Welcome to Food Week for July 25. I am excited about odorless durian, intrigued by pickle pizza and surprised by the monk fruit in Capri Sun. Stuff on the struggles of the grocery delivery biz, consumers and diners trading down, regenerative agriculture, Ukrainian exports and the coming Halloween candy shortage. Enjoy.
MACRO
- For Food Week July 25, the great resignation is officially over. And it has been for a while.
- Horrifying flooding in Kentucky
- It’s getting pretty common and bounce back COVID bounces into the President.
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
- Consumers trading down from beef to chicken due to higher prices.
- The online prospect for grocery delivery business: not great. (We’ve been calling this for a while.) Shopify loses $1.2 billion. But Instacart is going forward with IPO offering.
- There won’t be enough Halloween candy this year. Start hoarding now.
- Kraft Heinz fully committed to switching out sugar for monk fruit in Capri Sun.
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
- McDonald’s and Chipotle say diners trading down to cheaper menu items. But Chipotle keeps raising prices.
- Hard Rock Cafe, Sbarro, Carl’s Jr. among food chains still doing business in Russia. Quitting Russia added to McDonald’s operating margins.
- TIkTok by Starbuck’s employee about cold station misery goes viral. However, restaurants trying to make TikTok work for them.
- White Castle has sold 3 billion chicken rings.
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
- Turkey still optimistic about Ukrainian grain deal – hopes to move 22 million tons. Wildcard remains Putin. Meanwhile, India taking in Ukrainian sunflower oil.
- The vanilla trade immiserating the growers.
- California nut farmers continue to expand despite the drought.
- There are suddenly a lot of food-borne illness outbreaks. Under-funding of Food Safety agencies has something to do it.
- Food companies adding regenerative agriculture as part of their GSE initiatives.
- Bees are over-rated as pollinators and neonicotinoids are not the only reason for colony die offs. Nonetheless, banning them is a good start.
FOOD WEEK JULY 25 LAGNIAPPE
- Odorless durian could change the world. If you ever had durian the flavor is amazing, but the smell is that of an unattended dumpster.
- How the dinner party has evolved. Afterwards, cleaning your cast iron pan.
- A outdoor diner in China looked down and saw… a fossilized dinosaur footprint. Much better than a roach.
- Pickle Pizza is all the rage. HHWT (Haven’t had, would try.)
- Summer vodka cocktails. Summer whiskey cocktails.