Many of my friends have been raving about Pinkberry, a new chain of stylish frozen yogurt stores in New York and Southern California. Don’t worry if you haven’t heard about them; they only have a handful of locations and seem to rely upon word of mouth for advertising. That’s not to say that they need it: Pinkberry seems to have cultivated a nearly cult-like following among the people who have heard of them.
Personally, I don’t see anything special about Pinkberry frozen yogurt other than the ridiculous price. Sure, the use of fresh organic fruit and other items as toppings is mildly innovative, but it fails to make up for the lackluster frozen yogurt, which is offered in regular and green tea flavors. I found both varieties lacking in flavor and overly sour. Call me unrefined, but I much rather have a sundae from Costco.
As a frozen yogurt store, Pinkberry fails terribly. As a trendy boutique that attracts yuppie spenders, Pinkberry is wildly successful. I think Pinkberry is trying to do to frozen yogurt what Starbucks did to coffee. The only difference so far is that Starbucks started out with decent coffee.
I luv froyo. Pinkberry works for me and I don’t see what’s wrong with a stylish boutique. All the others are imitators, well, except for Yogen Fruz which is everwhere except America. Goodbye ice cream…
I have no problem with the stylish boutique. In fact, I’ll applaud Pinkberry for paying attention to design. My main problem is with all the hype regarding Pinkberry is their core product: their frozen yogurt is below average and certainly does not justify its premium price.
Yes, I TOTALLY agree with you. I do not understand what the hype is about. Frozen yogurt–wow, how amazing. /end sarcasm
Like you, I’d rather buy Costco’s yogurt ice-cream–a tasty treat that’s cheap!
Hi to all you other Yogurt fans out there. I must confess that I am a yogurt freak myself. I know everyone out there is so in love with Pinkberry but I just DON’T understand why the hell that is.
1. PINKBERRY basically tastes like frozen sugar water. YUCK! It seems like they don’t care about taste and all they care about is making a good ol’ buck.
I went to this new yogurt shop called Frucci located near MT SAC & CAL POLY POMONA. (Check out their website http://www.frucciyogurt.com under News for their addresses).
FRUCCI on the other hand really considers taste and ingredients (its rich and you can tell that it has so much less sugar than pinkberry). They really seem to care about people’s health and WELL-BEING.
2. FRUCCI is also CHEAPER than pinkberry. Pinkberry even charges a dollar extra for their green tea (what a rip!!) whereas frucci charges all yogurt flavors equally. You guys need to try the Pina Colada (their most popular flavor).
3. Frucci’s workers give GREAT SERVICE.
Some of Pinkberry’s workers are the worst (very rude and impolite). From my own personal experience i went into the koreatown Pinkberry and asked for three toppings (the blackberry, raspberry, and mochi). I asked, “can i have the mochi?” The female worker harshly and impolitely replied, “It’s ricecake.” I couldn’t really understand at first so I was wondering why she was giving me a horrible face and so I said, “Yea so can i have the mochi please.” She then again repeated, “It’s ricecake” while rolling her eyes. I was pretty DAMN offended.
My friend also said she went into a Pinkberry and one of the customers politely asked, “can i have some more yogurt please?” The worker sarcastically said, “oh yea you want some more?” She THREW the medium cup of yogurt on the measuring scale (since pinkberry measures by the ounce) and the scale measured 8 ounces. Since medium is 8 ounces, the worker just handed the cup of yogurt to the female customer without saying a word. My friend said that she could see that customer’s face turning pink. Pretty sad.
Pinkberry fans you can hate me all you want, but to all you yogurt fans out there I RECOMMEND FRUCCI.
Yogurt Fanatic, that sounds awful. Personally I haven’t ever had a bad experience at Pinkberry, except for the young teenage kids with poor customer service that don’t really care about their jobs, because they still live with their parents and they don’t have to pay rent. But I can get that kind of bad service anywhere that has to hire teenagers, please take no offense if your a nice responible teenager. From the explanation of your experience I completly understand why you don’t like Piknberry.
As for the first lady, Costco is great if you like icecream, or yogurt that tastes like icecream, but Pinkberry is supose to taste like yogurt. That’s why it come in plain, ik eplain yogurt. Then you can add fruit, like yogurt that is sold with fruit, or with ceral. I’m not sure about the mochi thing, but it sure does taste good. Their other flavors are green tea, and now coffee, which also seem like nuetral flavors that are easy to add things like fruit and ceral to. It seems like they are trying to start a trend of healthier rather than super sweet icecream type things.
As far as the style, it seem like pretty much normal cute trendy japanese style, at least in America. All the other frozen yogurt place that are like Pinkberry, that I have seen anyway, are designed pretty much the same way. Have you ever been to a Famima, or a Sanrio, they have the same basic cute style. I wouldn’t really say yuppie, more like poppy, or fun. They take one color that pops and they design around it in a clean, but fun way. Starbucks is defintly yuppie though, I don’t think their coffee started off good though. I do think that both of their products are just as addictive though.
RICECAKE girl is retarded because mochi IS ricecake in japanese. first time i ever ate frozen yogurt in such a fashion was at pinkberry last spring. then i started finding other places that allow you to buy as much yogurt and toppings as you want. i say screw the franchize and support locally owned businesses.
Costco sundaes will get your butt and thighs dimply and its not good for you! I dont not think this place is overpriced!
PINKBERRY IS THE ORIGINAL! it doesnt taste like crap, and the design/branding is the best part for me. Maybe they charge so much because the interior is so expensive did you know those ghost chairs u sit on are $500+ and all the furniture is from design within reach. I think they are doing more than just making a buck. they are making a design/fashion statement.
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Pinkberry is definitely the original, but the imitators do offer a wider selection of flavors at a more competitive price. But that’s totally understandable, you pay more for the real thing. Comparing Costco yogurt to pinkberry is like comparing apples and oranges. This is not even the same product that you are comparing, so many people get caught up because they are both called yogurt. I personally think pinkberry and pinkberry-style yogurt is much tastier than the type of yogurt americans have traditionally been exposed to and much is healthier. Pinkberry started in LA as a small store that did well, $6 for a tasty treat is nothing compared to the cost of living in LA, especially given the nice ambience of the store. Not until the rights to the store was bought out from the original owner did pinkberry, the frachise, begin to expand. Btw, I’d drink mcdonalds coffee over starbucks anyday, only thing worth getting is the fraps and specialty drinks, but those aren’t really suitable for everyday coffee drinkers