Beyond belief

Re: Vegans hangry over burger holdup, Joe O’Connor, Sept 19.

We share the frustration! We first came across the Beyond Meat burger at a Restaurants Canada trade show in February.

I loved it instantly.

Speaking to the representatives they gave me their internal product codes and I set off to source it from one of our supplier. We found Sysco was slated to bring in the product. I ordered five cases immediately. We were short-shipped all the cases for several weeks. Then two cases arrived.

We sampled, for free, all of our veggie burger clientele as well as our beef burger types. They loved it. Our staff loved it.

We enjoyed sporadic supply until May. Then nothing. We pressed our suppliers as our stock was getting low. They promised June. Which turned into early July.

Once I heard that A&W was going to roll it out, I understood immediately; we were outmanoeuvred. Beyond Meat had a massive demand to supply all of the A&W stores. They must have bought out all of the production supply to Canada. We quietly took it off the menu.

Our customers were frustrated. Some even angry. Worst of all, we had no idea if we could even get supply of the burgers again.

A&W, in my opinion, would not research, test market, launch, promote and support a product if they believed they couldn’t stock their stores for more than a three-week trial. I can’t imagine the tension in their management meetings.

This is a story of Beyond Meat being a victim of their own success, but also knowingly taking on a restaurant chain knowing full well that they couldn’t meet the demand. The reality was they couldn’t supply the current Canadian market of smaller independent stores.

Stan Dimakos, Founder & CEO, Champ Burger, Toronto

My husband and I have been vegetarian for decades. After the big announcement we scored a burger each in Trail B.C. in July-ish, and it was “okay”, better than the previous mushroom-type burger, and before that, the faux lettuce and tomato on a bun that A&W offered at one time. (By the way, you failed to mention the lentil burger. Yuk!) We tried again recently in the Nelson B.C. mall, to no avail.

Sheesh — what a bloody cock-up! Cannot believe Bill Gates would let this happen to poor hapless vegetarians in Canada.

He should be informed ASAP!

Vicki Hilger, Winlaw, B.C.

BEYOND MEAT Stan Dimakos, founder and CEO of Champ Burger in Toronto, offers up thoughts on a recent article with the headline “Vegans hangry over burger holdup.”