Yeesh, no wonder home cooking is making a comeback.
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I bought some of their mini chocolate-covered donuts for my kiddo a few months back and they were not like I remembered. Wouldn’t buy again, although I am always tempted by their coffee cake and yellow lemon slab cakes.
As an aside, it’s funny when I can guess who’s authored a post before even clicking it…
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What?
To answer your first question, “Yes” family run businesses can still turn a profit. It’s hard work, requires you, (in this particular example), to use quality ingredients, no chemicals or preservatives, and as a result, to only serve a limited area. You can’t ship very far without preservatives.
Secondly, your assertion that selling out to a large conglomerate isn’t capitalism is curious - what would you call it? (Of course it is.) It seems instead that you would require the family’s descendants to continue the family business regardless of their personal desires to be doctors, or accountants or ballet dancers. No, they MUST be bakers.
That’s definitely not capitalism. What would you call it?
There are still plenty of mom and pop businesses, but let’s be honest -Entemmen’s hadn’t been one of those for a long time.
One last thought, China has millions of mom and pop businesses. Literally millions. Ironically, they are exactly the kind of places you’re lauding. Local places using natural ingredients and serving their immediate neighborhoods. Millions of them.
I’m absolutely not suggesting we should follow the Chinese model. But it kind of sounds like you might be.
Forced labor, inability to do as you wish with your business and property.
What would you call that?
Have a nice day.
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I never buy Entenmanms any more. All the stuff tastes the same. Barely any cheese in the danish.
I don’t want to be too contrarian here, but
- A list of anonymous posts on a random website is not exactly verifiable fact.
- This is a hyperbolic conclusion drawn from a quotation that does not support your claim. The poster refers to brands that use “real whole ingredients of yesteryear” but not the avoidance of (or prohibition against) “chemicals, artificial ingredients and preservatives”. Even “many foods” is much. Also, “chemicals” exist in all forms-- there are some that are less healthful or carry more risk, and among those, some will be restricted. (But shelf-stable items require preservatives of some kind.)
As for the larger entenmann’s conversation, this is too bad. I haven’t eaten any in decades but I used to enjoy them.
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Absolutely. I noticed that too a while back. My family used to love the cheese danish of all flavors. The cheese in the middle of each danish was about a 2 1/2 inch circle and thick. Now they are all dough with a teaspoon of cheese. I mean really, don’t others notice ? I guess not.
Funny that some don’t realize that the Chinese government owns EVERY business in China. Even though mom&pop operate these places, they don’t own anything. I worked with many different Chinese technicians for 20 years and they told me all. They visited home once a year for vacation. They were going to pay for a trip once to Hong Kong with them, but I declined LOL.
A few years ago I purchased a package of Thomas’ English Muffins that were just mush inside: no nooks or crannies as advertised. I wrote the company and received a coupon for a free package of muffins from Bimbo. Bimbo? What a name. I used that coupon for another package. Same problem. No more Thomas’ for us,
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They’re not what they used to be either. I prefer Bays.
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That is exactly what these mega corps. do and I know from experience. Toxic Hell was making my pizzas like crap. They hardly put any cheese or sauce on the whole top wafer. Just a splotch in the middle. So I complained to corporate and they did correct the problem, now they make them decent. But I still have to add more cheese on top when I get home, and the green onions and black olives. Then they sent me 4 coupons. Same thing with Lindt chocolate. I bought a bag and all of the truffles were dried up and shriveled like an old lady. Besides having white powdery look to them. I took pictures and sent them to corporate. So they gave me two coupons. They blamed the store for storing them in a hot area. I don’t think so. I think these sat in a non climate controlled distributor.
Just wrote to Bob Evans corp. yesterday. They discontinued my favorite item the seasoned homestyle fries. Then I can’t find TJ Farms home fries where I live and they can’t even tell me what retailer in my area sells their products. Imagine that a company does not know its own dealers. Shite where I work, they can tell you every dealer, their address and phone numbers in every State and around the world. People are getting dumber & dumber even with computers. God forbid they had to actually look at paper files like generations in the past. Can’t have that it would be too much work.
Getting Lindt at a store other than on actual Lindt store is a gamble. Half the time the truffles are cracked and dry.
Now I get mine mail order from Lindt when they have a sale and free shipping. Except in winter, the goods come with nice reusable ice packs, too.
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Did not know they ship truffles directly to the consumer. The Lindt outlet store is a hike and at a mall if I remember correctly. The gas alone would defeat the purpose. I can’t order online because I have a $10.00 OFF voucher they sent me that I need to use before 12/31/23. So I will have to risk another purchase at the stupidmarket LOL. Good to know they ship. Thanks !
Oh and another time I had to contact a food company recently was Ken’s Dressings. I had a bottle of Lite Ranch dressing and it was very watery or runny compared to those prior. Very thin viscosity and not normal even right from the cold refrigerator. So they were very concerned and interested and wanted the date codes, and other info. like lot# printed on the neck of the bottle. Problem was I had torn off the paper collar with that info. So there was nothing that could be done to find out the cause of the problem. But what impressed me was the attention I received and genuine concern from Ken’s compared to other corps… Maybe it is because they are still a private company run by the original family that has not sold their soul to the devil. All info. I see indicates they are private, independent and have no stock symbol. They did give me 3 FREE coupons to make up for that bad bottle. What a difference though and it really surprised me how different they were compared to mega conglomo’s in their response and handling of a consumer purchase.
Typically a powdery appearance of chocolate indicates a bloom. It’s just cosmetic. As to the reference to old ladies, how about you edit that to ‘a prune’. Many ‘old ladies’ are proud of their wrinkles. Ladies, what say you?
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Starbucks baked goods are uniformly awful, IMO/E, so a low bar for Entenmann’s to top.
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Yep. Agree.
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Actually, I’ve had those Lindor truffles when they had bloom on them, were deformed, and clearly not had been stored properly. Given their price, that’s a shitty discovery when you open them. The flavor may be similar, but the texture is icky.
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I’ve used them, too, during the pandemic and they’ve been at least as good as Amazon. Not so for their sibling Sam’s Club’ however. They delivered stuff to the wrong address, admitted it, and refused to refund me the delivery charge. Amex took care of that …
Bimbo supplies a lot of bread to Restaurant Depot also. In case anyone wanted to know.
Why is this news now? Entenmann’s has been owned by corporate conglomerates for 45 years!
From https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/30/nyregion/martha-entenmann-matriarch-of-the-baked-goods-family-89.html#
In 1978 , Entenmann’s was sold to Warner-Lambert, the pharmaceutical company, for $233 million, and in 1982 to General Foods for $315 million. In 1985, General Foods was acquired by Philip Morris, and Entenmann’s became part of Kraft Foods.
Bimbo bought it 20 years ago.
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Because their products were still made well up until they moved out of Bayshore NY. That was the paradigm shift of the real downfall. Prior to that their products were edible and tasty. Not perfect but decent.
