Welcome to Food Week October 27. Trends that may or may not be your friend. GDP trending up. Minimum wage, up. Avocado supply, up, Health and wellness, up. Salmon supply, down, Hidden Valley Ranch, hard to find. Forced labor, (hopefully) down. And the fact of the week: 12% of the population consumes 50% of the beef. Enjoy.
MACRO
- GDP growth remains red hot, moving up 4.9% in 3rd Q
- Many trends, particularly in food, come from California. Will the $20 minimum wage be the next one to move across the country?
- Our long national nightmare is over: the Taco Tuesday trademark fight is settled.
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
- Food and beverage companies are just freaking out about weight loss drugs.
- 12% of population is responsible for 50% of beef consumption, which frankly amazing. Highest tendency? White men 50 -65.
- Who else predicted that a cyber-attack on Clorox would cause a shortage of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing? I know I did.
- The Health and Wellness category is still growing rapidly, up another 8.5% in past year.
- A main reason people won’t go to dollar stores in the food is perceived (rightly) as mostly unhealthy.
- Apparently Walmart’s Great Value Secret Sauce is pretty much Big Mac sauce.
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
- How ultra-processed foods end up in school lunch programs.
- Deep dive into different pizza preferences around the country. Pet peeve, though, from this article. It lists Chicago style as one type but there are two very different Chicago style pizzas: the deep dish and tavern style.
- I wonder why it took this long but reservation apps are vacuuming up prime time reservations and re-selling them.
- White Castle goes robotic.
- Younger people eat a lot of pizza. Younger people use text a lot, too. Ergo, texting is actually a great form of marketing communications for pizzerias.
- Something borrowed, something old. Many of the best names for restaurants are historic.
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
- Alaska’s fisheries are crashing. Can they be saved? Farmed based salmon is struggling too.
- AZ governor cancels leases for Fondomonte, the Saudi alfalfa grower that taps into ground water and then send the crop overseas.
- The European Union is setting up bans on products made or harvested with forced labor. However non-member Switzerland is a big user of cocoa, which is one of the targeted crops.
- Good news! Avocados are going to be plentiful as harvest exceeds expectations. Now if they were just a little cheaper.
FOOD WEEK OCTOBER 27 LAGNIAPPE
- Drinking water is complicated. Or it really isn’t.
- Hotel inspired gins, leading off with the beautiful Empress.
- Georgia restaurant threatens parental fines for out of control children
- More love for the Mediterranean diet.