I covered the ice cream beat this week, but I've got a couple of other retail F&B observations.
1) Starbucks is selling tiny whoopie pies and other petite calorie-packed snacks. They've even added bite-sized cupcakes to the menu. You probably know that $4 regular-size cupcakes and pricey tiny cupcakes for the calorie conscious have been all the rage for some time. But $1.95+tax for a Starbucks, one-bite cupcake?
Though nobody is going to buy a dozen of these cupcakes for $24, the price per dozen drives home the point that these little guys are expensive. Nonetheless, the cupcakes should sell well because people aren't just buying a cupcake; they're paying Starbucks to give them a cupcake while also stopping them from eating a larger, diet-busting cupcake. You might say the customers are paying to have their cake and eat it too.
2) I heard that Whole Foods will be testing beer and wine bars in some of their stores. What do you think about that? I know that many of their shoppers are also craft beer buyers, but ambiance is critical to the experience of having a beer at a bar. Mostly I enjoy a patio on a warm, sunny day or a sidewalk table where the people-watching is good. I don't want to stare at heirloom tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella while sipping a beer.
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No, I'm not becoming an F&B retail trends blog, but it occurs to me that using the terms food and beverage and retail trends might get me some links from strange places. Once I was quoted in Ad Age and another time in Spin Magazine, presumably because I used terms that their paid Googlers were searching.
Who knows? Maybe I'll get a link from Food Retail World or Cupcake News for mentioning bit-sized whoopies and tiny cupcakes.
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I promise I'll get back to posting on psychology soon. The inspiration hasn't been there lately, not that I'm not thinking about and reading psychology all the time. I simply haven't been in the mood to write about it.
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Speaking of reading, I'm looking forward to delivery of The Book of Symbols, recommended by Jungian Analyst Cheryl Fuller.
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