WTF Wednesday. Amoré from Earth’s Own. – Dairy and Almond – Why?
Earth’s Own was a company that at one time made only dairy-free milk products. They’ve slowly been building up a monopoly on most of the dairy-free milks made in Canada and make So Good, So Nice, Almond Fresh, ryza, and also make the Sunrise Brand Soy Beverage, Soyummi non-dairy puddings, and YÜ Organic Rice beverages.
This week they launched a new product, and it’s a product that I find frustrating and illogical.
They launched – Amoré – a blend of dairy-milk and almond milk. Why? Well I sent them a letter to find out, and so did a few friends, and we all got the exact same non-response/(edited to add: crappy response) so I’ll share it with you as well:
From: consumer@earthsown.com
Good Morning Michelle,Thank you for contacting Earth’s Own Food Company.
With the growth of almond beverages over the past couple of years, we’ve had requests from consumers for a product that combines almonds with dairy. The Amoré Almonds + Dairy product you are now seeing on the shelf is intended to meet the needs of these consumers. To avoid any confusion among our Almond Fresh users, we chose to launch this product under its own unique brand. Rest assured that our Almond Fresh beverages will continue to be dairy free and lactose free.
We are truly sorry to lose you as a customer. Our goal at Earth’s Own is to offer choices for all consumers, including the 95% of Canadian households that use dairy-based products. We thank you for your past support and hope that you will re-consider your decision.
Kind Regards,
Dorothy K.Consumer Services
Service aux Consommateurs
1-888-401-0019
www.earthsown.ca
This feels like a step backward, and I’m not sure who this product appeals to. In their email they say “we’ve had requests from consumers for a product that combines almonds with dairy” and I’m just wondering WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? Why wouldn’t you just drink one or the other? I don’t understand.
EDITED TO ADD: The Veganomaly & I were on the same wavelength today. She lays it all out much better than I.
How on earth is that a non-response? They gave you a clear answer: “We’ve had requests from consumers for a product that combines almonds with dairy.” It’s simple: if you don’t want to purchase their new product, then don’t. Most people in this country drink dairy products. For you to judge that people should drink one or the other….well.
Actually Ashley, they didn’t address any of the concerns in my letter, so no, it wasn’t a real response. Just a copy/pasted form letter they sent to everyone that inquired.
This was my response to Dorothy at Earth’s Own.
BTW sales are Zero to date … so don’t be fooled!
(and keep an eye out for biased cronies trying to tell you this Amore is good.
The (cheap) sugar content is high enough to cause a comma …
read the rest of the
ingredient for yourselves!
Good Morning Dorothy
Thanks for you assistance.
The store I shop in is the Metro,
located in the Mid-Town Mall in Oshawa.
But it is just not at the one location that Amore
has replace all flavors of Almond Fresh,
it is at the 4 Metro(s) that I checked
and also at all our SuperStores ….. old-(Loblaws).
I looked, I checked, I gave-up.
I spoke with the Metro store manager,
he has the documentation on the computer
which indicated one Amore has been sold,
and that was me.
I only bought it so I could see
what the hell was going on with my product.
So much for huge demand for almond + dairy … Ppfffftt!
Consumers are smarter these days.
I checked,
no make that researched! all the Almond Fresh ingredients ….
And frankly the “dairy” in Almond + dairy scared me.
When you can’t say milk .. the alarm-bells start ringing,
cause your putting crap in my carton.
Fresh’s Cane juice …. there was some respect for my heath there.
With that said, I have returned to milk products,
and now I wonder why I ever left.
Milk is great, we have high quality milk from Quebec
that is just outstanding.
I won’t be going back to any artificial, or substitute milk product.
I have moved on.
No need to worry about switching back to Almond Fresh …
Amore is fine …. no need to change now …
I think most all of us consumers have moved to milk products also.
Almond is now just a fad that has “had it’s day”,
and we have all moved on.
At least that is what the milk isle stock-man said consumers
have been telling him repeatedly …. that they have moved on.
(Hey, we consumers were totally abandoned and betrayed)
and all other Earth’s Own products were removed to “force” us
to try an inferior product (probably motivated by greed/profit).
It was no mistake … cause the product delivery guy removed
the Almond milk to make room
to replace it with some crappy untested crap.
