Posts Tagged ‘bon bons’
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
Back in 1996, when I was putting the finishing touches on, and getting ready to open, a new food concept in Vancouver, the natural tendency was to be highly suspicious of anyone with a camera, especially if that person was asking a lot of questions about what we considered to be proprietary information.
I can remember more than one instance where someone poking around the store, loitering far too long, asking too many questions, shooting surreptitiously from across the street, went on to open a competing business. It got to a point where the concept of industrial espionage was not limited to Fortune 500 companies, and our spy-dar was so highly tuned we could see them coming, and all staff was quickly advised to be on high alert.
Fast forward a decade and change, and the clandestine shooter is embraced with open arms. That undercover operative is given carte blanche access. Every iPhone user is no longer a secret agent, but a de facto Director of Public Relations, and is openly encouraged to take pictures, post pictures, share pictures, ask questions, and take notes. These days one runs a retail business on an open source platform.
You share everything, from the trivial to the crucial. The risk of having someone knock off your concept is mitigated by the conversation people are having about your brand, and the loyalty that ensues. As a business owner, you’re born to pioneer change, and are not surprised when every shift in tactic redefines your business and how you approach it.
I imagine no one is fretting over reprinting business school case study textbooks. It’s all being uploaded, downloaded, Googled and SMS’d faster than we can see it coming. My spy-dar is so last century.
Marc Lieberman
Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.
Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181
Shop: minkchocolates.com
Tweet: twitter.com/minkchocolates
Join: facebook.com/mink.chocolates
Read: blog.minkchocolates.com
Watch: youtube.com search mink chocolates
In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9
Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Tags: artisan chocolate, bon bons, café, chocolate bars, chocolate gifts, chocolates vancouver, industrial espionage, IPhone, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, social media
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Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
Tuesday I get a frantic call from the contractor building the new store at Morgan Crossing. “I’ve done all I can do”, Stephen says, excitedly. “They’re not with the program”.
With lifts in his shoes, he could pass for a young Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. “Who’s not with the program”, I ask, knowing full well I’m going to have to stick handle something minor that’s a hair trigger away from being something major.
“We don’t have a building permit. I’ve done all I can do. I’m framed and all roughed in, but I need to call for inspection. I need that permit”. He speaks with a soft slur, as if his mouth can’t quite keep up to the volume of information his brain is asking him to dispense.
Apparently the good folks at Surrey City Hall are on a program that broadcasts on a channel we’re not subscribed to. I call the Chief Building Inspector. I learn that our drawings were misplaced for two weeks. Someone else was on holiday. I’m left with a promise that a plan checker has it on her desk and a review is forthcoming.
I relay this information to Stephen. “That’s unbelievable”, he says. “This isn’t just fun and games for us. I look after my clients. They’re not with the program!”
I agree with him. Building a store is like going to Playland, eagerly anticipating the front seat on the roller coaster and finding the ride closed for repairs, and no rain checks being issued.
I look at my calendar. It’s completely arbitrary, but I try to imagine a revised opening date. What was originally contemplated as April 15th is now looking more like early to mid-June. I’ve got to delay the arrival of some equipment, reschedule the training program.
My phone rings. It’s Stephen. He’s agitated. I tell him not to panic, that Qantas has never crashed.
He doesn’t get the joke. That’s OK, I say, it’s someone else’s program.
Marc Lieberman
Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.
Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181
Shop: minkchocolates.com
Tweet: twitter.com/minkchocolates
Join: facebook.com/mink.chocolates
Read: blog.minkchocolates.com
Watch: youtube.com search mink chocolates
In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9
Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Tags: artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, bon bons, café, chocolate bars, chocolate gifts, chocolates vancouver, coffee, Dustin Hoffman, handmade chocolate, independent coffee shops, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, Morgan Crossing, Rain Man
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Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
Courtesy of @meljo45
Marc Lieberman
Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.
Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181
Shop: minkchocolates.com
Tweet: twitter.com/minkchocolates
Join: facebook.com/mink.chocolates
Read: blog.minkchocolates.com
Watch: youtube.com search mink chocolates
In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9
Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Tags: 38% milk chocolate, artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, bon bons, café, chocolate bars, chocolate gifts, chocolate making video, chocolates vancouver, coffee, handmade chocolate, independent coffee shops, latte, Mascots, melting chocolate, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, Olympics, organic chocolate, truffles, Vancouver 2010, Vancouver2010.com, Winter Games, Wintger Olympics
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Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
from left to right: Ben, Spicoli, Taylor, Me, Staci and Alesia.
Missing from photo: Nicole, Estrella and the Twins
Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.
Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181
Shop: minkchocolates.com
Tweet: twitter.com/minkchocolates
Join: facebook.com/mink.chocolates
Read: blog.minkchocolates.com
Watch: youtube.com search mink chocolates
In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9
Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Tags: artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, bon bons, café, chocolate bars, chocolate gifts, chocolate making video, chocolates vancouver, coffee, espresso, handmade chocolate, independent coffee shops, latte, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, Olympics, organic chocolate, Team Canada, Team GErmany, Team Russia, Team USA, transfer sheets, truffles, Vancouver 2010, Winter Olympics
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Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Many years ago, before my wife’s gaggle of girlfriends started getting married and raising families, one of the “ladies”, a communications hotshot in the Prime Minister’s Office, was raising a little hell on the campaign trail. I grew very fond of her spirited opinions, forever on message, and relished those times when she was not in the Nation’s Capitol, but here on the west coast, spinning circumstance along party lines.
She always carried herself with the air of one destined to garner the popular vote, riding the middle-of-the-road sentiment of the electorate, wanting to effect change, but nonetheless happy with the balance afforded the centrist.
When the PMO lost the election and his staff was sent packing, I was tickled when she called me up and made me this offer: “I’ve got the balance of the afternoon to pilfer as many things as I can from the stockroom. What do you want?”
I wasn’t so much shocked as excited about securing Government of Canada branded merchandise. In true Canadian fashion, the lowest she would stoop before power changed hands, was to load up on post-it notes and whiteout.
“I’ll take any stationary with the seal of the Government of Canada on it”, I asked hesitantly. “Failing that, any type of form, blank proclamation, or other such document that I could use as a gag to impress my friends”.
After an obligatory reprimand that touched on everything from fraudulent misrepresentation to the penalties for treason she signed off with a firm “I’ll see what I can do”.
A month later a large manila envelope with no return address appeared in my mailbox. Inside was a one inch thick sheaf of letterhead, resplendent with the embossed seal of the Government, and a note from her disavowing any knowledge of my ever having existed.
I thought it hilarious that I could send a fictitious letter to my friend Skelly, offering advice, as his representative in Parliament, about a nasty “tax situation” that was sure to befall him. Or to Fred, offering an opportunity for him to relinquish his unofficial title as Mayor of Yaletown for a crack at, say, Speaker of the House of Commons.
I never did do anything with that paper, and it’s still in a drawer in my office, under a package of page protectors and colored blank file folders, but it serves to remind me of the possibilities that come with power. The closest I have to that is titular head of a household that defers any decision of importance to my wife, or being the Captain of a small business ship known as Mink Chocolates. So how surprised was I to learn that someone else is the Mayor?
There’s a phone app called foursquare, and there’s a guy named James who, because of a well coordinated campaign, became the Mayor of Mink. I guess until the seat becomes vacant I won’t be able to run for that office, even though technically I own it. I’m more hoping that when he loses the next election, he calls me, and offers to raid the stockroom. Maybe I wind up with some great Mink branded merchandise I haven’t already thought of.
Marc Lieberman
Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.
Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181
Shop: minkchocolates.com
Tweet: twitter.com/minkchocolates
Join: facebook.com/mink.chocolates
Read: blog.minkchocolates.com
Watch: youtube.com search mink chocolates
In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9
Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Tags: 38% milk chocolate, artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, bigtime, bon bons, café, chocolate bars, chocolate gifts, chocolate making video, chocolate vancouver, chocolates vancouver, coffee, drinking chocolate, espresso, foursquare, Fred, Government of Canada, handmade chocolate, independent coffee shops, latte, Mayor of Mink Chocolates, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, Mink Original, Mink Signature, organic chocolate, Parliament, PMO, Prime Minister's Office, skelly, truffles, Yaletown
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Monday, January 4th, 2010
Months of planning and preparation to get ready for Christmas, and it’s over as fast as you can drink an eggnog latte. Four hours to unwrap and hang ornaments at precisely the right height over the espresso bar, and ten minutes to snip the wires, throw them in a box, and stow for next year.
Almost an entire day to tweak the recipe for the rum-based ganache in the Traditional Christmas chocolate bar, and nary a moment for people to stack a pile of them at the till, sign the Visa slip and be bid a Seasons Greetings.
The Holiday is over, but the respite is short lived. Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. Where Christmas business in chocolate is spread over the three weeks leading up to the 24th, Valentine’s is all done in the three days leading up to February 14.
The planning and preparation for the two holidays start pretty much concurrent with each other. This year we’ll have heart-shaped boxes of bonbons, lots of Love Potion and Romeo & Juliet chocolate bars, and of course the ubiquitous Oh, Baby! romance gift box. What’s unique about Valentine’s Day in the first year of this new decade, is that two days prior is also the start of a seventeen day international event showcasing seasonal amateur athletics, the heavily trademarked and copyrighted Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
By sheer virtue of our location a block from the 24 hour broadcast facility which is playing host to thousands and thousands of media from around the world, we will be busy. The International Olympic Committee is sequestering themselves in the Vancouver Club, opposite us across the courtyard. The host provincial Liberal government is staying in the hotel tower at Terminal City, directly above us.
The magnitude of this event, and our proximity to it, behooves us to extend our hours by opening earlier and closing later than normal. We will hire and train more people. We will take a bigger position in chocolate inventory. We will get into the spirit and cheer on our athletes.
For all the scheduling details, delivery logistics, and chocolate production that consumes these weeks leading up to the Olympics, one thing is certain, it will be over before we know it.
We expect ourselves to turn in a gold medal performance. Stay tuned. Highlights at eleven.
Marc Lieberman
Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.
Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181
Shop: minkchocolates.com
Tweet: twitter.com/minkchocolates
Join: facebook.com/mink.chocolates
Read: blog.minkchocolates.com
Watch: youtube.com search mink chocolates
In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9
Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Tags: artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, Baby, bon bons, café, chocolate gifts, chocolate making video, chocolate vancouver, chocolates vancouver, coffee, drinking chocolate, espresso, handmade chocolate, heart shaped bonbons, I.O.C., independent coffee shops, latte, Love Potion, Mermaid's Choice, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, Mink Original, Mink Signature, Oh, Olympics, organic chocolate, Romeo & Juliet, truffles, Valentine's Day, Vancouver 2010, Wintger Olympics Vancouver
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Monday, December 14th, 2009
I’ve been a frequent customer at the post office this Christmas, sending off packages of chocolate to people I’ve never met. With each order comes a story of my own manufacture. What do I surmise is behind the large box of bars to the northernmost postal code in the country? More a cure for cabin fever than stocking stuffers, I figure.
That gift box of bon bons to an editor at a prestigious publishing house in the States? Of course it’s a hopeful author of science fiction novels looking for a nod on a recently submitted manuscript. And the selection of Mink chocolate bars in a wooden keepsake gift box with the Oh, Baby romance box wrap sent to a real estate agent in Edmonton? Looking for a little loving’ under the mistletoe, I suspect.
The stories we get in the Café leave little to the imagination, but are no less unique. Like the woman who asks Ben the price on a bon bon gift box, and wants to know if that includes chocolate. She’s buying for someone special, don’t you know, and it would be a shame if the box were empty.
