How The FroYo Wars Almost Put Frozen Yogurt Out Of Business

What could be possibly better than Ice Cream? FroYo! For a huge set of the population, FroYo made a big splash since it started being sold in the U.S. There was 'Everything Yogurt' which opened in 1976, then came TCBY and a host of many other purveyors of FroYo - we all have our favorite! Join us as we trace back how yogurt itself came to be, how the idea of 'frozen yogurt' was born, and how it exploded onto the scene!

#froyo #frozenyogurt #weirdhistoryfood

[chadh]

It’s always funny when sweet frog workers have you pay and the tip option comes up. Like, you stood here, I did all the work.

[annasahlstrom]

I remember TCBY and I really miss them.

[MYSTDI]

You could say that it's "The Cold War"

[terriwetz]

Frozen custard never became as popular as frozen yogurt and that's a real shame.

[iwishiwasthemoon]

I remember where I live, which is a medium-sized city, we had 8 froyo places open in 2013. Previously we just had a TCBY. Within 5 years, all of the places had closed except for the two Menchies locations and the TCBY. Then both Menchies closed (one rebranded as "Swirl World") and now we just have that and TCBY.

[Oonagh]

TCBY once occupied the tallest building in Arkansas. It was called the TCBY Tower.

[chasformer]

People call it froyo, I call it frogurt

[Pinstar]

The soft serve shop near me (Yo Lickity) has a price cap on the cost of any given cup. So you pay the per-pound price or the max price for that cup, whichever is lower. I'm really glad they did that.

[flyingtypetrainer]

This was a great, well-researched video! I feel like I was just recently trying to understand how the froyo places near me seemed to "instantly" disappear.

[rindred]

The part left out about TCBY is that they basically didn't own any of their own equipment. They had a lot of people investing in the company based on how popular they were and making dividends off their sales and expansion. But eventually, when the competition got big enough and people started looking at their books, it became clear that sales were the only value in the company because they owned no assets. Once their profits start falling, the slow slide into bankruptcy was the end result.

[therealseanw.stewart]

0:04 I was adjusting my AirPods, thanks for that, WHF

[KnightFerrocous]

The big problem with frozen yogurt is the price. For as much as I spend on a single cup at my local place I could buy 2 1.5 quart tubs of brand name or over a gallon of off brand ice cream at my local grocery store and they are about equally healthy.

[Trigger]

the price of frozen yogurt put frozen yogurt out of business. Who in their right mind wants to spend twice as much money for the same product? I can put garbage on top and pretend it's healthy at twice the cost....

[SlicedZucchini]

TCBY orange sherbet is where it's at y'all

[Troy-McClure]

I remember when my Mom took us to TCBY...The level of disappointment in my young heart when I tasted it 😂😂😂

[TheTrumpReaper]

The frogurt is cursed as well.
That's bad.
But you get your pick of toppings!
That's good!
The toppings contain potassium benzoate.

(pause)

That's bad.
Can I go now?

[cgraham]

The Menchie's near me opened probably five years ago and I don't think they've slowed down at all. Maybe a bit during the pandemic but they're now as popular as they've ever been.

[machinamawatcher]

My wife is from Appalachia and she practically SCREAMED when she saw Sweet Frog, like you activated some deep core memory or something!

[spencerwelchii]

You forgot to mention the West Coast based chain Heidi's Frogen Yozurt (yes, it's spelled correctly) founded by 'Health Promoter' and body builder Heidi Miller in 1982, but folded by the early 1990's.

[studiesinflux]

I forgot about frozen yogurt places for over a decade until I saw this video. I forgot the name of the frozen yogurt place I went to a few times (it disappeared before 2010).

At home I stopped buying frozen yogurt (or even “low fat” ice cream) after seeing enough shows that said you’re better off getting regular ice cream but have less of it at a time.
(I assume the advice still holds up with today’s studies, since FroYo adds more sugar or other flavouring to compensate for the sour taste of yogurt.)