I recently visited a new Yogurt shop here in Eagle that sells frozen yogurt self-serve by the ounce. Now let that sink in a moment and consider the pro’s and cons of this arrangement: While you ponder, let me walk you through my own recent visit.
The selection of flavors and toppings is quite generous, so one is severely tempted to completely fill the available containers and dig in.
Ah, but there begins our first conundrum: There are no “Small” cups available, the choices available are Large, Jumbo and Ginormous. OK, so how much are we spending? There is no telling how much you are going to spend, because there is no way to control your own portions, as everything is self-serve. So you wing it, getting your frozen yogurt and toppings and then the full weight of $.44 per ounce really begins to hit you square between the eyes when a treat that normally costs less than $3.00 at your local TCBY turns into a jaw-dropping $8.50.
My first instinct is to be feel guilty. I did fill the cup myself and have nobody else to blame for my predicament, but shortly upon the heels of that initial reaction comes the realization that the entire setup of this establishment is geared towards creating exactly that circumstance. The cups are huge, and there is no markings on them or near them to tell you how many ounces each cup can hold, so keeping the portions reasonable makes the contents look tiny in comparison, so your own judgment of portion size is skewed right off the bat. Oh! Don’t forget that you pay for the weight of the cup itself as well!
For myself, that will most likely be my first and last foray into the world of self-serve Yogurt, as I walked away from that encounter with my wife and two kids in tow with four cups of frozen yogurt and $35.00 lighter in the wallet for the experience.
Now this brings up an interesting point: Would you consider this brand of deceptive marketing to be usury, or is this just the price you pay for snooty Yogurt? Is the design of the establishment to fool their own customers an acceptable practice?
The price of the experience might actually have been worth it if the quality of the product were exceptional or fresh. Neither condition currently exists at the corner of Eagle and State St. So I’m still at a loss to see how this establishment lasts through the winter unless they are banking on the locals within Eagle to rise to their reported tendency towards pretentiousness?
Just my view from the cheap seats…
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