Tag Archives: Reality checks

April 22, 2016 · 11:58 am

Box Wine

Foodie Friday, and this week our focus is on wine. Like many of you, I enjoy a glass or two of wine with dinner. Over time, that can add up in terms of keeping the cellar stocked, so I try to find inexpensive, well-made bottles. I’ve found it’s not hard to find quite a few that retail for under $12. Some of the better wine I’ve been drinking lately actually doesn’t come in a bottle at all – it comes in a box.

This image shows a red wine glass.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you’ve never tried box wine, you’re not alone. Box wine represents less than 5% of all wine sold here in the USA. Compare that to 20% in Europe and nearly half in Austrailia. What do they know that we don’t? Maybe that each box is generally the equivalent of 4 bottles and it will stay fresh for 3-4 weeks after you open it due to the vacuum sealed bags that are in each box. Unless you drink a typical bottle in a day or two, it oxidizes and the taste can become funky, no matter how well you reseal it.  But there is a broader business lesson here as well.

Box wine is a win-win for both the wineries and the consumer. The numbers I can find say that the cost to produce the box is less than the equivalent 4 bottles and the carbon footprint is less than half. It is way more convenient (try to carry 8 bottles vs. 2 boxes to your car).  Obviously, it moves more wine while providing a great value.  Why hasn’t it caught on here?  Maybe because some producers focus on making the wine as cheap as possible which often results in an inferior product.  As a great article from Food52 said on the topic:

In the U.S., boxed wine is plagued by associations with Franzia and college drinking games; when the technology first came out, cheap brands seized upon the budget vessel and filled it with contents that fully deserved the terrible reputation they gained. And the reputation has stuck.

We all need to think about the “bad actors” in our business segment.  How are they screwing it up for the rest of us?  Sure, it’s easy to say “well, they make the rest of us look good by comparison,” but the reality is that a significant percentage of consumers paint with a very wide brush.  While I think we all know great, honest lawyers, auto mechanics, advertising professionals, etc, those businesses have terrible reputations.

Consumers now assume box wine is low quality and won’t buy it, and because they won’t buy it, producers hesitate to make it.  It’s too bad that what is an obvious win-win becomes everyone’s loss due to a few bad actors.

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April 18, 2016 · 11:55 am

It’s Not Just The Great Idea

I attended a workshop last week. It was through an organization that works with veterans of our military, teaching them a number of the skills they’ll need to succeed as entrepreneurs. I was pleased to be asked to participate and I was also pleased that a number of others were there to lend their support and knowledge to the vets who attended.

One point that I think became clear as the conversation progressed was that a great idea is not necessarily a great business. It also became clear that skills beyond hard work were key to turning a good (or great) idea into a wonderful business. While it was very evident that no one was going to outwork the vets in the room who had begun their business journey, it was also very evident that a bit of guidance could make those journeys more productive.

A few of the budding entrepreneurs presented their ideas to the group.  They were given only 2 minutes, which is a challenging amount of time even for very experienced presenters to make their case.  One person began with the problem and explained the solution his product provided, which is a spot on way to attack this challenge.  Another told a dramatic story and told how she came up with the product but didn’t expand what was her compelling problem into a much broader need.  The last presenter was just confusing.  While he has a fantastic product that could revolutionize small farms, he couldn’t explain the problem and I was left (along with the rest of the audience) wondering what exactly it was he was selling and to whom.  As an aside, the more senior folks in the room helped him craft his pitch to make all of those things more clear.

It’s not just a great idea nor is it a willing attitude and hard work.  Passion is a prerequisite but it’s not enough.  These vets were smart enough to know that and were taking the time to learn the skills required.  They weren’t embarrassed to say “I don’t know” or “I need help.”  Are you?

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April 15, 2016 · 9:09 am

Mirror, Mirror

This Foodie Friday let’s take a good look in the mirror.  What follows is a sad look at some of the deceptive business practices discovered by investigative reporters in two cities.  It might be easy to write them off as some aberrant behavior on the part of a badly-run business except that the investigations found that the practices were widespread.  One can only wonder if rather than being deviant behavior these practices are the norm, and if they’re occurring in your town.  There is a broader business point as well. 

The first of these stories came out of San Diego last summer. You can read the entire article here, which describes how many chefs in the “farm to table” movement are deceiving customers:

Like any good movement, farm-to-table has now been severely co-opted. The stories of restaurants deceiving their customers—or flat-out lying to them—have increased. Multiple San Diego restaurants claim to serve Respected Local, Organic, Sustainable Farm X when in fact they’re serving nameless commodity produce that could be from Chile, for all they know.

Call it farm-to-fable.

So the chefs claim to be using locally-sourced, organic ingredients but are using the same jetted-in, pesticide-laden stuff as your local diner.  One can only wonder how their customers, who pay a premium for these ingredients and to protect their health, felt when they read this.  It is happening in Tampa too, as this piece from the Tampa Bay Times found.  They also explained the rationale behind the deception:

People want “local,” and they’re willing to pay. Local promises food that is fresher and tastes better; it means better food safety; it yields a smaller carbon footprint while preserving genetic diversity; it builds community.

Scummy? You bet.  I’d call it fraud, and one can only hope that each and every place named in these two pieces is out of business shortly.  But as I started today’s screed: we should each look in the mirror.  What are we doing that is at best a bit of hyperbole in our marketing, a little white lie that attracts customers or at worst outright fraud as committed by these restaurants?  What do we tell our customers and is it really what we’re giving them?  Do we use words like “unique” or “hand-made” when our product is neither?

It might be farm-to-fable in the food business but just maybe there is a similar tale being told in yours?

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