There was a time when Emily Winston thought disappointing her customers by killing a popular Boichik Bagels flavor was the worst thing a small-business owner could go through. This was so much worse.
Last week, Winston got an early-morning call from a longtime customer who discovered a fake Boichik Bagels website that was hawking the eatery’s menu, from bialys to schmears and merch mugs. What’s more, the prices were slashed by 65%. The site had a slightly altered URL but featured the same images as the real one, down to the lowercase navy logo, images of golden challah and legit customer reviews.
At the time, Winston was away from her Berkeley-founded business visiting family in New Jersey. She immediately posted an Instagram message with the title “There’s an imposter amongst us” and urged her customers not to engage with the fake site…