags so often seen with a doomed new offering well before it becomes a public company. But those warnings were only heeded by those who cared to see them.

Those who didn’t see them, to be blunt, were too enamored by the hopes that APRN stock would provide the kind of whiz-bang post-IPO returns dished out by the likes of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) or Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). That was just never going to happen.

While it’s too late to go back and do anything about a soured trade in APRN stock now, there are some things to learn from the debacle to keep you out of trouble the next time a touted public offering shows up on your radar.

3 Things We Should Have Seen With Blue Apron

Anytime a presumed winner ends up being a big loser, there’s something to learn. In the case of Blue Apron, there are three huge lessons we’d all be wise to remember, lest we risk making the same mistake again.

In no certain order, here were the things we should have noticed about this company before risking any capital.

1. There is no moat to keep competitors at bay

As clever as the idea may seem on the surface, the fact of the matter is that anybody can get into the meal-kit business. In fact, Kroger Co (NYSE:KR) was already in the business before Blue Apron’s IPO, tapping its access to a large volume of bulk-bought ingredients as well as using its stores as a no-cost distribution network.

And, after Blue Apron’s IPO, Amazon got into the business, leveraging its recent acquisition of Whole Foods.

It’s the Amazon entry into the game that should be most concerning. The e-commerce giant has deep pockets and doesn’t mind some of its ventures losing money as long as it can use that venture to garner more consumer data.

2. It’s an unproven business model/no “value-add”

Let’s be clear here. Meal kits are a real thing and are bought by real customers. It’s now a $5-billion market in the United States. On the other hand, just because there’s a market for something doesn’t make it a viable, profitable business model. It would take enormous scale and a very cost-effective means of delivering these kits to make meal kits an actual money-making business.

That said, and along the same lines, there’s no real net value to the lives of many (and possibly most) fans of meal kits.

While they do save time, the number one challenge consumers have with them is their relatively high cost. That cost, coupled with the potential inconvenience of receiving a meal kit that has to be cooked within a certain time frame, is actually proving to be a nuisance to some.

3. Thinking like consumers rather than investors

In some regards, the third lesson to learn from the APRN stock meltdown is a combined variation of lessons #1 and 2.

That is, some investors generally liked the broad premise of prepackaged meal kits and presumed Blue Apron would sooner or later dominate the fragmented market. Not enough consumers put their investor hats on though and asked whether there was any actual money or potential to become a dominant force in the business.

The reality is that just because a product is popular doesn’t make it profitable.

Bottom Line for APRN Stock

None of this is to suggest Blue Apron is doomed. If nothing else, it’s recognized as the leading brand in prepackaged meals. That’s something to applaud, even if only because it’s the most likely buyout target from a bigger company that wants the name (if not the business itself).

On the other hand, from an investment point of view, it’s increasingly clear that Blue Apron is a half-baked idea more so than an actual, viable business model.

It joins the ranks of Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN), Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) and a whole slew of other companies that were very good at telling a conceptual story, but not so good at actually turning the kinds of profits they were touting.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter at @jbrumley.