
The taste that launched 1,000 parking tickets - imgabe
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-et-pinkberryaug04,0,756854,print.story
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callmeed
First off, after hearing friends from LA rave about pinkberry on Twitter, I
finally tried it early this year while in NYC. Am I the only one who thinks
its gross? Tastes like frozen sour cream to me.

Regarding copycats, I've already seen them in Seattle and other cities. I know
they have some strong brand recognition already but that's going to be one of
their biggest problems.

I don't know a lot about the food business, but it seems like they're also in
danger of being _just another fad_ or _over-expanding_ (ala Krispy Kreme).

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silencio
> Am I the only one who thinks its gross? Tastes like frozen sour cream to me.

It's not frozen yogurt in the sense most people know yogurt. It's like frozen
natural unflavored (well, now they have flavors) yogurt, sorta like greek
yogurt. I actually like it because it's tart, I'm not a fan of more
traditional sweet frozen yogurt when I can have richer ice cream instead. For
plenty of people, it is an acquired taste...otherwise you can just go for
their flavored yogurt. Pinkberry's chocolate flavor isn't really tart at all.

> I don't know a lot about the food business, but it seems like they're also
> in danger of being just another fad or over-expanding (ala Krispy Kreme).

Not only do I think it's a fad that's already passed, but also it doesn't help
that a lot of other people saw potential here and went and opened up froyo
shops on like every block in Los Angeles - pinkberry, red mango, yogurberry,
yogurtland, cefiore, menchies, etc. Half of them (too generous maybe? two
thirds?) have probably already gone out of business since that LA Times
article was published in 2006 with the regularity with which they disappear
and reappear and disappear. Not to mention the coffee shops, cafes and
bakeries that decide to put in a froyo machine too.

Pinkberry itself, outside of a couple prime locations, is suffering here now.
I regularly keep in touch with business brokers about businesses for sale here
in LA, and there were multiple Pinkberries in the city that were for sale for
extraordinarily ridiculous amounts of money (think 1 million+) that later the
year were less than 1/4th the price and profit halved with no interested
buyers.

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callmeed
So, are PB locations franchises or are they all corporately owned?

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silencio
They're franchising now, and Pinkberry is looking for more area developers.
It's a fad, sure, but in the right locations anything is possible.

Back in the time of this article (2006) I'm not sure they were, I did contact
them once about it and the rather confused reply I got back said they weren't
franchising and implied being corporately owned.

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BRadmin
Is there a standard for tagging an article's title if it's not recent - i.e.
(2006) to put it in the correct context?

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josefresco
There isn't, but there should be. I voted your comment up in hopes the powers-
that-be will see it.

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staunch
There actually is a custom of doing that. I'm pretty sure The Editors will do
it if the submitter doesn't (eventually).

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michael_dorfman
Impressive. It's hard to find a differentiator that is strong enough to
generate that kind of loyalty, but it looks like she's nailed it.

