Food Week August 15 – 21, 2022

Welcome to Food Week August 15 – 21, 2022, with a whole mess-o-potamian food stories. A new Girl Scout cookie, cheap chicken wings, boring ketchup, expensive winter veggies, the best airport food and what goes into the price of a banana. Also the best way to cook salmon. Enjoy

MACRO

• Unemployment lowest in 50 years.

• The Federal Reserve appears as confused as the rest of us about what is going on with the economy.

• A new way to track COVID: fish and crab

RETAIL AND CONSUMER

• Target’s profitability dropped by 90% in the second quarter as it swallows the frog and tries to get inventory right.

• Among the missteps made by grocery delivery services, the idea that speed is the most important thing may be the most egregious. There is a ‘wow’ factor with quick delivery but quality and price will always be paramount.

• Scammers impersonate a high end seafood supplier from New York with on line offers, taking consumers and making like miserable for Reaglis Foods

• Ketchup used to be a many splendored thing. (We’ve linked to a podcast about its relationship to the Roman’s garum.) But now it is Heinz and minor variations therein.

• Trader Joe’s is the Starbucks of retail: they hired people and gave them better pat and benefits than their industry and hoped to avoid unionization. However, they attract a more educated, self-motivated worker with options. If they want them to stay, they may have to accommodate unions.

RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE

• There’s new legislation in California to allow sectoral bargaining and minimum standards for workers. Of course the NRA opposes.

• Also in California, a new program to promote farm-to-school.

• Are servers actually doing better with inflation?

• Another list of the best restaurants in the world. Chicago has fallen mightily

• However, if you are travelling, the best restaurants at busy airports.

FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN

• The Colorado river drought will affect vegetable availability and prices this winter.

• Chicken wings are cheap at the moment. Then football starts.

• Investment in alt-proteins, in this case fish, remains robust.

• How much of price of a banana ($10?) is freight? How much is the container? Do you know what demurrage fees are?

• As the supply chain slowly unclogs, US imports remain at near-record levels.

FOOD WEEK AUGUST 15 LAGNIAPPE

• This years new Girl Scout cookie is Raspberry Rally. The do line extensions better than a a lot of billion dollar multi-nationals.

• The best way to cook Salmon reviewed. I was surprised by the winner...

• I always wanted to cook like Hammurabi: Ancient Mesopotamian recipes.

• The Japanese government missing those sweet, sweet alcohol taxes, Trying to get young people to drink more.