I don’t remember Brumby’s ever having a major profile in Sydney.
Same. I sort of remember the “Mmm!” ads for Michels’ Patisserie and campaigns for Donut King like “The Greatest Tasting Donuts In The World” and “Life’s A Hole Lot Sweeter” during the 2000s, but nothing really after about 2010 or 2011.
Did Gloria Jeans ever have any particularly memorable advertising? It wasn’t until I did a search on YouTube and saw ads like these and this that I vaguely remembered seeing ads for them on TV!
I used to love Michel’s Patisserie many years ago but now the cakes are so average. I read in a Sydney Morning Herald investigation to the franchise a few weeks back that the business model of Michel’s now relies on frozen cakes being delivered and thawed out at each store. When the quality falls, profits initially rise (frozen cakes are cheaper than freshly made in-store cakes) then customers stop buying product and then the profits fall. And fall. And fall.
It looks like Michel’s Patisserie is going the same way as The Cheesecake Shop and Pavlova Pantry.
Smaller businesses that make fresh product can often beat the “frozen” franchise.
GJs has had a massive fall from grace in the last 10-15 years, with Muffin Break, Coffee Club and Jamaica Blue making the most of their swift decline. It’s a shame as GJs definitely has the best blended ice coffee drinks of the major chains.
If 7/11 want to take a gamble and try and expand the Starbucks store network, now is probably the best time for them to do it.
They were good, but have declined over the past few years. There are now one or two, if any, savoury muffins available, and the range of sweet muffins isn’t what it was. I used to like the bacon and egg pie when it was freshly made. These days it looks like plastic, and the last time I had a slice that’s what it tasted like.
Muffin Break’s coffee is also horrendously overpriced ($6 for a large!) and there is often significant variation of product range between franchisees. Nonetheless, they’ve revamped almost all of their existing stores and expanded into a lot of new centres in recent years.
Seems to have gone the other way in Canberra - there’s only one left. I think there’s maybe two Gloria Jeans and a few Michel’s.
Coffee Guru are everywhere, and there’s a bunch of Coffee Club and Cafe Cherry Beans around.
Must be a lot of state based variation in the market as Coffee Guru and Cherry Beans are non existent on this side of the country.
As Coffee snob as it’s going to sound unless absolutely necessary I avoid most of these franchises, they’re almost always overpriced compare to local cafes and while many of them make perfectly good coffee, the variation of quality is simply too high - GJ was the only one I used to like and only because they had a blended ice drink that they put several shots of coffee in (Voltage).
Was finally able to try Taco Bell for myself. The prices are significantly cheaper than GyG/Salsas but you are getting what you’re paying for. It tastes decent though, emphasis on decent.
And yes, the experience is truly authentic…
Opening soon at Westfield Woden.
That slogan sounds misleading…
Had In-N-Out burger for lunch today in Perth.
Whereabouts is it?
Northbridge not far from Perth station. Only a popup store like Sydney. Sold out by 12:30pm. I got the double double animal style.
Did they give you the double double double double?
Though there was a limit of one burger per person so both me and a co worker went at 11:30am
Ten eyewitness news was filming me in the line but got asked if I want to do an interview I declined.
Didn’t want to get asked for autographs in the street? 
I knew someone that was prominent on Seven Melbourne back in 2009 and the attention only lasted a couple of years 
Nearly one year to the day when I photobombed a Vox Pop on Seven News. Really creepy too because it was just before the Burke Street Massacre but no one noticed…
Well those burgers do look very similar to the ones I’ve had in the US which is good to see. Did they have proper fries though? They are my fave thing about In-N-Out. Often when they bring brands or chains out here here they are quite different. Carls Jr is a perfect example of it not really being anything like what I had in the US.
What is the point of the pop up store anyway? Are they testing out potential interest in different areas to open up a store?
I’ve heard that these In-N-Out pop ups (which have also appeared in Sydney and Melbourne as well as countless other cities are the world) are some venture that the US tourism industry stages.
