A $9 Bottle of Juice

Not so long ago, I was a brand marketer. I am a sucker for good branding.

Case in point: Truce, the new-ish juice bar in Uptown. From the moment I saw their store front in progress, on the corner of 32nd and Hennepin, I was hooked. It was full of windows. It looked airy, clean, and modern inside.

Then I saw their logo and their website, a few tweets, a few photos of all of the pretty, colorful filled juice bottles lined up in their case, and I was salivating and excited about this new addition in town. The whole thing just looked so fresh, so vibrant, and so delicious. And because it is only a couple of blocks from the lake, I had visions of picking up a juice and strolling around the lake with Lola once a week or so.

And THEN I learned one day that the day-old juice was on sale for $8, which begged the question, "Um, how much for the freshest stuff?"

$9. For a single-serving bottle of juice.

:(

It's a gripe I'm sure they get a lot. They've addressed it on their website, and I think I saw them tweet about it. They explain why it's so expensive to make their high quality stuff. I can believe it.

But it doesn't make me (or I'm guessing many) super willing to pay for it.

I worked on lots of new products in my brand marketing days that had the potential to be great products, but they were just too expensive to make, and tested out to be too expensive for consumers to pay for. And we had to say goodbye, which was at times a total bummer.

$9 is a lot of money for a bottle of juice. I can get behind a lot of things. $4.50 for one slice of pizza. $3 for a pretty small (pretty delicious) doughnut.

But $9 kept me from trying out Truce for a good month or so.

Today, because I was driving around picking up all sorts of other fun food items, I caved.

Yes, my juice was delicious. I chose the Restart (cucumber, watermelon, and mint). And it was light and refreshing and flavorful. I felt healthy just drinking it. And the neon straw made me pretty delighted.

But ugh, come on, Truce. Most of us can not justify $9 for a bottle of juice. For a single serving bottle of juice.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm just not their target consumer. Maybe there really are enough people in town who will be willing to pay $9 for a bottle of juice on a regular basis. I hope so because I'll happily file Truce away in my special occasion foodie purchase file. Heck, I will probably ask for one of their juice cleanses as an upcoming gift.

You kill me, Truce. I want to love you. I do love you. But I can't buy you (often).