Author Archives: Naomi Stubbs

Cheese and Beer Pairing Event

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Naomi Stubbs
[Contact Info]

For immediate release 

Cheese and Beer Tasting and Pairing Event
Fox N Hare Brewing Company, 46 Front Street, Port Jervis
14 June, 6:30-8pm

Fox N Hare Brewery in Port Jervis is pleased to announce their first cheese and beer pairing event. Drawing on local products and talents, this event will lead guests through how to select, taste, and pair cheese and beer. Tickets ($40) include four cheeses and four paired beers, and participants will be able to enjoy a cash bar after the tasting.

In our vibrant and growing community, we have exceptional local products, and this event will bring together both of these in a space that caters to the Port Jervis community and foodies in the neighboring areas. As Naomi Stubbs, co-leader of this event notes, “while it may appear that we are in somewhat of a cheese desert, venture just a few miles in any direction and you’ll find rich and delicious cheese. Pairing them with locally brewed beer adds a whole new dimension of flavor!”

This event will be led by Sean Donnelly (co-owner and Brewmaster of Fox N Hare), and Naomi Stubbs (educator, bartender, and Associate of the Academy of Cheese [UK]). Participants must purchase a ticket in advance from https://www.foxnhare-brewing.com/events2 and will receive 4 tasting portions of cheeses paired with four beer samples, and will be able to enjoy a cash bar after the event. Limited quantities of cheese and beer will also be available for purchase.

The Fox N Hare is a bar and restaurant that serves traditional style craft beers and exotic pub food. The brewery has become a staple in the Tri-State area over the last few years and is located in a turn-of-the century building in downtown Port Jervis.*

* “Our Story,” Fox N Hare, https://www.foxnhare-brewing.com/our-story Accessed 27 April 2023.

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Dapper Boi

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Of the four pitches, Dapper Boi was the one that spoke to me most. In their introduction of the product line, Vicky and Charisse Pasche were clear in their identification of a problem that their product presented the solution for. They described how Vicky struggled to find clothes with the right style and fit in both the men’s and women’s sections – finding a more simple style in the men’s but the better fit in the women’s. In creating this line, they were creating clothing that was pretty much unisex in style (though gendered in terms of fit) that speaks to butch/queer/non-binary consumers.

In terms of who wants this product, as the Sharks made clear, there is a clear but specific market. There are very few companies out there that manufacture clothing in a unisex (veering masculine) style that fits typical women’s body shapes, and Dapper Boi identifies as one of them (actually, they claim to be the only one). I know of several people in my own life who are part of the community described here and who have encountered the same issues with clothes shopping as Vicky had. This clothing line certainly presents an option for clothing that meets the need for size-inclusive fit without overly gendered styling.

Based on the reading and in light of the Sharks’ feedback, this product has a clear core product (gender-neutral and size-inclusive clothing) and tangible product (a range covering jeans, shirts, swimwear, and beyond) that appeals to a specific and defined market (non-binary people and butch women). In the discussions that accompanied the presentation, it became clear the entrepreneurs had spent a lot of money marketing their product with the goal of expanding their consumer base. Looking back to our segmentation work, it’s clear they did not need to do this and spending quite so much on advertising without considering their consumer in fact harmed their business (their ice cream store would have gone out of business!).

The pricing, while on the higher end, seems appropriate for the product and for the sense of community belonging it promises. Their model of online-only works for where they are right now, and the concern they raised about retailers not knowing where to place their products is a valid one, but I do think there are stores in major cities that might be a good brick-and-mortar place for them to have stock available (while keeping online as their primary method of sale).

Much like the Sharks noted, this product is a solid one, and while the company has made some mistakes in their initial stages, they have done very well in getting the product to the hands of the relevant consumer. There are ways to save costs on marketing and ways to increase sales by focusing on their relevant market, but they will likely get there, even without the help of the Sharks.

Extremes and Gray Areas

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Personal selling is something we encounter a lot of the time—I like to think it’s something I can spot a mile off, but it’s not always so clear, as The Joneses tries to illustrate.

The way the Jones family sell products in this film could be viewed as an extreme version of personal selling. We are presented with their neighbor (Summer Symonds) as a more typical version of such a tactic, as she sells her beauty products the same way we might be familiar with Avon or even the Allez Vous line on Schitt’s Creek. Summer’s methods are more transparent, as we see at her gala event and her clumsy introduction to the Joneses when they first move in. Conversely, the Joneses have a more elaborate and all-consuming personal sales technique.

The Joneses identify specific demographic segments that each of them target in their various ways, and their whole lives are dedicated to putting on a show of being a real family who genuinely enjoy and recommend specific products to their “friends.” This is not entirely ethical, as while personal selling is typically identifiable as such, it isn’t entirely clear here if they genuinely like and recommend the products or not.

I think there are referral programs that fall into a similar gray area – consumers do use the products they are recommending, but there is an undisclosed benefit to them when their recommendation results in a sale. Companies that spring to mind with regards to referrals that benefit the referrer include Mint Mobile and Prose (which a friend just recommended to me and then followed up with a second text a day later to tell me about the referral bonus to her…). I don’t mind it in a context where you expect it, or where it is disclosed, but I would certainly feel angry if a “friend” did something like the Joneses did (indeed, I don’t think I could call them friends if their whole life was a fiction in the way they are shown in the film!).

