Our good friend Dakota at Netscape gives us the latest news to rock the Southland's yogurt loving population. Pinkberry's imminent arrival on Abbott Kinney is being met with torches and pitchforks by the frightened locals. The Pinkenberry chain monster is coming! Kill it! Via Netscape:
When Pinkberry opens a store at 1410 Abbott Kinney Boulevard in Venice early next year, the frozen yogurt chain will become the first chain store to enter Abbott Kinney Boulevard. Not surprisingly, Venice Unchained, a local group dedicated to keeping chain stores out of Venice, isn’t happy about Pinkberry’s arrival.
Besides changing the landscape of Abbott Kinney Boulevard, the group is worried the frozen yogurt shop will increase traffic and raise commercial rents, according to Dawn Hollier, one of the co-founders of the group.
At its new space on Abbott Kinney, Pinkberry will pay "more than $6 a square foot," according to the Venice Unchained web site, making it one of the most expensive commercial rents in the area. Commercial rents along Abbott Kinney start at $4.50 a square foot.
It seems Pinkberry backdoored its way into the Abbot Kinney space, having only one-store at the time it signed the lease, hence it failed the "chain" test. Since that time, of course, it's multiplied itself all the way to New York. There's no end in sight to the destructive power of overhyped yogurt.
· Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt Opens In NYC [Netscape]
· More Pinkberrys Not Solving Weho Congestion [Curbed LA]