
Dean and Deluca Is Closing Its Stores - prostoalex
https://www.eater.com/2019/7/16/20695333/dean-and-deluca-stores-closing-debt-fancy-food-market-rise-and-fall
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tlb
Dean & Deluca was among the first online stores built with Viaweb in 1996 (the
founders of Viaweb went on to start Y Combinator). I remember some difficulty
trying to get their copperplate font to render nicely into GIFs without
dithering. (There were no webfonts at the time -- if you wanted a branded
look, you had to render an image on the server.)

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stefco_
> And for months, small businesses have turned to social media to complain
> about the company’s outstanding debts.

Though D&D was a company and the situation is _somewhat_ different, this
reminds me of my tutoring experience with a few supposedly affluent NYC
clients; they had a similar capacity to appear posh while somehow being unable
to pay their invoices without heavy cajoling. Made me happy I forced clients
to sign up for recurring payment with stripe, which at least reduced the
number of times I had to "remind" them. My own experience is obviously
anecdotal and specific, but if anything I found a negative correlation between
external markers of wealth and ability/willingness (same result on my end) to
pay invoices.

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Simulacra
When John Kerry was running for president, I heard that his wife, the heir to
the Heinz fortune, shopped for groceries there. So I went. My goodness... $11
cubes of chocolate, $90 bottles of maple syrup, it just seemed... way
overboard. I'm surprised it lasted this long.

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onetimemanytime
_"...it just seemed... way overboard. I'm surprised it lasted this long._

In NYC and quite a few other cities it can last forever. They are a lot of
super rich people and $100 for them is like a penny to us. Expanding is a
different story...

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winternett
Whole Foods and Harris Teeter are just 2 of many stores that have taken over
the gourmet markets... Pretty sure their expansions are what killed D&D.

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anm89
I'll go against the grain here and say that I absolutely loved Dean and
Delucas when I found one when I was living in Tokyo last year. Yeah the
packaged goods were super obnoxiously priced but the hot prepared food was
very very good and was priced in line with anything else in that general
area(maybe $10 for a lunch).

Some of the best pastries I've ever had from a chain bakery. F

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peterjussi
I'm not sure about this, but it seems that the Japanese Dean and DeLuca is
just a Japanese company owning and operating the brand under license or joint
venture. This is how a lot of foreign brands enter Japan (for example, Taco
Bell and Baskin Robbins), and why many remain even when the original company
more or less goes under (for example, Mister Donut). I wouldn't be surprised
if this ends up being the same.

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lanrh1836
Nothing special, just overpriced. Eataly is basically what they tried to, and
should have, become.

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subpixel
I find Eataly also overpriced and nothing special, just less dated (for now).

I’ve had more delicious food in European airports.

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lanrh1836
It’s pricey, but it feels like a Disneyland for foodies, which is what D&D
should have tried to do and why AFAIK they keep expanding worldwide (just saw
a new one on the Strip in Las Vegas, no less). Also the restaurants and
rooftop in the one in NYC are all great as far as atmosphere goes. Food is
reasonable IMO.

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anbop
The foods here used to be special but in the last 10 years seemed more focused
on tourists.

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W-Stool
This company somehow managed to not make money in a store located in Napa
Valley. Think about that for a minute.

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peteretep
Awww, the ones in Bangkok made a nice little place to get American food and a
glass of wine

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geomark
There is/was one in Khao Yai. I stopped there once. It was a freaking food
truck selling 400 baht hamburgers.

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jasonhansel
They had stores??

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chrischen
Interesting you said this because I always thought this was actually an Asian
brand having mostly only seen them in Japan and Korea.

There's a trend of Asia reviving some old western brands, like 7-Eleven,
Denny's, Yahoo, Mister Donut.

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wahern
7-Eleven has been a Japanese company for close to 30 years, and started
opening stores in Japan long before that. If there's a trend, it long predates
it, but my sense is that 7-Eleven never sold itself as American kitsch but was
simply a business model that worked well elsewhere. It seems similar to KFC in
that regard--far more KFCs overseas than in the U.S. as fried chicken has near
universal appeal--though KFC and Colonel Sanders in particular is much more of
an American cultural export.

Chains like A&W began opening stores in Asia in the 1960s. And not just around
American military bases--a franchise was started in Malaysia in 1963. In
general I think the trend isn't one of revival but more that these brands were
already global when their American market disappeared. But maybe chains like
Denny's and Mister Donut are different stories.

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Causality1
>$75 bespoke ice cubes

Yep, this place needs to die before it summons Slaanesh.

