YOGURBERRY - Not so Strongly Worded Letter

AkanmuAbuja@gmail.com

Rating: 7/10

March, 2013

Yogurberry - Frozen Yogurt

No. 3 Bangui Street (Off Adetokunbo Ademola Way)

Wuse 2, Abuja, Nigeria.

Please see the bottom of this letter in the Highlights/Review section, as well as the bold sentences for the brief version of this letter/review.

Letter to Yogurberry Management

Dear Yogurberry Management,

This is a not so strongly worded letter to express my opinions following my experience at your establishment. I should inform you that this letter is being made available to the public through the internet, primarily for the purpose of empowering or entertaining other consumers curious about your establishment.

The undeniable awesomeness of frozen yogurt and the fact that this is the first yogurt spot I’ve found in Abuja gets you an automatic 7/10. This means that there was nothing else that was particularly impressive or unimpressive about your establishment worth raising or reducing that score.

To keep it brief, I’ll weigh the positives against the negatives to show how you broke even at the innate 7/10 rating of a conveniently located yogurt shop in Abuja.

-         The awesome set-up outside the store in the form of small tables, some even shaded with large umbrellas and with comfortable chairs, as well as small wooden picnic-style-bench-booths (I really don’t know how else to describe them) is a plus. Unfortunately, a negative is that the seating inside the store makes it seem as though you are trying to convey themes of sparseness and awkwardness (or perhaps I am overdramatizing poor taste in furnishing….which by the way does not simultaneously mean that the place was completely lacking in feng shui or that the tone and feel that a yogurt shop should evoke were missing). More simply put, the fact that inside the shop you have two small tables on one side and then one very long couch that has various chairs placed opposite it, without a table in their middle means that there is either insufficient seating inside the shop or that customers have to deal with the awkward couch setting. One solution may be to put a thin table in front of the mega-couch (TM pending) so that it all doesn’t seem so sloppy. All in all though, this negative aspect is in turn further mitigated in that the colors and overall set-up of the shop end up succeeding to evoke the expected tone and mood of a yogurt shop. However, I cannot ignore the fact that on a hot Abuja day i.e. most Abuja days, there is inadequate seating indoors.

-         You are not winning with your flavors. I mean, it was alright that during my last visit you did not have Strawberry or Mango as promised, but the fact that you’re only rolling with about 5 flavors in total and even at that, Tropical and Plain taste so similar, while pomegranate doesn’t have that kick that should distinguish it from strawberry means you simply did not put too much work into having awesome tasting yogurt. That being said, this negative is mitigated by the positive of there being a lot of toppings to pick from.

-         I am not certain how to feel about service here. On the one hand, there are the two cute and friendly ladies (yes…looks are a plus in this harsh world) who were taking people’s orders, while on the other hand there was the friendly but slightly difficult guy who refused to place my 2 toppings in the bowl before putting my yogurt on top.

o   Here is the thing, I get that you are not yet ready to allow people self-serve their yogurt and toppings, at which point you weigh the overall order and charge based on that. I even won’t complain about how the servers are a little stingy with the toppings, because in truth, the topping to yogurt ratio ends up working well. However, when a customer wants you to put their toppings in the bowl before you squirt the yogurt unto them from the ice-cream dispenser (meaning the toppings being in there first doesn’t interfere with dispensation in any way), you realize that the request is one of those cases when the customer isn’t only always right, but is probably a yogurt-melted-on-cookie-because-cookie-was-placed-in-bowl-first-technique-genius who should get a special plaque and picture on your wall. But it’s okay. The guy was polite about rejecting my request and was clearly only fearful that in some way he may get fired or reprimanded for putting my selected toppings inside the bowl before the yogurt instead of after the yogurt. Silliness.

-         Pricing here is very reasonable. Unfortunately, I cannot really give this to you as a point because I literally would have paid anything for some frozen yogurt on many hot Abuja days and it still did cost my friend and I about 1,500 naira for both of us to get yogurt. I mean, I grew up understanding that yogurt was for the ‘every man’ and so although I don’t think the yogurt is too highly priced and I think the price is worth it, I still can’t add points for you based on the price.

-         You have free samples….As you should. So no extra points for this either.

All in all, good job and thank you thank you for having a yogurt shop in Wuse 2 (meaning it’s basically close to everything that truly matters in the city of Abuja).

Please feel free to contact AkanmuAbuja@gmail.com if you represent Yogurberry and would like to respond.

Warm Regards,

Akanmu

Highlights/Review

1.     This is a ‘not so strongly worded letter’ and thus, positive review.

2.     This place is definitely worth visiting if you like frozen yogurt.

3.     Seating can be a little tricky here on a warm day when you don’t feel like seating outside so it may be better to expect to get your yogurt to go on warm days.

4.     If you are looking for this place, simply go to ASCON petrol station on Adetokunbo Ademola and ask them to direct you to where “all the restaurants on Bangui Street are”.