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Richard White said:
To be fair if I walked into Loblaws MLG and saw Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookies or PC Gourmet Medium Road being brewed I would be a little weirded out. It almost seems cheap like they ran out of actual products and grabbed stuff off the shelf.
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Why? Decadent Chocolate Chunk cookies are arguably the best-in-class of their type.

PC Coffee a bit less so.

But I don't think it's weird at all.
 
Richard White said:
I believe Loblaws MLG had their own independent coffee shop when they opened in 2011. It was later replaced by Starbucks.
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Similarly, when the Longo's on King Street by Liberty Village opened several years ago, they had an independent coffee company on site selling their product out of a really cute, baby blue vintage vehicle. It was very charming, and the coffee was good. Fast forward a couple of years and it was replaced by (SIGH) a Starbucks. Oh well, they ain't getting any dough from me anymore...
 
Northern Light said:
Why? Decadent Chocolate Chunk cookies are arguably the best-in-class of their type.

PC Coffee a bit less so.

But I don't think it's weird at all.
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If the cookies were made in house and not off the shelf so to speak it would not be as weird.

Maybe it's just me but selling cookies from a bag like that is something you would expect from a children's lemonade stand not a multi-million dollar company.
 
Richard White said:
If the cookies were made in house and not off the shelf so to speak it would not be as weird.
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They wouldn't be in the bag when you bought them, LOL It's just that the association would be there on the menu board.

Richard White said:
Maybe it's just me but selling cookies from a bag like that is something you would expect from a children's lemonade stand not a multi-million dollar company.
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Are you thinking that a cookie or other baked good you get at Starbucks or some other chain is fresh baked in store? For the most part that is not the case. At best, it's factory made and shipped to the store, often frozen.

Even in fancy restaurants, many items are outsourced, industrial scale supply. That fancy salad at ...... (redacted) comes from a giant version of the salad pack you get in the grocery store.....it's a 2kg portion instead of 142 grams in the supermarket:

Even that fancy cheesecake was likely ordered in, in a box.

A few places have pastry chefs that scratch make, but it's not all that common anymore.
 
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Northern Light said:
They wouldn't be in the bag when you bought them, LOL It's just that the association would be there on the menu board.



Are you thinking that a cookie or other baked good you get at Starbucks or some other chain is fresh baked in store? For the most part that is not the case. At best, it's factory made and shipped to the store, often frozen.

Even in fancy restaurants, many items are outsourced, industrial scale supply. That fancy salad at ...... (redacted) comes from a giant version of the salad pack you get in the grocery store.....it's a 2kg portion instead of 142 grams in the supermarket:

Even that fancy cheesecake was likely ordered in, in a box.

A few places have pastry chefs that scratch make, but it's not all that common anymore.
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I agree with @Richard White here. While it might not be logical, I would feel ripped off paying $1 a cookie let's say at the cafe when you get a whole bag/box of the exact same cookies in the store for $5 in the same store just a few steps away.

If they would sell individual cookies at the exact same price per cookie as getting the whole bag/box, that's a different story.
 
bearcat said:
I agree with @Richard White here. While it might not be logical, I would feel ripped off paying $1 a cookie let's say at the cafe when you get a whole bag/box of the exact same cookies in the store for $5 in the same store just a few steps away.

If they would sell individual cookies at the exact same price per cookie as getting the whole bag/box, that's a different story.
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I think there are all sorts of ways to offset that; because Loblaws would make money on wholesaling to itself, or even have the instore cafe pay retail; and because it serves as self-promotion, boosting sales......you can discount the typical price you'd expect to pay. I don't know that you would get the price down to retail.....which is ~.19c a cookie at full price.

But I could see 2 cookies for a dollar, and maybe, all net proceeds to charity. Nice little hook.

Alternatively, they could introduce a new 'ready to bake' version, and use those in the cafe, cycling them through a a convection oven a few times a day.
 
Northern Light said:
I don't think I agree. I think if a grocery concept is pursued in the basement of Sak's/Bay, what you'd want is something a bit showy/special and very forward on prepared foods.

Farmboy started prepared foods heavy, but looking at their remodel in Laird they seem to be moving away from it. They have still have some hot foods and a salad bar, but considering this is the largest store to date, they've definitely dialed it back.

At Pusateri's, pre-pandemic, they put up some decent numbers, but it was the prepared foods that really moved, while the conventional grocery and areas like meat and produce performed..... less well.
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I wonder if the appeal for the Hot Bar at Farm Boy is losing its appeal. I shop at the Sugar Wharf location the store is never busy but the hot food bar is always the same items but looks like its been sitting for awhile.
 
Smoke2011 said:
I wonder if the appeal for the Hot Bar at Farm Boy is losing its appeal. I shop at the Sugar Wharf location the store is never busy but the hot food bar is always the same items but looks like its been sitting for awhile.
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I think it is losing its appeal; and I think that has a lot to do with the fact the majority of the product is made in Ottawa at their commissary and just warmed up at Toronto stores.

Additionally, the people composing the menus are Ottawa people who seem to have very dull palates.

I think more product should be made in store, overseen by a chef; and they need a Toronto commissary that understands the diversity of the Toronto palate and produces a better product.
 
Smoke2011 said:
I wonder if the appeal for the Hot Bar at Farm Boy is losing its appeal. I shop at the Sugar Wharf location the store is never busy but the hot food bar is always the same items but looks like its been sitting for awhile.
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That's consistent across all their locations. The food always looks like it's been sitting undisturbed for hours, with a crispy crust developing over a moister interior because not a single employee could be bothered to walk by occasionally to stir in order to keep it from looking semi-petrified. I don't understand what these store managers are doing - it's not rocket science that food has to look appealing if you want to sell it...
 
Towered said:
That's consistent across all their locations. The food always looks like it's been sitting undisturbed for hours, with a crispy crust developing over a moister interior because not a single employee could be bothered to walk by occasionally to stir in order to keep it from looking semi-petrified. I don't understand what these store managers are doing - it's not rocket science that food has to look appealing if you want to sell it...
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They just need the right marketing.

How do you think Hooters sells mediocre food? People don't go for the food but they sure as hell order it when they are there.
 
Richard White said:
They just need the right marketing.

How do you think Hooters sells mediocre food? People don't go for the food but they sure as hell order it when they are there.
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I must admit that a few years ago I went with the whole family to the Hooters on John Street on a Monday for all-you-can-eat wings, and it was surprisingly decent. You should have seem the conical mountain of bones left as a monument to our gluttony. As for the "view", I couldn't fully indulge because you know, with the (at the time) missus, toddler, and two other kids present I had to be extremely wary of where my eyes were going. That's not a problem now! Perhaps it's time for a visit.

Mmmm. Meat.
 
Towered said:
I must admit that a few years ago I went with the whole family to the Hooters on John Street on a Monday for all-you-can-eat wings, and it was surprisingly decent. You should have seem the conical mountain of bones left as a monument to our gluttony. As for the "view", I couldn't fully indulge because you know, with the (at the time) missus, toddler, and two other kids present I had to be extremely wary of where my eyes were going. That's not a problem now! Perhaps it's time for a visit.

Mmmm. Meat.
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You! Sharpen up.......you can do better!

I'm not diminishing those who wait tables at the establishment in question.......... but you can do more than be a voyeur. ..... much as you may enjoy that....
 
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