Earth’s Own must have some huge incompetence at the upper-levels.
The proof is in how loyal consumers were treated/abandoned/betrayed)
I feel sorry for the milk isle manager,
he stated he is sick and tired of being carped at over this fiasco.
He confirmed that people are pissed
and customer-loyalty is gone for Earth’s Own.
People are creatures of habit, that don’t like to get screwed-over.
There is a thing called “customer loyalty ….
I’m guessing you have none.
And I did my homework to find-out what other products you sell,
so I won’t be supporting you by accident.
I know exactly what comes in … and from where.
This all just reminds me of when Coke changed it’s recipe,
consumers were cheesed!,
and Coke has experienced a 40% sales reduction
that it will never get back.
Once people tried Pepsi (out of frustration with Coke)
they found Pepsi was the greener pasture,
and stayed loyal to Pepsi for generations.
Probably the same for you guys.
As for the huge request and demands from consumers
for a Almond Dairy combo,
well … isn’t that the biggest pail of hog-wash put in a carton for sale.
Our metro, and other stores
have sold “ZERO”, none, zip, nada, zilch, sfa, fineto.
So where is the rush of people now?
Where is the people lining-up outside the store for hours
waiting for the store to open
so the can rush-in and fight over the limited supplies.
And you can’t explain-away how all of us consumers
were blatantly lied to,
when we were told about this huge demand
for Amore’s crap in a carton.
Hello … “Zero” sales … hello!
We all know, we watched, we read the freshness-date …
the present stock has expired
and is going to be poured down the drain.
What have you people got against innocent drains?
If I were you Dorothy …..
the writing is on the wall …..
cut-backs, lay-offs, loss of benefits ….
We all know how things go in the fickled consumer market.
If I were you .. I’d take your good reputation
and look for greener pastures,
cause the ship your in now … has huge holes in it.
Management is totally inept …
how else could they let marketing
lead them down the Coca-Cola road ????
I don’t think people will return if Almond fresh was free.
And please … forward this to your inept bosses ….
In-fact .. I insist!
Hog-wash …. NOBODY would ever make such a request, as the two products are at different ends of the milk spectrum …. unless (as I suspect) you are a propaganda plant.
A secondary note that I’ve not seen anyone else mention yet is the fact that this is “Almonds + Dairy”, not “Almonds + Milk”.
I know that the Canadian labelling laws, there are minimum standards a product must meet to be called “milk”. The use of the generic term “dairy” makes me think that maybe this product doesn’t meet those requirements?
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/labeti/guide/ch9e.shtml#a9_4
I wonder what kind of “dairy” is even in there.
This is so strange to me. I don’t even see the point in such a product… If someone wanted to combine almond milk with animal milk, why not just buy two containers and mix it at home? The last thing non-animal milk drinkers need is to worry about cross contamination. This makes me nervous… *sigh*
Of course, that’s where I’m at on this as well.
Some friends that drink dairy products commented that they found the flavour of almond milk overpowering, but might be interested in trying this and reduce their dairy consumption if they could have a less intense flavour of almond milk.
Other people suggested that the reason this might appeal is that there are lots of people socialized to believe that they MUST drink dairy milk, but are curious about trying almond milk.
I’ve been genuinely quite curious as to the logic of this product, so maybe that’s the Earth’s Own angle. I still can’t imagine who actively requested this, but maybe it’s possible after all.
To further the “who is this even for?” discussion, we just saw one of these on the shelves in Fiesta Farms. Had a look at the ingredients, and all of the listed ingredients were vegan, up to the very last two: “skimmed milk powder”, and “lactose”. Since they’re the last two ingredients, they are necessarily the ingredients present in the smallest amount (not sure if that’s by weight or by volume, but let’s say it’s by weight).
Now, they rank even below “vitamin D”, which is listed as an ingredient. It claims to contain 50% of your daily recommended vitamin D per serving, which is about 200 IU, or 5 *micro*grams. At about 10 servings per carton, this suggests there is *less* than 50 micrograms of skimmed milk powder and lactose in that entire carton.
