Eden Spodek I Bargainista

Monday, March 22, 2010

Short & Sweet Cupcakes hit the spot

Like many other parents, I was off last week for March break. For us, there was a nice balance of visiting relatives in Montreal and staycation back in Toronto. The staycation part was a great opportunity for us to experience some of the new shops in the neighbourhood – and there are many as a result of vacancies left by casualties of the recession.

Just off Avenue Road, south of the 401, Short & Sweet Cupcakes is a sweet spot hidden on Old Orchard Grove. (Check out their blog.) Like its name, there was lots of sweet goodness inside. The owners were lovely and told me how appreciative of the support they’ve been receiving from the community. In fact, they have so many special orders, they’re finding it a challenge keeping their storefront filled with a variety of tasty cupcakes with clever names like Diamonds & Pearls (that’s next on my list), Key Lime Kick, Lady in Red and Black & White Affair.

Price wise, at $3 per cupcake, $13 per ½ dozen and $26 per dozen, they’re comparable to other cupcake shops in the city. Taste wise, they were superior to several – including others with greater visual appeal – yes, looks can be deceiving. I really liked the micro-cupcake samples they have on hand. When I stopped by I tried BBM, a banana butterscotch cupcake with maple buttercream, it was terrific.

I picked up two for my kids – Coco Loco, the coconut chocolate one was delicious – I had a nibble. I didn’t taste the One Hundred & One, an Oreo-flavoured cupcake with Oreo buttercream but my son wasn’t blown away. Regardless, I’m really liked the comfy, unpretentious, warm atmosphere and I’ll be back.

What’s your favourite cupcake shop? Have you tried Short & Sweet Cupcakes? If so, what did you think? Which flavour(s) did you try?

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Buy Design Spring Social for Windfall

I learned about Windfall a few months ago and think it’s a wonderful organization. Windfall is a clothing bank – it receives donations of new clothing from retailers. Then it redistributes these clothes to people living in poverty and/or in crisis – 64,000 in the GTA to be specific – for instance, by providing children with winter outerwear and adults with new clothes for job interviews. Last year, by working with corporate sponsors and partnering with social service agencies, Windfall distributed almost 1,000,000 clothing and personal items to people in need for free.

When Meg Stoudt asked me to help spread the word about their spring fundraiser Buy Design Spring Social for Windfall, I couldn’t refuse.

What?
Buy Design Spring Social for Windfall – A dirty thirties-themed fundraiser featuring a mess hall auction, croquet and badminton lawns and a swinging dance hall tent. Have fun sipping sidecars, sours and planters punch while parading across the big band stage in the boater pageant. Test your skills throwing darts at the Beauty Balloon Buster game and sample brown-bagged bites from the country fare stands and bake sale.

Where?
The Fermenting Cellar, The Distillery District (map)
55 Mill St.
Toronto, ON

When?
Sat., Apr. 10, 2010
8 p.m.

Tickets
$75 each or 6 for $375
Order online or call 416-703-8435
Win tickets by following @SpringSocial on Twitter

Contact Kelly Carmichael for more information

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Why retailers need to get their stories straight before calling customers

You may remember last fall when I wrote about my new winter boots. Well the good news is, they got me through most of the winter - and I wore them almost every day. The bad news is they leaked a bit, I couldn’t remove all of the salt stains and two weeks ago, the zipper on one boot broke.

The other bit of good news is La Canadienne guaranteed them for six months. So, I called Davids. The sales associate told me to bring them in and they’d fix the zippers (the other one was on the verge of breaking too) or I could contact La Canadienne directly to complain and ask them to honour the guarantee.

I thought it was a bit strange Davids wasn’t going to act as intermediary between the customer and the supplier. I wanted my boots back asap so I opted for the zipper repair.

On Monday, the sales associate called to say her supervisor said the cost of repairing the zippers was too high so they’d gladly offer me a refund or a credit note. Of course I opted for a refund. I was delighted and assumed I could show up at any time and get my refund.

