VIA NEW YORK TIMES
As a breakfast food, these pastries have neither the nutritional cachet of cereal nor the tuck-in-a-pocket ease of a breakfast bar. As a snack, they’re not quite sweet like a cookie, nor savory like a cracker. In a world on the go, Pop-Tarts can require a toaster. Even the brand name has been hijacked by gossip columnists to mock Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson.
Now the Pop-Tarts brand is demanding some attention for itself, and it is doing so with a store on one of the world’s most attention-grabbing stages, Times Square.
Its promoters are calling it Pop-Tarts World. Inside, one can find a cafe selling Pop-Tarts “sushi,” an hourly light show that simulates the look of frosting, a create-your-own-variety-pack vending machine.
“People say, ‘Well, what can you really do with a Pop-Tart?’ ” said Scott Schoessel, chief operating officer of the Gigunda Group, a firm working on the project that specializes in so-called experiential marketing, or in-person events and activities. “Our chef was has come up with amazing concoctions.”
Pop-Tarts is joining other food brands, like M&M’s and Hershey, with stores near Times Square, where the focus is often less about sales than marketing and visibility.
“It’s a confluence of business, commerce, entertainment and the density of traffic,” said Laura Pomerantz, principal at PBS Real Estate. “The foot traffic is staggering.”
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The lease on the 3,200-square-foot shop, on the south side of 42nd Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, runs through January, at which point executives will decide whether a store all about toaster pastries makes long-term sense.
The focal point of the store, which opens Tuesday, is the cafe. It will serve about 30 snacks and desserts.
The menu includes the Fluffer Butter, marshmallow spread sandwiched between two Pop-Tarts frosted fudge pastries; the Sticky Cinna Munchies, cinnamon rolls topped with cream-cheese icing and chunks of Pop-Tarts cinnamon-roll variety; and Ants on a Log?, which is celery, peanut butter and chunks of the Wild Grape version.
And then there’s the Pop-Tarts Sushi, three kinds of Pop-Tarts minced and then wrapped in a fruit roll-up. “We did an internal tasting here at the building, and it was the winner,” said Etienne Patout, senior director at the Pop-Tarts brand, part of the Kellogg Company.
Visitors can also build their own Pop-Tarts, starting with a basic pastry and asking servers to add frosting, toppings (coconut, sprinkles) and drizzle (caramel, raspberry). They can take their pastries frozen, toasted, microwaved or uncooked, but there will be no self-serve.
“The D.I.Y. thing, just because of handling food, is not something we’re going to offer,” Mr. Patout said.
There is also a Varietizer, a custom-built vending machine that carries about 23 of the regular Pop-Tart flavors (seasonal offerings, like pumpkin and gingerbread, are excluded for now). Customers use a touch screen to select six two-packs of the tarts for $12, assembling their own variety packs.