Maybe something is off in my reasoning here, but if this is the case, then it’s just even more baffling as to why they’ve put *any* there in the first place. Do they really think there is an audience of people who can be won over with a sprinkle of powdered milk in their otherwise totally vegan almond beverage? This is not a realistic motivation, in my opinion. I really feel like this is some collusion between them and the dairy industry to normalize this kind of crap and affirm dairy’s presence in the home.
WEIRD!
spread the word~
This stuf is a joke.. The first 1/3 is as you would think of if you
just bought this stuff as a comprmise- fairly good. Second part, ??spicy
made me throw up 8 times!!!!
Earths Own have been running scared for several years now. Silk has taken over the market here in a very short time. Earths Own has tried everything non-dairy and nothing has taken off, like pudding. By now, Silk is probably the #1 soy drink here. By Earths Own branching out into the dairy market is strictly a business move designed to save the company by tapping into a market they have never reached out to before. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. But they cannot afford to keep relying only on the lactose intolerant and fanatics for their business.
As a former PR person for an organic soy brand, i couldnt agree with you more, Ailene. There is very little room to innovate in this beverage category. But for Earths Own to grow, it must innovate or else succumb to the competition. If a new product fills a void, it could move the needle for them in terms of market share. Whether consumers truly asked for it or not is neither here nor there (what i call a wishful thinking response). if consumers truly asked for this type of product, it will stay on shelves, but if they didn’t, it will disappear.
As someone with an actual dairy allergy (not lactose intolerance) this does make me a bit nervous. I’m glad they addressed cross-contamination in their reply… But still.
Perhaps it will be useful for people looking to ween themselves off of milk. Not that I will try it, but I’m curious how different it tastes from (pure) almond milk.
On a side note, the commercial really annoys me. =\ (“I like your music” accompanied by a ditsy expression. Really? Nothing like being true to oneself – she seemed quite annoyed by the music moments before…)
I was looking for a place to complain about the commercial! It’s awful to see women portrayed in such a ditzy manner!
My comment is actuallyore about the commercial than the product. It had some peeved off girl knocking on a door ready for a confrontation and because the guy is gorgeous she just walks in to his apartment for some milk? Since when is it safe to walk into some guys place when u don’t know him. A little unsafe don’t u think. Not something I’d want my daughter to do. Very reckless commercial. THINK before u put this stuff on the air. in real life this girl could have been raped or killed by doing that.
For me, I’m trying to limit my dairy intake for clean eating. Amore is a baby step to getting used to Almond milk as I’ve only tried it one other time in my life and that resulted in me spitting it all over my boyfriends floor. Eventually the goal is to have unsweetened almond milk without batting an eye.
Good Morning all!
I wrote also … got the generic letter.
(replied with my name wrong too!)
I don’t believe the report of requests
for the combo, just not buying that one! Even impossible.
That is the kind of hooey that sticks to the bottom of boots.
With Amore’:
the cholesterol is high,
the calories are high,
fat is very high
and the sugar is sky-high.
With Fresh:
the cholesterol is zero,
low in calories
low in fat
and reasonable in sugar.
So I’m not seeing your point (for requests) in any fashion.
If I want dairy … I buy dairy …
it is simple, and it’s better health-wise,
and dairy has much less sugar
and way less fat!
The new Amore’ product negates all the smart reasons
for buying your “Fresh” product line.
Your Amore’ isn’t bridging a gap …. it is lost in the middle.
Perhaps some Sheeple will buy anything.
And your not fooling me …. when you say “Almond + dairy” (instead of milk) I know there is something wrong there! Real wrong!
In our area … they simply dropped the proven successful Earth’sOwn “Fresh” Almond Milk line-up of Coconut, Chocolate, Original, Unsweetened, and Vanilla,
for one single Amore’.
Bummer!
I could shop twice to pick up my milk (NOT) lol …. I’ll just get the next non-dairy on the shelf …… and Hello Soya Milk …
Will I go back to Almond Milk?
nah ……. I’m a creature of habit. You dropped me … it is unlikely I’d let you do it again, my taste-buds hate change.
But the real kicker ….. it tastes yucky, like crayon, chalk and a hint of tooth-paste.
I’m out!
Good luck with the combo-marketing.
For those still looking for Earth’s Own Almond Milk and your grocer has stopped carrying it Loblaws stores (including Zehrs, Fortino’s, Independent Grocer) continue to carry it in a number of different flavours in their Natural Value sections.