Or the customer who asks if we’ll be open on December 25th, because he’s sure he’s going to forget someone on his list. “It might make sense to stock up now, seeing as you’re here, don’t you think?”
Christmas is the undisputed king of the four major chocolate holidays, and this year is proving to be no exception. The Café is decorated, the fireplace is on the TV, the top-secret staff Christmas present is on its way, and everyone is optimistic. Barring a major weather event like last year, everything should be fine. If Canada Post lives up to their end of the bargain, where the price of postage is actually shipping and not just a storage fee, then all those folks in far-off places will have Mink for Christmas, and all will be right in the world.
To all our customers, friends and family, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.
Ben B.
Staci
Alesia
Nicole
Ben A.
Taylor
Estrella
Parris
Arielle
Shea
Gustav von Mink
Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.
Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181
Shop: minkchocolates.com
Tweet: twitter.com/minkchocolates
Join: facebook.com/mink.chocolates
Read: blog.minkchocolates.com
Watch: youtube.com search mink chocolates
In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9
Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Tags: 2009, 38% milk chocolate, artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, Baby, Ben Best, bon bons, café, Canada Post, chocolate bars, chocolate gifts, chocolate vancouver, chocolates vancouver, coffee, Cup of Excellence, drinking chocolate, espresso, handmade chocolate, Happy New Year, independent coffee shops, latte, Merry Christmas, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, Mink on Facebook, Mink on Twitter, Mink Original, Mink Signature, Oh, organic chocolate, Romance Gift Box, shopping online, The Girls' Favourite, The Sporting Life, truffles, United States Postal Service
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Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
The Forum for Women Entrepreneurs in Vancouver asked me to be a panelist at a recent roundtable event and speak on the topic of customer service. I thought it a risky move on their part, as my views on the subject tend to be somewhat unorthodox. Jill Earthy, the Executive Director, was confident the audience would glean enough value to make my participation worthwhile. I suspect she couldn’t find anyone else.
My own public speaking insecurities notwithstanding, it was a fun time and I managed to cover off a half dozen or so points I’d scribbled on the back of an envelope I’d pulled from the recycling bin the morning of the gig.
The group question was, “how important is service to the success of your business?” This blanket query established the premise to which we were expected to expand on as it relates to our specific endeavors. My individual question was, “Your current business has both retail and online stores. How do you ensure a consistent high level of service for both”?
It’s pretty obvious in retail that without customers you’re not in retail anymore. A store devoid of customers is a storefront waiting for a property managers “for lease” sign. And in a world where we’re over-retailed, where we don’t need any more of anything, you better be really good at what you do to compel people to keep you in business.
With respect to service levels, the bricks and mortar environment is substantially different from the e-commerce environment. In the former, I’m expected to shave, shower and smile. In the latter, all I have to be is truthful, honest, and fast. No one cares if I process online orders in a Lone Ranger bathrobe. For the purposes of the roundtable discussion, and the breakout group afterwards, I chose to focus on Mink’s physical store and my customer service philosophy within those four walls.
It all begins with hiring. Putting the right people in the right position is the foundation for building a successful serviced oriented approach to retailing. Training becomes, by default, the next most important aspect of my selling philosophy. Regardless of the tools used to train, each employee must become skilled in the position, and immersed in the culture of the organization.
Once you’ve got these competencies aligned, it’s vitally important to recognize that your customer is No.2, and that your staff is No. 1. Beat your staff into providing exemplary service to your customer, and they surely won’t. Treat your staff supremely well, and they will by nature do the right thing, and provide the highest level of customer care.
To be successful in retail, one also has to realize that you can’t be everything to everybody. Defining your brand and its position in the marketplace will help define your customer. At the confluence of all these factors is the final, ultimate tool to provide a consistent, high level of customer service, and that’s choosing good customers.
Great customers will go on the journey with you. Bad customers will give you a headache.
Marc Lieberman
Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.
Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181
Shop: minkchocolates.com
Tweet: twitter.com/minkchocolates
Join: facebook.com/mink.chocolates
Read: blog.minkchocolates.com
Watch: youtube.com search mink chocolates
In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9
Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Tags: artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, bon bons, café, chocolate bars, chocolate gifts, chocolate making video, chocolates vancouver, coffee, customer service, Forum for Women's Entrepreneurs, handmade chocolate, independent coffee shops, Jill Earthy, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, organic chocolate, truffles
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Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
People do the craziest things. Get tattoos, bet on the Canucks to win, open chocolate shops. Even crazier, they get married. I came to wedded bliss very late in life, having spent my entire post-adolescence and early adulthood disavowing any need or desire to tie the knot. It was generally known at that time that I was anti-marriage and I was vocal in my opposition to the institution of matrimony. This was all the more ironic as I was selling high-end wedding gowns and Mother-of-the-Bride dresses to wedding shops across Western Canada.
Starter marriages I’m sure for most of the brides I met, but their lack of spousal acumen was good for repeat business. Even for whom I stood up as Best Man, the union ended shortly thereafter, and he’s now on number three. Every failed marriage was ammunition for my rhetoric. Close friends and family, strangers or celebrities, it didn’t matter. If they got divorced, the statistic reinforced my need to ask that if we can’t pair bond for life, why encumber each other with the legal structure of wedlock?
It’s a man’s prerogative to modify an opinion to reflect an evolutionary bias, and I claim that right having finally met and married my sweetie, bought property, filed joint taxes, named each other as beneficiaries, and produced an offspring. Our wedding was formalized with a small ceremony poolside at the MGM Grand. She wore white cotton, not the tulle and silk organza I used to know so much about. I wore shorts and flip flops. We literally took the plunge, jumping into the pool after our vows, together like Butch and Sundance, against all odds.
Now that I’ve publicly declared my love, established a nuclear family, and taken steps to legally protect my child, I’m warming up to the whole concept of marriage. I can get genuinely excited when others say “I do”.
I get even more excited, when Mink is a pit stop on the happy couples’ highway of life together.
Recently, Gordon Ross and Sarah McMillan got married. They’re big fans of Mink, and I was thrilled to be able to supply chocolate that they very cleverly and creatively used to mark their guests seats at the reception dinner. The bigger thrill though, was seeing them at Mink the day of, resplendent in wedding finery, posing for pictures. Sarah wore the real white, Gord in a traditional kilt, and what a beautiful wedding couple they made. Local photographer Morgaine Owens took their pictures, and she posed them in the window at Mink.
Once is an anomaly, but twice constitutes a trend. Shortly thereafter, my wife’s doula, whose husband Randal Kurt is a photographer, posed a couple in the window at Mink. We may all do crazy things, but we’re not all crazy. Once I realized that Love Won’t Tear Us Apart, getting married made sense.
Marc Lieberman
Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.
Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181
Shop: www.minkchocolates.com
Tweet: www.twitter.com/minkchocolates
Join:http://www.facebook.com/mink.chocolates
Read: http://blog.minkchocolates.com
Watch: http://www.youtube.com search mink chocolates
In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9
Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Tags: artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, bon bons, café, chocolate bars, chocolate gifts, chocolate making video, chocolates vancouver, coffee, espresso, Gordon Ross, handmade chocolate, independent coffee shops, latte, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, Morgaine Owens, organic chocolate, Randal Kurt, Sarah McMillan, transfer sheets, truffles, wedding photography
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Monday, October 26th, 2009
Marc Lieberman
Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.
Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181
Shop: www.minkchocolates.com
Tweet: www.twitter.com/minkchocolates
Join:http://www.facebook.com/mink.chocolates
Read: http://blog.minkchocolates.com
Watch: http://www.youtube.com search mink chocolates
In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9
Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Tags: 38% milk chocolate, artisan chocolate, Artist Series bon bons, bon bons, café, chocolate bars, chocolate gifts, chocolate making video, chocolates vancouver, drinking chocolate, handmade chocolate, independent coffee shops, mink, Mink A Chocolate Cafe, mink chocolates, organic chocolate, truffles
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
