The Bigg Chill sells delicious frozen yogurts.
I know this because I’ve eaten many of them.
It’s a delightful family-run store in a basic strip mall in Westwood, Los Angeles, that I often visited in pre-pandemic times because it’s just a five-minute drive from my house in the city.
Sometimes I’m having an ‘eating day’ and pile into the biggest and most calorific frozen yogurt pie on the menu.
And sometimes I want to be healthier, so order one of the many fat-free options.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of choice: The Bigg Chill boasts of having over 400 flavours.
The secret of its success is that it never changes much; it always looks the same and serves up its familiar sweet treats with a few daily twists.
Demi Lovato was slammed by fans on Saturday after she criticized The Bigg Chill, an LA based frozen yogurt shop, over their excess of diet-geared inventory
Bigg Chill! The store (pictured) is situated on Olympic Blvd in LA
It’s been going for 36 years, superbly run by co-owners Diane Dinow and her daughter Cary Russell, and has become an iconic gastronomic presence in LA, serving over 1,000 customers a day.
When the New York Times profiled The Bigg Chill in 2011, it explained its enduring appeal, despite a lot of competition, by saying: ‘Typically, when we think of good examples of branding, we think of companies like Apple, with its ever-changing products and relentlessly inventive marketing campaigns. But good branding can also be much simpler, boiling down to consistency of quality and, in some cases, just plain consistency…. and authenticity.’
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s company Goop praises it on its website by saying: ‘With the original ’80s logo intact, walking into The Bigg Chill sort of feels like a time warp. The frozen yogurt stacks up, too, with a wide assortment of flavors and endless toppings. The location is admittedly random, but as anyone who grew up here will gladly tell you, this is the kind of place that’s worthy of a drive.’
Yes, it is.
In fact, the Bigg Chill is a wonderful example of a good, solid American family business that employs around 20 people and makes around $500,000p.a.
As such, it is worthy of the universal praise and respect that until now, it has always generated.
In fact, just about everyone who’s ever been in there has loved the place.
Except Demi Lovato.
The 28-year-old multi-millionaire pop singer was so disgusted by her experience at The Bigg Chill that she decided to declare war on the store yesterday, on her Instagram page to her 102 million followers.
The company responded to Lovato: ‘We are not diet vultures. We cater to all of our customers needs for the past 36 years. We are sorry you found this offensive’
The A-list singer took to social media detailing her unpleasant experience at the shop
‘Finding it extremely hard to order froyo from [The Bigg Chill] when you have to walk past tons of sugar-free cookies/other diet foods before you get to the counter’,’ she raged. ‘Do Better Please.’
Lovato added the hashtag, ‘#DietCultureVultures’.
Then she posted a second message to announce a new global campaign, saying: ‘So, I think I’m gonna have to make that hashtag a thing. I will be calling harmful messaging from brands or companies that perpetuate a society that not only enables but praises disordered eating.’
To its great credit, The Bigg Chill refused to bow down and grovel to its absurd superstar complainant.
Instead, it defended itself, responding to Lovato from its own Instagram account that has just 7,600 followers: ‘We are not diet vultures. We cater to all of our customers’ needs for the past 36 years. We are sorry you found this offensive. We carry items for Diabetics, Celiac Disease, Vegan and of course have many indulgent items as well.’
This refusal to beg for mercy at the expensively manicured feet of a wounded woke warrior prompted Lovato to get even nastier.
‘Your service was terrible,’ she spat back. ‘The whole thing was triggering and awful. You can carry things for other people while also carrying for another percentage of your customers who struggle DAILY just to even step foot in your store. You can find a way to provide an environment for all people with different needs. Including eating disorders – one of the deadliest mental illness only second to opioid overdoses. Don’t make excuses, just do better.’
As I read all this patronising, hectoring, stupendously dumb and bullying bilge, I myself began to feel ‘triggered.’
Owner: The store, situated on Olympic Blvd, is owned by Diane Dinow (pictured)
Co-owned: The eatery is co-owned by Diane’s daughter Cary Russell, who revealed in 2011 that they average 1,000 customers a day in the week and up to 1,300 at the weekends
The official definition of this increasingly popular woke word is ‘to have an intense emotional or physical reaction, such as a panic attack, after encountering a trigger’.
Not a day goes by without some celebrity somewhere claiming to feel ‘triggered’ by something, mainly in an attempt to weaponise their victimhood, raise their profile and make money.
If this sounds unduly cynical of me, then permit me to borrow the words of Ms Lovato’s own smash hit: Sorry, Not Sorry.
Last week, we had to endure the sickening spectacle of The Talk’s Sheryl Underwood claiming to have suffered ‘PTSD’ following her bust-up with Sharon Osbourne over Underwood’s false and shameful claims that I’ve been racist towards Meghan Markle.
(The only PTSD that I’ve witnessed in Ms Underwood is ‘Post Trashing Sharon Derangement’ syndrome – which manifests itself in playing the victim after killing your co-worker’s career.)
But by the flimsy yardstick required to claim such victimhood, I am most definitely feeling triggered today.
Not by poor Demi Lovato having to witness the existence of fat-free frozen yoghurt which was obviously a deliberate attempt by The Big Chill to give her an immediate eating disorder.
No, I was triggered by Ms Lovato herself.
The more this repulsively arrogant woman attacked this lovely little store in her staggeringly unhinged and delusional manner, the more furious I became.
How dare she try to destroy The Big Chill simply for doing its job, one that it does very well to widespread popular acclaim?
Who the hell does Demi Lovato think she is?
Well, we know who she is now, don’t we… she’s revealed herself to be a horrible piece of work who thinks the middle of a pandemic that has crushed so many small businesses is the perfect time to try to crush yet another, using the full power of her huge social media platform to do it.
I’ve seen some revolting celebrity behavior during the covid crisis, but little to rival this for sheer nastiness.
Let’s be very clear: Demi Lovato wants to wipe out The Bigg Chill because it provides healthy option frozen yogurts for all types of customers – many of whom have medical conditions that necessitate it.
The establishment responded to the Sorry Not Sorry songstress in a direct message, which she subsequently posted online
She finds that thoughtful, inclusive business model ‘triggering’ and demands they ‘Do Better Please’.
To which my response is that I find idiot celebrities like Demi Lovato ‘triggering’ and require THEM to ‘Do Better Please’.
Hilariously, and with yet more astonishing lack of self-awareness, Lovato later posted the following quote from the late, great poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou: ‘Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.’
Having had the honour of interviewing Maya Angelou, I am 100% certain her words were not aimed at vile little prima donnas trying to destroy small frozen yogurt stores.
Demi Lovato set out to shame The Bigg Chill but all she did was shame herself.
And that should act as a much-needed ‘trigger’ warning to all other self-absorbed whiny celebrity virtue-signalling woke twerps.
