Tag Archives: Food industry

December 2, 2016 · 1:01 pm

Food And Doing Well By Doing Good

This Foodie Friday I want to chat about a couple of food-related things I read this week and how they might translate into some thinking about your business. The first is an article (seen here) about how Nestle has figured out a way to cut the sugar in its candy. The second is something businesses are doing in Japan to help with a problem on their roads.

Nestle Crunch in most recent packaging

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nestle says its researchers have found a way to structure sugar differently so that it uses 40% less. It claims this can be done without affecting the taste. As a former fatty who misses chocolate A LOT, this is good news. More importantly, it helps to address the epidemics of diabetes and obesity. Nestle is patenting the method which seems like a missed opportunity to open source something that can help a lot of people. Of course, once you file a patent the method is no longer secret so maybe others will find a way to do the same.

In Japan, as in many other countries including our own, the population is aging and the old folks are continuing to drive. My 91-year-old Dad refuses to give up the car keys and it’s something that keeps our whole family up at night. What they’re doing in Japan is to offer the super seniors discounts. In fact, nearly 12,000 seniors living in Aichi had voluntarily given up their licenses in exchange for discounted goods and services, and that was before one of the leading ramen chains (hence the food focus!) offered a discount for life to those who hand over their licenses. Since the proportion of all fatal accidents attributed to drivers over 75 has spiked from 7.4 percent to 12.8 percent, this seems like a pretty good public service.

In both of these cases, the motivation may not have been to do well by doing something good but I think that’s the effect. Who wouldn’t want to eat less sugar and not down a bunch of artificial sweeteners which are just as bad? Nestle ought to sell more candy. In Japan, safer roads help everyone, and the businesses providing the discounts can’t serve younger customers who’ve been hurt by an older driver, not to mention the older drivers themselves. Hopefully, the additional patronage more than makes up for the discount.

This is the sort of thing any business can think about. How can we do some good in our community and does that activity hold the promise of helping the business? As anyone involved in Corporate Socal Responsibility will tell you, the two things are not exclusive to one another, and I’m all for it. You?

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November 4, 2016 · 9:13 am

Hurt Feelings And Non-Competes

For our Foodie Friday Fun this week we have a bit of legal drama. I’ve mentioned several times before in this space that I am a fan of Cook’s Illustrated and have learned a lot about food and cooking from the publication. It was run for its entire existence by Christopher Kimball whom you may know from TV. He left the company a while back and has started his own publication (and media platform) called Milk Street. A few days ago,  The Boston Globe reported that America’s Test Kitchen (the corporate parent) is suing Kimball. Why?

Cook's Illustrated

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A lawsuit (filed) Monday against Kimball in Suffolk Superior Court, accusing the firm’s most prominent former employee of disloyalty, saying he “literally and conceptually ripped off America’s Test Kitchen.” “He kept on saying he wasn’t going to compete,” said Jack Bishop, chief creative officer at America’s Test Kitchen. “I took him at his word. I think everyone on the board was taking him at his word.”

Hmm. As with most legal spats, there are two versions here that contain much of the truth but THE truth lies somewhere in between. For our purposes, what can we learn that’s applicable to your business?

First, what Kimball appears to have been doing was planning his next venture for some time while he was still employed at ATK. If you’re employed, are you never to think about your next job? Headhunters call people all the time and many startup founders were employees someplace else while they developed their new company’s business plan. It’s unrealistic to think that the folks who work for us don’t look around to see what else is out there. What we can do is to make the choice to leave extremely difficult by keeping them happy, motivated, as well-paid as they could be anyplace else, and continually growing in their jobs.

Second, there doesn’t seem to have been a non-compete in place. This isn’t legal advice but you should be aware that non-competes are generally not enforceable if they’re signed after someone begins working for you without some additional compensation to the employee for having signed. The point of a non-compete for the company is to protect trade secrets and to protect against unfair competition. “Trade secrets” really have to be  proprietary and should be kept secret. They’re not secrets just because the employer says they are. Is ATK doing testing in a way that no one else is? Nope. One look at Serious Eats will show you that.  Have they found a secret business model? Nope. On the other hand, Kimball is alleged to have used ATK’s mailing lists to help start his new venture. That is theft and way over the line. Before you demand someone sign a non-compete, be sure that you have something that’s protectable and have the employee sign the document BEFORE they start work. If you’re adding one retroactively, be sure you give the employee something in return.

Finally, the new magazine just came out and the suit says it  bears a striking resemblance to Cook’s Illustrated, right down to its 32-page size. I got my copy the other day and it’s similar but not the same. You can’t protect look and feel, and clearly, it’s original content (not plagiarized) so a good part of this seems to be hurt feelings. Our jobs as managers and businesspeople are to make feelings of that sort a rarity. Treat your co-workers at least as well as you’d treat a customer (and you know how I feel about that!).

I don’t know which side I’m on but I do know that the entire matter could probably have been avoided with better communication and a lot more transparency. I’m pretty sure that the legal fees each side will incur are a good chunk of what either might have given or received had they talked this through. Better idea, don’t you think?

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October 14, 2016 · 11:19 am

Why Supermarkets Aren’t So Super

This Foodie Friday is all about shopping. After all, with the weekend upon us who isn’t going to head to the market to purchase small things such as snacks and refreshments or larger things such as meats and produce for a late season cookout? I got to thinking about how we all do our shopping and how it differs from how our parents or grandparents did theirs and what those differences have meant to the industry. As it turns out, it may have something of relevance to you no matter what your business sector as well.

Supermarkets were less common many years ago. There was a local butcher, a fish monger, maybe a dairy store, a bakery, a vegetable stand or two, and a general store that was mostly about canned goods but often has some of the items found in the other places as well. In some bigger cities, those purveyors were aggregated under one roof, as in the Arthur Avenue Market in the Bronx, which is still in existence today. Each piece of the market was an independent operation and although shopping had been made more convenient by not having to travel from place to place, the personal experience remained. Each vendor was there to listen, to suggest, and to serve.

Fast forward to today. According to a study by Ipsos Marketing, shoppers who shop at only one grocery store are in the minority, as only a quarter of the population shop at one grocery store. 45% of grocery shoppers shop at two or three grocery stores and the remaining 30% shop at four or more stores for groceries. In theory, this is backward, since today’s stores have all of the goods that used to be spread out among many retailers.

As it turns out, not all stores are equally “susceptible” to this multi-store phenomenon. There appear to be some retailers that are more likely to be the only store that a consumer shops at for groceries, and obviously the key is to figure out why some stores are better at fulfilling all of a shoppers’ needs than others will help retailers compete better. We can put aside geography for a second since it’s equally obvious that if there aren’t any other shopping options nearby that would change a shopper’s behavior. I’d suggest it’s service as well as the quality of the product.

Club stores and deep discount stores had almost no loyalty nor any exclusivity even though they contain many of the same food items at better prices. What’s faded from the markets of old has been the personal attention given to each customer. Meat is mostly pre-cut and pre-wrapped. We can’t usually see the whole fish from which a filet is cut. Moreover, it’s hard to expand our eating vocabulary without someone who knows our usual shopping habits making suggestions of new things based on our past preferences.

Maybe by spending more on service a store can cut a competitor out of the three or four store mix. I know how thin margins are in the grocery business but I also beleive, given that the lowest rung and last stop in consumers shopping are the club or discount stores, that better service can negate slightly higher prices. Maybe that’s true in your business too. Maybe?

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