Saturday, January 24, 2009
A tale of two cities
Or perhaps of four fish. I fully expect, by close Monday, to have had four and a half fish meals in four days. Baked cod from Hastings, smoked haddock hash reprised, sardine sandwiches (the half) and two cracks at Superfish.
The two cracks at Superfish prompted me to ponder about what sort of an outfit they were. The first was at Waterloo and appeared to be a Chinese flavoured operation with a headquarters in Worcester Park. The second was at Ashstead (Surrey), a Yorkshire flavoured operation, and their headquarters appeared to be in East Molesey, with maybe half a dozen branches dotted about Surrey - not including Worcester Park or Waterloo. BH says it must be a franchise; her evidence being the fact that the menus vary from place to place. Same format and general idea, but they do their own details. Brand of furniture, menu and so on.
Then make enquiries of Mr G. Superfish is listed as a franchise along with all kinds of other operations -some household names and some not - at http://www.franchiseworld.co.uk/catering,hotels.html. But they won't reveal details of the franchise operator without parting with some of the folding stuff. From which we deduce that it must be some kind of pyramid scheme. There must be a Mr Big lurking at the centre of the web, dishing out franchises on the Superfish name. But one option must be the option to dish out sub-franchises. We deduce this from the BH observation that the menus for the East Moseley shops are not all the same. There must be a degree of local discretion, suggestive of sub-franchise rather than a centralised operation.
The Waterloo shop was, as it turned out, a better deal than the Ashstead one. Proper fish which, we were told, came from New Billingsgate daily, fried with the skin on without too much batter. Big portions. Whereas as Ashstead I suspected the rather smaller skinned portions of having been lifted out of the freezer the day before very extensive battering. Freshly fried and decent but fish a bit soggy - which haddock certainly should not be. Although one could not be sure that it was haddock without the skin. Would certainly have passed for cod. Chips at Waterloo better too. Ashstead won on mushy peas, which turned up. Waterloo won on clientele, locals and taxi drivers rather than the peripatetic blue rinse brigade (of which, to be fair, we are now honourary members). Draw on waitresses. Pleasant and personable at both places. Maybe that is one of the tougher clauses in the franchise agreement. Both places did sliced rather than entire wallys. Maybe that also in the franchise agreement.
Last but not least, Ashstead won hands down on web site - http://www.superfishuk.co.uk/home.html. Must have spent a bit on it and they even have a button to press if I want to register my interest in becoming a sub-franchisee. But why did Mr Big let them have the internet site? Did they just get in first and he missed a beat? Or is the clue in the 'uk' suffix to the main part of the URL. Are there other superfish sites in .co.uk, with differant suffices?
The two cracks at Superfish prompted me to ponder about what sort of an outfit they were. The first was at Waterloo and appeared to be a Chinese flavoured operation with a headquarters in Worcester Park. The second was at Ashstead (Surrey), a Yorkshire flavoured operation, and their headquarters appeared to be in East Molesey, with maybe half a dozen branches dotted about Surrey - not including Worcester Park or Waterloo. BH says it must be a franchise; her evidence being the fact that the menus vary from place to place. Same format and general idea, but they do their own details. Brand of furniture, menu and so on.
Then make enquiries of Mr G. Superfish is listed as a franchise along with all kinds of other operations -some household names and some not - at http://www.franchiseworld.co.uk/catering,hotels.html. But they won't reveal details of the franchise operator without parting with some of the folding stuff. From which we deduce that it must be some kind of pyramid scheme. There must be a Mr Big lurking at the centre of the web, dishing out franchises on the Superfish name. But one option must be the option to dish out sub-franchises. We deduce this from the BH observation that the menus for the East Moseley shops are not all the same. There must be a degree of local discretion, suggestive of sub-franchise rather than a centralised operation.
The Waterloo shop was, as it turned out, a better deal than the Ashstead one. Proper fish which, we were told, came from New Billingsgate daily, fried with the skin on without too much batter. Big portions. Whereas as Ashstead I suspected the rather smaller skinned portions of having been lifted out of the freezer the day before very extensive battering. Freshly fried and decent but fish a bit soggy - which haddock certainly should not be. Although one could not be sure that it was haddock without the skin. Would certainly have passed for cod. Chips at Waterloo better too. Ashstead won on mushy peas, which turned up. Waterloo won on clientele, locals and taxi drivers rather than the peripatetic blue rinse brigade (of which, to be fair, we are now honourary members). Draw on waitresses. Pleasant and personable at both places. Maybe that is one of the tougher clauses in the franchise agreement. Both places did sliced rather than entire wallys. Maybe that also in the franchise agreement.
Last but not least, Ashstead won hands down on web site - http://www.superfishuk.co.uk/home.html. Must have spent a bit on it and they even have a button to press if I want to register my interest in becoming a sub-franchisee. But why did Mr Big let them have the internet site? Did they just get in first and he missed a beat? Or is the clue in the 'uk' suffix to the main part of the URL. Are there other superfish sites in .co.uk, with differant suffices?
# posted by Jim @ 11:26 PM 
