Somehow, a few months ago, someone out here decided that the next big thing was going to be selling frozen yogurt (with unlimited toppings) by weight. Amazingly, they were right. Now, every other street corner in any even slightly urbane neighborhood has a yogurt by weight place.
For those of you who may not have encountered such a place, I’ll describe it. You walk in and grab a bowl. Small, large, doesn’t really matter. Just depends on how hungry you are. Then, you put some frozen yogurt in it. Most places have a row of those soft-serve machines with different flavors. However much frozen yogurt you want to eat.
Then, you move on to the toppings bar, where you put toppings onto your yogurt (or, if you’re pro like me, you alternate between the two areas so you have layered toppings underneath yogurt). Again, however many toppings you want. Most places have a relatively large selection, comparable to something like Cold Stone.
Then, you move to the register, where you place your little cup onto a scale. Depending on how many ounces it weighs (above the weight of the cup), you pay some amount per ounce.
It’s a pretty slick idea, and it has two factors going for it: the “healthier than ice cream” appeal of a cold treat and the customer choice of nearly every section (flavor, size, toppings). I’d never gone to such a place a year ago, but now I can think of at least a half dozen such places off the top of my head, and I pass by storefronts promising a new yogurt place coming soon all the time.
How did this happen? How did frozen yogurt by weight become this year’s Crocs? Is there a national chain of these? All the places I know go by different names. Is it only a matter of time before a bigger corporate entity decides to buy them up and streamline the business model? Why didn’t anyone think of this before?
I feels like I’m in the middle of some kind of revolution, but I don’t even know what we’re revolting against. Something is happening here. Something big. For those outside of northern California, are these things in your neighborhood too? How wide is their reach?
