Just 'Desserts' for Israel
Have the "Cupcake Wars" spread to the Middle East?
Sprinkles Cupcakes, announced a deal on June 19 that will open 34 locations in the Middle East, including Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with not a single location on the menu for Israel.
The company which has its flagship bakery store in Beverly Hills, a heavily Jewish city which has a multitude of synagogues, announced that they were "Heading to the Middle East." The Sprinkles Cupcake's expansion will come as a result of signing a franchise agreement with M. H. Alshaya Co, a firm with headquarters in Kuwait and whose specialty is opening branded product outlets in Arab countries and beyond.
Not wrapped up in the deal for the popular cupcakes which sell in New York, Chicago, and Dallas, and which come packed in designer-ish boxes, were Jerusalem, Haifa, or Tel Aviv.
I doubt if it's a blow to Zionism when you can't buy a $3.50 cupcake in Tel Aviv.
But each decision by American firms to do business with Arab countries and not with Israel as well could create a "count me out too" environment. For instance, in 2011, the Cheese Cake Factory, another firm with roots in Beverly Hills, announced a similar Middle East expansion deal with Alshaya.
According to the news release, Candace Nelson, the founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes, who also is known as a judge on the "Cupcake Wars" TV show said:
"Our cupcakes are a sophisticated update on an American classic and have developed a strong international fan base among overseas visitors. We are delighted that we can satisfy that demand by expanding out of the U.S. through our partnership with Alshaya. Our brand is all about outstanding taste and quality and we are confident that Alshaya can deliver that promise to consumers in the Middle East."
"Why not Israel too?" I asked a Sprinkles Cupcakes representative.
In an email response, Brenda Urban who works for a PR firm that represents Sprinkles Cupcakes wrote: "Sprinkles pursues franchise agreements with highly qualified partners and is currently working with partners around the globe to bring Sprinkles to their regions of specialty."
Urban went on to write that "M.H. Alshaya Co. does not currently have locations in Israel."
Was the potential threat of an Arab League boycott at work in the choice of "qualified partners?" The Arab League tries to prohibit countries from doing business both with Arab countries and Israel, but other countries sell to both, like McDonalds, Coke, Pepsi, and Ikea. Even Victoria's Secret, which is also represented by Alshaya announced in February that they will open locations in Israeli airports.
Several Arab countries like Egypt and Jordan have abandoned the boycott, and in others it is loosely enforced. Alshaya does business outside of the Arab world, in countries like Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom. If there's a market for cupcakes in Israel, maybe it's time Alshaya, which also has deals with Pottery Barn, H&M and American Eagle, to change its recipe for business.
With the thaw of the Arab Spring, does the international marketing of something as non-strategic as a cupcake need to remain frozen?
My family, as well as, I suspect, thousands of other Jewish households who live in the vicinity of the Sprinkles Cupcake bakery have supported this enterprise, helping to make it a success. Many of us are supporters of Israel.
Couldn't the company that had the marketing savvy to create both a traveling Sprinklesmobile, as well as a machine that vends cupcakes, figure out a way to open a store in Israel?
In a world where I can choose from many different cupcake competitors, it's the blue and white frosting I want to see on my dessert.
Edmon J. Rodman has written about making his own matzah for JTA, Jewish love music for the Jerusalem Post, yiddisheh legerdemain for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, a Bernie Madoff Halloween mask for the Forward, and what really gets stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits for the Los Angeles Times. He has edited several Jewish population studies, and is one of the founders of the Movable Minyan, an over twenty-year-old chavura-size, independent congregation. He once designed a pop-up seder plate. In 2011 Rodman received a First Place Simon Rockower Award for "Excellence in Feature Writing" from the American Jewish Press Association."
