33 replies to this topic

[Anthony Bonner]

Discuss amongst yourselves

[splinky]

mast brother's new baby

[Steve R.]

"The buyer of $9 jam, after all, isn’t another maker of $9 jam. It’s the guy whose multinational robotic assembly line spits out jars of $1 jam. Or it’s his trustafarian son, the Global Jam Logistics heir. Or it’s the private-equity guy who just offshored GJL to a sweatshop in Bangalored".

Well, not exactly... there are plenty of middle class professionals' sons/daughters who are buying this stuff whilst they move themselves up their chosen ladders & start their own families. But, even so, I think the quote's essence hits the locally produced nail on its head.

[ghostrider]

I saw on the news that they are installing beehives on the roof of the Waldorf Astoria so that they can serve locally sourced honey to guests. It's not just Brooklyn any more.

[Sneakeater]

Steve is right. The guy's critique of the local scam is fine -- but he's mainly wrong about who's buying that stuff.

[Lex]

Such a long article, so many take-aways. A couple.

There is a product called "Beard Oil." Who knew? And it can be twee too -




And this, something I like to call the Cucumber King's Lament -

And every remotely ambitious artisan sooner or later finds himself making trade-offs of one sort or another. Early on, Jones had to accept that as a New York pickle-maker he would need to compromise his locavore mission when he discovered that in this region cucumbers grow only three months of the year. “Friends said, ‘Dude, you make pickles. You can’t not produce for three-quarters of the year.’ It was a hard thing to wrestle with in my mind.”

[g.johnson]

It may be an exaggeration but these products are not bought by people on welfare, or even the lower middle class.

[Lex]

"The buyer of $9 jam, after all, isn’t another maker of $9 jam. It’s the guy whose multinational robotic assembly line spits out jars of $1 jam. Or it’s his trustafarian son, the Global Jam Logistics heir. Or it’s the private-equity guy who just offshored GJL to a sweatshop in Bangalored".

Well, not exactly... there are plenty of middle class professionals' sons/daughters who are buying this stuff whilst they move themselves up their chosen ladders & start their own families. But, even so, I think the quote's essence hits the locally produced nail on its head.

I think it would take a lot of money to keep Twee Kosher.

[Sneakeater]

It may be an exaggeration but these products are not bought by people on welfare, or even the lower middle class.

Oh sure, but it just pisses me off that the press constantly exaggerates wealth when it writes about things. I remember maybe 15 years ago, a guy in an apartment down the block from me turned out to be a serial killer. After his arrest, some local TV station sent a reporter to interview neighbors in his "luxury coop" about how normal he seemed. Believe me, it's a middle-class block.

Anyway, if I can be serious for a minute, it seems pretty clear to me that this stuff is mainly purchased as aspirational "luxuries you can afford" by middle-class people, not by the actually wealthy.

[Sneakeater]

And this, something I like to call the Cucumber King's Lament -

And every remotely ambitious artisan sooner or later finds himself making trade-offs of one sort or another. Early on, Jones had to accept that as a New York pickle-maker he would need to compromise his locavore mission when he discovered that in this region cucumbers grow only three months of the year. “Friends said, ‘Dude, you make pickles. You can’t not produce for three-quarters of the year.’ It was a hard thing to wrestle with in my mind.”

This may be one of the greatest things I have ever read.

[Sneakeater]

Does anybody else find the very idea of beard oil disgusting?

[g.johnson]

The beard, being a half-mask, should be forbidden by the police. It is, moreover, as a sexual symbol in the middle of the face, obscene: that is why it pleases women.

[Steve R.]

And this, something I like to call the Cucumber King's Lament -

And every remotely ambitious artisan sooner or later finds himself making trade-offs of one sort or another. Early on, Jones had to accept that as a New York pickle-maker he would need to compromise his locavore mission when he discovered that in this region cucumbers grow only three months of the year. “Friends said, ‘Dude, you make pickles. You can’t not produce for three-quarters of the year.’ It was a hard thing to wrestle with in my mind.”

This may be one of the greatest things I have ever read.

I agree. It was the 2nd aspect of the article that I was going to take on but I decided to just go with one and allow Lex this one It's a gem.

Overall, this whole movement is like living in the '60s again, with some friends being political activists in very direct ways and others, as we delicately put it, going to "organize trees" in Vermont (not that this is a bad thing... some of my best friends still live in Vt... really). And the rest of us left leaning liberals flowing with the breeze as it changed directions, sometimes eating "organic" or "healthy" vegetarian foods (be it known that I never liked carob! soy cutlets, on the other hand, had a charm to them), sometimes being self described warriors or hunter/gatherers (and, god help us, encouraging folks like Ted Nugent). At any rate, it's poetic justice that I now need to have the tolerance of my friends' parents (mine never had any) and allow the yutes to discover growing seasons on their own. Damned if I'm going to buy this stuff. I don't even like the Mast Bros. chocolate. And I'm fine getting fat on Hellmans mayo without help from the store in Prospect Heights (that they chose P.Hts. not the Slope enables me to finally get Sneak's neighborhood right and still chuckle).

[Lex]

Tobacco scented beard oil. It drives the chicks wild.

[Orik]

Does anybody else find the very idea of beard oil disgusting?

It's seal flavored!

I didn't really have time to read the article, but:

1. Someone needs to finance expansion. Halliburton already owns Stumptown (not exactly Brooklyn but you know...) and who knows what else. Does anyone here really know if the Masts sold their brand to Romney and are just serving as beards? how would you?

2. There's a huge, gigantic, enormous under-serviced market for overpriced nonsense at $20-$100 a pop and in the analogous $4 coffee + $4 pastry market (look at that as a subscription to a $200+/month service). Designer tees or locally produced margarine, all the same.

3. There's no opportunity in the $1 jam market. (by which I don't mean someone couldn't get lucky - let's say there's no risk-adjusted opportunity)

4. You can't scale artisanal products very well, but you can scale the concept. Since it takes more or less 5-10 years for memes to spread across the country, and then about the same time for it to spread globally, we're still ways away from global artisanalism saturation.