Vegans hangry over burger holdup
Tyler Wade felt like a loser — a hungry loser, fresh off a crushing summer beer-league hockey defeat. The playoff loss stung, but a Beyond Meat vegan burger at A&W was sure to make him feel better, he reasoned, since it was the best damn faux-meat burger this recent convert to veganism had ever tasted.
It wasn’t some mushroombased phoney or a pathetic-looking soy patty but a virtual burger knock-off — made from pea protein — that not only tasted almost exactly like the real thing but exhibited a meaty-pink hue, thanks to the beet juice extract among its ingredients.
Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams — all are aboard as investors in Beyond Meat, a California-based high-tech food company whose vegan fare has stormed the U.S. marketplace in recent years, and whose much ballyhooed introduction to Canadian veggie burger connoisseurs at A&W outlets came on July 9.
(Aroma Espresso Bar, a café chain with 45 Ontario locations and counting, began promoting the Beyond Meat burgers around the same time, although in a slightly different configuration.)
Wade had bought in, too, and was eating the burgers at least once a week throughout the summer. After a humiliating hockey loss at the end of August, he drove straight to the nearest A&W.
“The person at the counter told me, ‘Sorry, we are sold out.’ ”
Sold out in Toronto, in Vancouver, in Winnipeg and everywhere in between, the Beyond Meat burger was like a vegan shooting star, arcing across the palates of Canadian diners, then mysteriously disappearing — and with no sign of the burgers for weeks, now people are wondering when, if ever, they might return.
How could it be? How could A&W, a major Canadian chain with 850 outlets, launch a product then run out of it indefinitely in a matter of weeks? Was it a case of under-supply or a case of overwhelming Canadian demand? Does Beyond Meat harbour an anti-Canadian bias? Did NAFTA talks mess things up? What happened, and why?
Alas, much like the burgers themselves, in-depth answers have been hard to get. Multiple attempts by the National Post to reach a Beyond Meat media spokesperson were for days unsuccessful. Eventually Vanesa Sanchez, with the company’s “consumer care team,” responded with an email. She explained that the Canadian burger drought was due to the burgers’ “immense popularity,” and assured the Post that the burgers would be back in A&W by Oct. 1.
“We are ecstatic that Canadians love the burger as much as we do and are thrilled it will be back for good,” she wrote. “Have a great day!”
But while Canada has been deprived of Beyond Meat burgers, the company’s American clients have enjoyed an uninterrupted flow of patties, including the TGI Fridays chain and a Whole Foods outlet in Mobile, Ala., where a cashier named Bianca said they had “lots of Beyond Meat burgers” in stock.
At A&W headquarters in Vancouver, the Post was referred to Nic Canning at Smithcom, a boutique communications firm “dedicated to reputation management.” He couldn’t say much about the burger shortage only that A&W would be confirming its return-to-Canada date imminently. “Beyond Meat are working to ensure that when (the burger) is back, that it is back for good,” Canning said.
Neil Creighton, Aroma’s director of food and beverage, can’t say how popular the burger actually was among the chain’s customers — the burgers weren’t around long enough to do market research. The company received an initial twoweek shipment from the U.S. and, when they ran out, that was it. Creighton spoke with Beyond Meat staffers last week.
“I think, from their perspective, they are trying to look after their existing customers before expanding and taking on new customers,” he said. “So I take it this way: they emerged in Canada a little sooner than they should have.” Creighton won’t commit to another burger launch until Beyond Meat proves it can deliver the goods.
In June, Beyond Meat announced it would be tripling its “production footprint” at its production facility in Columbia, Mo., and adding 250 jobs. Beyond Meat executive Mark Nelson said in a press release that the expansion would “provide the scale we need to service our rapidly growing retail, foodservice and international customer base.” Would-be Canadian customers might infer it has not yet achieved that scale.
Back in Toronto, summer hockey season has shifted to fall, and Wade is feeling the world-weary hunger of the disappointed vegan. In burger terms he tasted heaven, in his mind, only to have it taken away. The 37-year-old works near an A&W outlet and regularly walks past it — and its ever-present SOLD OUT! sign — en route to Planta Burger, a vegan joint with a great tasting burger option, though, he grumbles, no root beer.
“How is it,” Wade wondered of A&W, “that one operation can step so far forward only to huddle back inside one of the cow’s four stomachs? The burger obviously sold well. I still can’t buy it anywhere.
“What gives?”