Welcome to Food Week January 5, 2024. The first post of the year and apparently my New Year’s resolution is to use more parenthesis. Maybe it is all the tension: anti-trust vs. consolidation, suppliers vs. retailers, ground coffee vs. beans, Panama Canal vs. drought, roaches vs. scientists. And more. Enjoy.

MACRO

• 216,000 jobs added in December with wages exceeding expectation., thereby ending 2023’s economic performance which can only de described as remarkable.

• Is wealth getting re-distributed? (um, maybe)

• Tesla no longer the world’s largest producer of electric cars.

RETAIL AND CONSUMER

• The New Year finds Kroger and Albertson’s still trying to consummate merger.

• French retailer Carrefour responds to another Pepsi price hike by telling them to take a hike.

• Weirdo TikToker works a day at Kroger free.

• The title of this article is We finally know Why Costco’ s pizza is so good? TL:DR fat and salt in the form of cheese.

• How to store ground coffee (meh) from Folgers. (more meh). However, spritzing your beans before grinding seems to improve flavor.

• A Tesco store gets special protection against developers.

RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE

• Starbucks welcomes the new year with pistachio, reusable cups (again).

• Plan for grocery store-sized Chick-Fil-A in Tennessee sparks backlash.

• Dunkin’ unveils Glazed donut flavored protein powder.

• A Michelin star-level Chicago hot dog.

• California restaurant in trouble for pocketing a half million in wages and tips,

• Cockroaches are a nuisance for restaurants. But a generation ago they were a crisis. Science fixed it and nobody remembers.

FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN

• The Panama Canal is in a state of crisis that will impact allot of things but especially food supply.

• Our bete noir here a forkpitch is consolidation; not enough competition in many if not most categories. Here a Wells Fargo banker explains how it impacts prices in food supply.

• I almost feels like more attention is given to sustainability in cocoa than the human rights abuses.

• Deep dive by New York Times on child labor – disturbing how many instance sexist within the food industry

FOOD WEEK LAGNIAPPE

• The pastry war between Mexico and France.

• Ginger for immunity.

• Ranking the best olive oils.

• Defrosting trays are the future.

• The demure ex-vegan influencer who eats 22 eggs (yay) and a block of butter (now I’m uncomfortable) every day. For longer term weight maintenance, low carb, plant-based protein diets seem to be the best answer. However is this just a function of a lower calorie count?

• Hazy IPAs. Incase regular IPAs are pretentious enough.