Grocery concierge startup Honestbee draws major flak for “exotic meats” April Fools’ stunt

Local grocery delivery startup Honestbee jumped on the April Fools’ bandwagon pretty early, but the only ones who ended up looking like utter fools were totally themselves.

In a complete lack of tact and any well-intentioned message, Honestbee sent out a newsletter to their customers announcing the launch of their exotic meat store called Explorer Joe.

Promising to take your taste buds for a ride, Explorer Joe’s outlandish offerings include the likes of minke whale meat, steaks of bamboo-fed panda, koala sausages, komodo dragon eggs and other meats.

“Others may prefer road kill, but we ethically hunt for the best in the deepest of jungles and vastest of lands,” they wrote. “We hunt the hunter, never the hunted. YOLO eat, and experience the exotic”.

Obviously fake, dismally unfunny and exotically tasteless, you can imagine how their stunt was received by the public. Hint: heads will roll on Honestbee’s side of things, and it’s definitely not for the purpose of “YOLO eat”. You’d be left wondering just how much of the $15 million funding they raised last October was dedicated to this undoubtedly ill-judged joke.

Oh and for those of you still wondering if it’s fake or not — it totally is an April Fool’s publicity stunt. Our sources can vouch for that.

But if it’s publicity they wanted, it’s publicity they received, of course. No matter what intentions they had over driving awareness about endangered animals, their attempt at satire totally blew up in their faces like an exploding whale. The cost of this April Fool’s prank gone wrong? The loss of customers:

In the shitstorm that followed since this morning (surely they saw this coming?) they’ve remained mum about the flak — and if they’re still continuing with their campaign, they’ll eventually come clean soon enough. Bad press is really the last thing they need right now, especially after the one-too-many poor reviews of their services on their Facebook page.

We’ve reached out to Honestbee for their comments.