This morning I went back to Davids with my receipt and repair tag. The sales associate who had been helping me was there. When I asked for my refund, she promptly said “Oh, you mean your store credit.” I don’t think so. I’m not a regular Davids’ customer but I’ve learned their Yorkdale location has some stuff in my price range. (You may remember I bought the boots their because of the inferior service at their sister store.)

She went on to say she may have made a mistake. She’d to check with her manager first and would I come back when the manager’s here in a half an hour.

Me: "Sorry, no. I’m here now. I have to pick up my son in a half-hour and you need to honour your word. If you made a mistake, you'll need to take responsibility.”

We had a brief discussion ending with me saying, “I don’t want to escalate this but I will if I’m left with no choice.”

She was a bit dumbfounded, picked up the phone and unsuccessfully tried reaching her manager. I told her I’d be back in five minutes for my refund.

When I came back, I got my refund. She and the other sales associate were a bit patronizing but said they wanted to make me happy.

What am I missing here?
• I bought a pair of boots with a six-month guarantee.
• The boots didn’t live up to that guarantee.
• I took them back to the store.
• The store offered to repair the zippers or gave me the option to contact the manufacturer directly.
• A day later, the store called to say the repair would be too expensive and they’d be happy to give me a full refund or an exchange for something else (they didn’t have any more of the boots in stock.)
• I opted for the refund – they’d be getting a refund from La Canadienne wouldn’t they – so what’s the big fuss?

Why did they give me a hassle?
I wasn’t asking for anything unreasonable. I went to the store this morning expecting them to deliver on their promise. All this would have been prevented had the sales associate confirmed all the details with her supervisor before calling me. Even better if she would have sent me an email confirming the details.

At the end of the day, Davids’ reputation for stellar service is a bit tarnished and I’m SOL for winter boots. We’re probably still in for more snow before the season is over so, I’m expecting a couple days with cold wet feet.

Monday, February 01, 2010

Adventures in homemade baby food

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson shares her experiences making homemade baby food for her lovely daughter.

If someone had told me six months ago that I would have cut out pretty much all processed foods from my diet, and that I would be making almost all of my own baby food from scratch, I would have told them they were crazy. But here I am, doing exactly that.

I didn’t originally set out to go au natural but as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, my six-month old daughter has some pretty severe food intolerances (that we hope she’ll outgrow by her first birthday). It seems whenever I eat dairy, soy, tomatoes or berries, she throws up... a lot. So as a breastfeeding mom (and because there are NO formulas that are completely dairy and soy free), I’ve had to eliminate them from our menus. Because we were able to notice a very tangible difference, I have no plans to go back to my original eating habits until I stop breastfeeding.

Now that it’s time to start her on solid foods, I discovered very few (read hard to find unless you travel far and wide) dairy- and soy-free baby cereals. So with no other convenient options, I decided to make my own.

To my surprise, I discovered it’s quite easy (as long as you have a food processor), and I feel better because I know exactly what I am feeding my child. Once I realized how easy cereals could be, other “first food” purees from scratch became simple too.

I will admit I don’t make everything myself (like applesauce), but making the majority of her food at home gives me peace of mind and saves me money in the long run!

Here are a few tips:
1. If you’re going to do this, talk to your paediatrician and/or GP. Since many cereals are fortified with extra vitamins and minerals, you should make sure your child isn’t missing anything essential. In some cases simply taking some extra vitamins if you’re still breastfeeding is all you need to do.

2. I find a coffee grinder better for grains (like rice) as the food processor takes time and patience for smaller grains.

3. When cooking vegetables, steaming or roasting them is preferred to keep all the nutrients you’re trying to get into your baby.

4. Bananas and avocados do not need to be cooked and can be mashed with a fork before feeding time.

5. Wholesomebabyfoods.com is a great site that has more tips and guidelines, including feeding charts and recipes.

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