UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2 BETHENNY FRANKEL AND WHOLE FOODS: EVOLUTION OF A NEWS STORY
It was bound to happen, someone called Whole Foods corporate after reading this article and made sure Bethenny’s SkinnyGirl Cocktails were removed. Seems only one outlet in New Jersey sells liquor (Who knew? My city sells liquor in pharmacies, lol)
Original Article:
When I posted the article Bethenny Frankel’s Caramel Coloring Conundrum and Whole Foods I never dreamed of the direction this would take. After the article, a twitter friend told me a Whole Foods in New Jersey still carried the product that made Bethenny a reported $120 M when she sold her SkinnyGirl brand to Fortune Brands.
I contacted the New Jersey store:
From: (my name)
To: (new jersey store)
Store: NJ [Northeast]
Message: We are reading that Whole Foods is no longer carrying Bethenny Frankel’s SkinnyGirl Margarita. You still stock it in your store. Why?
Answer
Hi (my name)
Here at the()store we do carry Skinny Girl Margarita and we also have Bethenny’s new cocktail, Skinny Girl Sangria! If you have any other questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
(all headers and footers have been removed due to the confidentiality agreement in the email)
So, did my local area stores punk out to corporate? It appears so. Jennifer Kaplan at Eat Drink Better points out the availability of the products:
And while it was laudable that Whole Foods removed the product from its shelves, the whole incident has been kept extremely quiet. The Skinny Girl website makes no mention of the Whole Foods removal nor does the Whole Foods site. And, the cocktails are still are available in hundreds of outlets across America. While Bethenny Frankel may not know about the FTC Green Guide rules on green marketing, brand owners Beam Global Spirits & Wine a unit of Fortune Brands Inc., the makers of Jim Beam, Canadian Club and Courvoisier, should know better.
Rob Schuler, better known as NaughtyNiceRob and ardent Jill Zarin supporter (doesn’t it always come back to this?) wrote a sneering, nasty article on Huffington Post today. He clearly doesn’t have all the facts.
In the meantime, as I researched this story that’s clearly not my area, I found this:
Cynics like me know Whole Foods is all hype anyway. Sorry, true believers, don’t mean to offend.
It is what it is.
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I should have just kept my mouth shut, I got all excited when I saw both Skinny Girl products at the Paramus store last week. And yes, it was pulled yesterday per WF liqour dept employee I asked where is the product.
Damn it!! Sad face not smily!!
C’mon now, why would either the WF or Bethany’s website talk about a product removal? WF isn’t going to post anything negative on its website unless it was a safety issue (e.g.g, if they removed foods found with E Coli). While JZ is probably behind it, really this is a who cares. although funny that the email to WF customer service absolutely didn’t answer the question asked in any way,shape or form. Either that is a computer generated response based on key words, or they send it to India where the nuances aren’t understood. Although I guess it is equally possible that there are people just that stupid.
As a point of fact, Rob Schuler rarely knows anything about the topic he is discussing. He has become a regular on HLN and is one of those irritating guest that does little more that repeat the question he has been asked back to the Host in the form of a statement. He seems to think the more dramatic a voice he uses, that it somehow makes it less noticeable.
Am I the only one that thinks jz had a lot to do with this? Sorry Jill, it still didnt work
I think Bethenny is cool and I consider myself to be a fan. I’ve been to one of her book signings, as well as one of her shows during the Skinnygirl Bus Tour last winter. However, I tried her Sangria last weekend and it was downright awful! Gross! I was so disappointed. The Margarita is okay. It is very watered-down, but at least it is palatable.