Welcome to the Internet

 

Welcome back yourpopfiltrites! And to those of you who are just having your first internet experience you came to the right place! I’m going to show you all the fun the internet has to offer! All of it.

 

Big Internet News: Crazy Amy’s Bakery

The internet has changed everything as we know it. This is especially true of businesses of every shape and size, who must now navigate the world of social media and internet advertising to be successful. To fail to do so is to doom your business. Every so often though, directly in the face of all sense and logic, someone comes along who not only fails to properly navigate the changing landscape of business and advertising in the internet age but does so in such a spectacularly bad fashion it becomes an internet event all its own. Of course I’m referring here to Amy’s Baking Company and the complete ruination they visited upon themselves through the magic of the internet.

Owned by Samy and Amy Bouzaglo, the small restaurant operates in Scottsdale, Arizona and offers a wide range of food and drink and is especially known for its desserts. All of that is over now as they have not only completely mismanaged their internet branding but have presented to the world a face of complete insanity.

Their particular story begins in 2010 when food blogger Joel Latondress wrote a negative review of the restaurant on Yelp. Amy Bouzaglo responded in a way that Mr. Latondress, in a fit of kindness, described as “inappropriate.” A more accurate description, in my humble opinion, might have been “bat-shit crazy.” Naturally the story got picked up by a couple of local stations and ignited a minor brouhaha in the local area and the foodie corner of the internet.

Misstep 1: Responding to a semi-popular internet personality’s review with personal attacks.

Now, having garnered some fresh negative attention, their reviews on Yelp, which were tepid to begin with, began declining quickly. ABC’s response to the negative attention their negative actions got them? More negative actions! They began accusing Yelp reviewers of lying and falsely reporting their reviews as inappropriate to Yelp, causing some to be taken down. Naturally when the Yelpers noticed they immediately posted their review again, this time with a paragraph letting everyone know the abuse they had received from ABC.

Misstep 2: Responding to negative Yelp reviews with false accusations and personal attacks.

Additionally, there exists the real possibility ABC posted faux “reviews” under created profiles in an attempt to stymie the tide of negative reviews they had been receiving. I found one review in particular that seems highly suspect. Not only is it this Yelp member’s sole review, it specifically mentions Olive Garden for seemingly no reason, a restaurant that ABC had previously brought up to mock in a response to a negative review. Not surprisingly, the profile was also created around the same time Joel Latondress posted his negative review.

Misstep 3: Possibly posting fake reviews of their own restaurant.

Fast forward a few years and surprise!; ABC is not doing so hot when it comes to selling food. They agree to be on the Fox network’s reality program Kitchen Nightmares, a show wherein Gordon Ramsay (himself already proven to be highly meme-able) goes to various struggling restaurants, tears them apart in that always brutally honest way of his and then tells them how to improve. That’s how it’s supposed to go at least. Unfortunately Samy and Amy were operating under the assumption there was nothing wrong at all with their business and what Mr. Ramsay was going to do was validate their every opinion and tell them all their food was wonderful and only idiots could possibly disagree. This is what happened next:

Through their own unique blend of delusion, egomania and yelling the proprietors of Amy’s Baking Company managed to push one of the most combative TV personalities alive out of their doors. In a supposedly unprecedented move Mr. Ramsay refused to continue the show and never gets to the “improvement” stage of the show, instead opting to walk away. Impressive. Of course this is HIS show so maybe that wasn’t the best move. Also, now that there has been no third act (the “improvement” stage) the show has tons of extra time to waste, and how do you think they’re going to fill that time? Probably not with glowing reviews of the restaurant.

It also comes out during the show that the owners of the restaurant serve pre-packaged frozen food as “fresh” and pay their servers an hourly wage but keep their tips, a practice that is at best objectionable and at worst illegal.

Misstep 4: Responding to a famous TV personality’s assessment of their restaurant with a stubborn refusal to hear any criticism that ranges from ignoring comments to crazily shouting in his face, all while being filmed for his show. Also, stealing money from working kids never really plays well, no matter how you spin it.

Guess what though? It doesn’t end there. After the airing of the show the negative comments that had previously been mostly restricted to Yelp began showing up on their Facebook page and that’s when things get REALLY nuts. ABC responded to the comments on their Facebook wall with INSANE ALL CAPS RANTING. You can find some highlights here and here. When they realized the primary source of the comments was stemming from a link posted on Reddit, they went ahead and included them in their attacks. Things did not go better for them after launching this attack on an entire and gigantic online community. It came out that Amy Bouzaglo, then Amy Bossingham (or Amanda if you’re a court of law) had previously been convicted of applying for a line of credit with another person’s social security number (ie. identity theft). For this crime she was ordered by the court to serve 14 months in prison and pay $36,294.95 in restitution.

Misstep 5: Responding to negative Facebook comments with insane Facebook comments.

Misstep 6: Dragging an entire online community into the feud, resulting in unsavory facts from their past coming to light.

Later they would claim to have been hacked. A convenient story for someone waking up to the reality that they had just ruined their business. Even if they are telling the truth it would mean they had sparked enough hatred that one person or perhaps a small group of individuals took it upon themselves to take the time and hack into their Facebook, Twitter AND Yelp pages. Even if this claim is true, it still doesn’t bode well for ABC.

Misstep 7: Possibly lying about being hacked.

The moral of the story is this: the internet is a powerful tool for a business. Wield this tool correctly and you will find it a great boon for your entrepreneurial endeavor. Misuse it and it will become an insatiable monster that hungers only for your flesh. A bit melodramatic? As of the writing of this article it’s been about a week since ABC’s Facebook explosion. Do a Google search for them now and you will still find news articles talking about their failure. Get on YouTube and search Amy’s baking company. You’ll find everything from TV spots to a dramatic reading of their Facebook comments. They’re being taken apart piecemeal and now rumors are beginning to float that the restaurant itself is a front for organized crime. The internet has demanded its pound of flesh and it’s going to get it.

 

Internet Time Waster of the Month: Information Is Beautiful

If you’re a fan of infographics like I am you’ll find yourself revisiting this site again and again. Run by David McCandless, who describes himself as “an independent data journalist and information designer,” the site is a collection of infographics on a wide range of topics and concerns. Informative and beautiful, be careful about listening to the siren’s song of this site, you may find yourself staying longer than you planned.

 

That’s it folks! Here’s a series of gifs for you to enjoy

-SB