Welcome to Salt Lake City (I’m Hungry and Tired)

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(1) Need recognition
I’ve just moved to a new city. I don’t know anyone, haven’t finished unpacking, and am craving Italian food. I don’t have my kitchen unpacked yet so want food that will be tasty and fast, and that can be delivered. Moving is always an expensive endeavor, so I don’t want to spend an insane amount, but something that’s really good is worth the extra money in this moment. Take out is never as good as dining in, so I’ll save any *really* good place for when I’m settled and have the time to dine out. Ideally, I want something that will work as leftovers tomorrow (probably nothing with seafood; maybe pizza or pasta).

 

(2) Information search

A quick Google search reveals a lot of options. The first few profiled by Google have good ratings but I’m always suspicious of the profiled ones (are they sponsored / paid for?). When I lived in NYC I always went to Yelp, so I start there. One of the good features of Yelp is the ability to apply filters easily. I narrow down by price ($-$$), opening hours (open now), and the delivery option. [In this scenario, I don’t know where I live, so I’ve left the location as the default – center of the city. If I knew where I lived, I would move the map to ensure it was reasonably close by.]

 

I skim through the results paying particular attention to the ratings (I have highest ratings first), the profiled image, the categories/tags, and the first line of the review. The first option is categorized as a wine bar, so I dismiss that as a dine-in option (no true logic behind that decision – just making assumptions). Bartolo’s looked okay; Café Molisse had a scathing first line of a review, so I kept scrolling; Per Noi Trattoria and Carmine’s both looked fine, but then ratings drop below 4 stars after that, so I stopped scrolling. This gave me three options to look at more closely.

 

(3) Evaluation of alternatives

I start by looking at the Yelp page and reviews for Bartolos. I get briefly sidetracked by a sponsored “you may be interested in” listing for Free Wheeler that profiles a review describing it as a dive in the best kind of way and think that that kind of comfort food might be exactly what I’m looking for. I go there, skim those reviews and see the profiled review was cherry-picked and that recent ones all state the place has gone downhill lately and many write about mixed up takeout orders. Back to Bartolo’s I go. The reviews seem fine so I go to their website and see lots of upcharges for things (split plates have $3 added) at the very top of the menu – first thing I see. Granted, these charges wouldn’t apply to me with my takeout order, but they turn me against the place immediately. The menu also looks like it might be good for breakfast, so maybe I’ll save that for another day. Moving on.

 

Carmine’s had the best photo, so I go to them next and like what I read on the reviews. Moving to their website, I see they have some fancy (and pricey) plates, but their pizza looks really very good and is affordable. I see photos for every item and it’s made me more hungry than I realized I was!

 

(4) Purchase

If this were another night, I might go back to reviews and look at delivery experiences specifically, but I still have a lot to do and these look delicious, so fancy-ish pizza from Carmine’s it is!

 

I was surprised how easily I was led to go to sponsored ads even though I was specifically trying to avoid them, and also how much the food images swayed me, even in this hypothetical!

BetterWorld

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I have selected a local café and store near my local town to focus on, as I’m interested in learning more about small businesses in this specific area (given this relates to my personal goals). The café in question is BetterWorld, which describes itself as a “healthy-living store & organic coffee shop.” Their website states that their goals are to “find products that genuinely do no harm and support good people.” In several ways, this company exhibits good ethics and corporate responsibility through choices made and employee relations.

BetterWorld focuses on sustainable products in both their store and café. The store side of the business carries natural remedies, juices, and bulk cleaning products and toiletries. Such products allow consumers to purchase routinely needed products in a manner that reduces plastic waste. On the café side of the business, they serve ethically sourced coffee, bake many of their pastries on site, and stock a small number of groceries (e.g. cheese and eggs) from local suppliers. Throughout their physical site, they have many statements about how they carry no products from China or other “tyrannical regimes.” In addition, they have a small but dedicated core team of staff who appear to genuinely enjoy working there and the owner frequently works as a cashier to help staff out when they are busy, making the team feel like they are all in this together.

With all that said, there are still a few things the company could do to improve their business model in terms of CSR and ethics. While they do carry local products, for example, they also carry many items that are shipped over great distances (from California and from Europe), where local options do exist. Using local options first, they could further reduce their carbon footprint in greater alignment with their stated mission. The claim that they only stock products that “do no harm” is a little misleading when in fact they likely mean products that have a net positive impact, or minimal harm. Finally, this company is set up to serve the wealthy people of the tristate area (NY/NJ/PA), and their philanthropic efforts serve those same communities (primarily the children of their customers), when their resources could do more to tackle any one of a number of issues impacting folks of lower income brackets in the region.

In sum, this is a very socially and environmentally conscious company that is doing excellent work in terms of CSR and ethics, though there are some (small) areas for growth and improvement.

Naomi J Stubbs

Hi, all! My name is Naomi Stubbs and I'm originally from the UK (Cornwall, to be precise). I'm not officially in any major at BMCC, but have majored in English (BA), Editing (MRes), and Theatre (PhD) in the past. I'm taking courses at BMCC that may help me with some future plans. I currently teach English and Liberal Arts, and am rennovating a house (from the studs out!)

My BMCC email is: naomi.stubbs001@stu.bmcc.cuny.edu