The taste that launched 1,000 parking tickets | Hacker News Reader

The taste that launched 1,000 parking tickets

latimes.com

35 pointsimgabe12 comments

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).

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

Given the history of the product you are probably closer to the mark than you think. Pinkberry got into trouble with the state of california a while back because their "yogurt" did not have enough culture to actually qualify as yogurt and was technically a flavored sour cream. They have changed the formula to get within the specs on this, but I would have to agree with you that it is definitely an acquired taste and after one try I personally had no desire to acquire it :)

> 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.

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

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.

Regarding copycats, http://la.eater.com/archives/2007/03/13/the_yogurt_wars_part...

There's a bit of the Yogurt Wars here in Palo Alto, with Fraiche and Red Mango. The Fraiche stuff is pretty ok, but the Red Mango tastes exactly as you describe.

Fraiche is quality. They imported some kind of industrial European yogurt contraption. No idea what id does or how it works, but my understanding is that it uses traditional yogurt-making methodologies, and that they are the only company in the US that has one. It's very good yogurt, especially the unflavored fresh whole milk variety.

Also spotted Zuckerberg and Jobs chatting it up there one day in 2007.

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?

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

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

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.

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