If you’re big in the acai scene and know how to pronounce it, and you frequent Blessed Bowls on Lawrence Street in Freshwater, you may have seen the sign in the window recently. It accuses rival vendor Mr Gelato of replicating their entire menu.
“Dear Blessed Bowls customers, we have been very disappointed to see a local business take our whole menu, all items, names and pricing and identically copy what we have spent three years carefully crafting,” the sign read.
“The business has directly copied and pasted our entire menu with no alterations. This is very sad to see in such a great community. There is no harm in serving acai bowls; however, taking what a company has uniquely crafted is very disappointing to see. We have no association with Mr Gelato, and we ask that our loyal customers continue to support us.”
And while Mr Gelato’s menu does appear to have many items with ingredients listed identically to that of Blessed Bowls, including the Peanut Butnana Acai which appears to be a renamed version of Blessed Bowls’ Chunky Monkey Acai, Mr Gelato insists the allegation simply isn’t true.
“We’re not really happy with what they did to us … it’s not fair,” the owner told news.com.au.
“They are accusing us of doing something wrong but it’s not. Do I have to sue everyone doing hazelnut gelato, pistachio gelato? Acai is not their brand, acai is for everyone. We buy the acai from Brazil, just like everyone. They are against us because I think they’re worried about us.”
The owner, who asked not to be named, said, “She’s doing marketing – you’re here now. She does marketing for me. I can be famous.” He also revealed that he’s seeking legal advice against the owner of Blessed Bowls for the unfair accusations.
“We’re already with lawyers, because it’s unfair,” he said. “I’ve been here for six years. My business is very strong.”
It certainly has the Internet, and customers, talking about these Freshwater acai wars. With some locals even admitting that Mr Gelato’s apparent copying of Blessed Bowls’ menu makes them not want to go there.
