 This past Saturday, the Ala Moana Shopping Center LeSportsac store had a autograph signing. The creator/artist of the special line was at the store autographing people's bags. The line of people was crazy, just like any other special marketing events arranged to create hype around Honolulu (like the iPhone, Don Quijote's grand opening, Safeway's Kapahulu grand opening, PS3, Nintendo Wii, Black Friday sales and I remember way back standing in the Liberty House Tamagotchi line!)
|  Here is a picture of the hundreds of people lined up going around the corner to the back by the parking area. What a crazy way to spend Saturday!
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| Here is their Winter window display. Link to Winter Toki Doki webpage <-click.
|  We also stopped by my favorite store in Ala Moana Shopping Center, Williams Sonoma. I always walk through the store to check things out although, I have rarely ever purchased anything there. They were giving samples from a $6xx~ "Nespresso" machine that they had on sale. I got an "espresso" sample. I don't know if it's because I realize that it is actually made from a pod that it tasted different (like instant coffee) or it really did taste that bad. When I asked for the sample of espresso, I didn't know it was going to be made from a little container thing that looks like a Half and Half creamer container. When I saw that, I probably already made my judgement.
Anyway, there appeared to be lots of crema on the Nespresso espresso. It wasn't very hot. It was just cool enough to drink right from the start. This made me think that the crema look was really artificial. The first few sips tasted like a really strong instant coffee. There was a coffee flavor, but this just can't be worth buying a $6xx machine. I think it was $669 or something like that. Anyway, it's probably worth more like $60 especially if you have to buy those special pods to make your coffees. I'm sure some people enjoy this toy, but this is just my opinion.
***UPDATE*** Nespresso...
|  Sunday evening, I met Kelli at the Ala Moana Macy's "friends & family" sale. It's their special scam to get people to start shopping early for holidays by planning a "VIP" sale from 6pm on Sunday. Anyway, I rushed through the crazy crowds of thousands of people and headed straight up to the housewares level. I wanted to get my samples of chocolates and coffees. I had another sample of Nespresso "espresso". I found out that those little pods actually have coffee grinds in it. For some reason the one I had at Williams Sonoma tasted like instant coffee. The Macy's one didn't have the same taste. This is because the sampling person is using the variety pack of pods for the samples and she is not specifying what flavor or type of pod she has prepared. Her claim was that she is too busy so she's just making them and putting them down for the customers to take. Now this is not very good for sampling purposes. I have no idea what flavor I got from Macy's or Williams Sonoma. I have a feeling that the Williams Sonoma one was a decaffeinated pod because it really reminded me of the instant Sanka coffee packets taste. I still wouldn't buy this.
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A lot of people I know have this gadget. They love it! I think you got a bum sample. And what kind of demonstrator doesn't know what type of coffee they are serving you?
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ReplyDeleteYeah, you know the demonstrator at Williams Sonoma didn't really say much about it. I think she just thought that anyone getting the sample was just there to get a free sample without having any true interest in purchasing an espresso machine. After the 2nd sample I tried at Macy's I believe the sample I got at William Sonoma was a decaf sample. The Macy's demonstrator also didn't explain what flavor pod she was serving because she said it was too busy for her to pay attention to that.
the demonstrators must not really love their job, when I worked for Lion, I loved giving out samples and talking about coffee with everyone :)
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