Welcome to Food Week March 6 – 12. So much going on; Oscars, daylight savings time, NPEW show (update later this week) and some site additions. Walmart expects to make more profit from digital and services than from stores in the near future. Super fast grocery delivery is more or less dead. Dairy producers want to own the word milk. And Subway invests in combination charging stations and restaurants. And much, much more. Enjoy.
MACRO
Fed intimating more interest rate hikes.
Silicon Valley Bank crashing is a concern to everyone, not just techsters. Dodd Frank was supposed to prevent this but it was gutted in 2018.
If you’ve flown recently, you’ve seen the rise in airfares. It’s not getting better any time soon.
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
In the next 5 years, Walmart expects to make more profit from its web ad sales and e-tailing than from its stores. Certainly in Portland, where the last 2 stores in the city are closing.
The quick delivery of grocery as a business is all but dead. What will likely remain is services offered by the supermarkets themselves.
How retailers will use AI.
Canadian retailers beaten up over price increases.
And the fight over the use of the word ‘milk;’ new legislation wants to limit to animal secretions, which almost feels like anti-marketing, but whatever.
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
As was the case when I worked in fast food decades ago, giving someone the ‘assistant manager’ title is merely a way to get more hours without paying overtime. If anything, it has gotten worse.
Sweetgreens get slagged in WSJ for rewarding too much stock without making any money.
Subway making a major investment in oasis parks: a place to have your lunch whole your electric vehicle charges.
These tech trends seem little better than best practices but their success depends on the application of technology.
Tadich Grill in SF has been operating longer than California has been a state.
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
Apparently Tuna and lobster don’t mix: Thai Cannery decides it doesn’t want to own Red Lobster anymore.
The FDA wants more authority to improve labeling, food safety.
The ongoing cold war between US and Mexico over GMO corn.
Vertical Farming is still more hope than reality. Some of the challenges.
FOOD WEEK MARCH 6 LAGNIAPPE
Stevia is kind of a miracle plant but the impact of its discovery and development has not been positive for the Guarani peoples who live in its natural habitat.
30 Culinary traditions from around the world designated by UNESCO. Not a single one from the US. Cajun, or New Orleans generally, seems like an oversight.
Kiviaq is a dish made by packing 300 to 500 birds into the hollowed-out carcass of a seal and letting it ferment for a few months. It is big in Greenland but I don’t think it travels.
The (admittedly) small differences between Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey.