Posted on 11/12/2010 9:16:07 AM PST by tlb
The manager of Don Otto’s - a recently shuttered food market in the South End - is blaming neighborhood patrons for its untimely demise, cooking up an angry message to fair-weather fans of the Tremont Street eatery.
“Don Otto’s Market wants to say we had few customers that understood customer loyalty and its importance to our business,” a message on its Web site reads, later adding: “If you came in only for baguettes, the occasional piece of cheese, the occasional dinner . . . you can not tell yourself you were a supporter of our market.”
The scalding remonstrance was written by Erin McLaughlin, 28, who ran the shop and is engaged to the owner, Michael Otto, 31.
Among their customers were U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who has stopped by for their locally made lasagna. But in this economy, $28-per-pound steak and $8 cartons of eggs was not a recipe for success.
“In some parts of the world people are accustomed to spending a higher percentage of their income on food, but in America we suffer from sticker shock because of Wal-Mart and other discount vendors,” reads Don Otto’s online farewell. “The reality is we pay for what we eat. Some are informed enough to know what that statement means. For those that don’t, I am not going to elaborate.”
“In my opinion, it’s that people just didn’t have the money,” said Don Otto, 72, whose son named the store for him.
Also disagreeing with McLaughlin’s reasoning was the artisan cheese-buyer at nearby Formaggio on Shawmut Avenue, which makes a fine profit on selling pricey gourmet offerings to a rarified clientele.
“I think it comes down to quality and trust,” said Formaggio’s David Robinson. “That’s where Don Otto’s seems to have missed out.”
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
So another business fails because it won’t sell products people wants at a price people will pay? What do these people think they are running, a car company?
This from the People’s Republic of Massachusetts. Sorry, lady, you fail the “so what” test. Or maybe you think that the recession is over and the “intelligensia” of Massachusetts can easily afford your overpriced food.
Now that they’re out of business, I wonder what SHE will be paying for a dozen eggs.
Golly. NOW where’s Barney Frank gonna get his exotic sausages?
DON’T even go there!
Looks like they didn’t last the year
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2010/05/19/a_change_of_hands_and_mostly_local_food_at_new_don_ottos_market/
Article from back in May about Otto buying the market
We should be more like Europe, where everyone is forced to pay high prices in order to "support" producers and retailers.
To be honest, I'd have had a happier day not knowing this woman existed.
Hey - I just had a thought....
Now, Otto can get the neighborhood declared a ‘Food Desert’ and Michelle will give him oodles and oodles of cash to stay in business....
I understand you perfectly. The absolute rightness of a system of prices is that the price records the value of goods to different parties. Ms. Out-of-Business’s beef was worth $28 a pound to her, but it wasn’t worth that to a potential customer. (Can’t get me to pay more than $4/lb. I’ll eat beans instead.)
Marginal utility, substitutions, fungibility ...I love all that microeconomic stuff!
And customers’ shopping habits rely on how much things cost in relation to value as they perceive it, a lesson Otto learned the hard way. There is nothing wrong with trying a business model and failing; that’s how innovation works. But it’s beyond arrogant to blame customers for not paying exorbitant amounts of money for items they didn’t perceive as valuable just to support a failing business model.
Maybe they should have offered Happy Meals? Those seem to be popular, and Boston is about as far as you can get from San Francisco… at least, geographically.
But are your chickens offered opportunities to better themselves, recreation, occaisional field trips...?
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those in political office who pass laws barring restaurants from using saturated fats in their cooking, who ban Happy Meals
Maybe if McDonalds would have called them “Gay Meals” San Fransisco would have had no problem with them.
That article is hilarious. An example from the article:
Eggs, from free-range chickens, are $8.50 a dozen. When asked whether people will balk at the cost, Otto shrugs and explains these chickens’ laying routine. “Their lay cycles rely on the sun, not on artificial lamps that distort production,’’ he says.
"All I know is, when that egg comes to me, it better have an act." - Bill Cosby
They were open for 9 months.
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With no cooking or retail food experience . . .
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No experience, eh? Reminds me of a certain 2008 Presidential candidate. I wonder how his 'restaurant' is doing?
“And for $28/pound it better be Kobe beef.”
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Isn’t Kobe more like $100/lb?
Well, I never had it, but shucks is ANY beef worth that?
I’ll put a lump of that overrated, pampered Kobe stuff up against a strip sirloin from my favorite local St. Louis steak house any day.
“And for $28/pound it better be Kobe beef.”
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Isn’t Kobe more like $100/lb?
Well, I never had it, but shucks is ANY beef worth that?
I’ll put a lump of that overrated, pampered Kobe stuff up against a strip sirloin from my favorite local St. Louis steak house any day.
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