Two sides of the recession: dollar stores & lobster mac & cheese

Reuters has two opposing stories on consumer spending habits during the current economic climate. The first report coming from the National Association for Specialty Food Trade Show in New York this week, where vendors are quick to point out that people aren't eating in restaurants, but they are indulging in good foods to cook at home:

"People may not be buying flat-screen TVs, but they will buy lobster mac and cheese," said Cal Hancock, whose Maine-based Hancock Gourmet Lobster Co. sells the frozen delicacy. "It's the ultimate comfort food."

The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, which sponsors the trade show, said the industry had $60 billion in U.S. sales in 2008. Fifty-eight percent of its manufacturers reported a drop in sales last year, due to economic pressures.

You can read the rest of the article here.

The second story has consumers pinching pennies all the way to forsaking the grocery store for the Dollar Tree:

The retailers are trying to steal "fill-in" shopping trips from grocers, hoping consumers will pop into their stores mid week when they run out of milk or eggs or pasta.

"Dollar stores... are an increasingly daunting threat to especially regional and neighborhood-type independent grocers," said Gary Giblen, an analyst at Goldsmith & Harris.

With many consumers losing jobs or seeing their hours cut to part time, shoppers have more time and greater incentive to compare prices and scour a variety of stores for deals.

The rest of the story is available here.

Friday Fun: National Chocolate Pudding Day

June 26th holds the honor of being National Chocolate Pudding Day- yes, there is an actual national food holiday for pudding.

To make sure you celebrate correctly, EHow has written a useful article. You can read the history of pudding over at EZine, and Smitten Kitchen has a great recipe where you can cook up your own batch to share with your friends! Oh- and don't forget to send everyone an e-card!

Coming to a menu near you: Calorie Count!

While Multnomah County became third in the nation to require calories be present no any chain restaurant's menus, leader boards, etc, the entire state is on the way to becoming nutritionally aware. On Monday bill 2726 cleared the house to go onto Gov. Ted Kulongoski's desk for signing. While it won't go into effect until January 1, 2011, but the Register-Guard has the details on what consumers can look forward to:

The bill requires calorie counts to be posted at all eateries with 15 or more U.S. outlets, starting in 2011. Those same chain restaurants — from Outback Steakhouse to McDonald’s to Starbucks — also will have to provide more expansive information to consumers. The bill requires, starting in 2010, that chain outlets make available upon request their menu items’ calories, carbohydrates, saturated fats and trans fats.

Do you think this is a good idea or a bad one? What affects will it have on the chains and the local diners? Does seeing a calorie count affect the way you order? Let us know in the comments below!

Consumers are Questioning Food Safety

Cartoon: Walt Handelsman: Newsday

According to a new IBM study, only 20% of the country believes that their food is safe. The study reveals that the majority of consumers no longer feel that the food industry is no longer developing or selling food products that are safe of healthy.

The multiple high-profile recalls over the past few months have also made their impact: 83% of those surveyed said they could name a recalled food. Peanut butter was the most recognizable recalled food with 46%.

Even with the C.O.O.L program in place, 76% wanted more information on the origin of their food. This increased caution and awareness from consumers have lead them to change their buying habits; 63% of the survey participants reported changing their habits to access fresher or higher quality foods- even in the poor economy.

PR Newswire has more:

The survey found that over the past two years, consumer appetite for information about food products increased. 77 percent of consumers want more information about the content of the food products they purchase, and 76 percent would like more information about its origin. 74 percent are willing to dig deeper and seek more data about how the food products are grown, processed and manufactured. Despite industry efforts to keep consumers informed with more detailed product information, there's still a significant gap between consumer expectations and what retailers/manufacturers are providing.

What is changing in food safety to keep up with these demands? The LA Times has an article detailing and criticizing the just-cleared-for-a-senate-vote Food Safety Enhancement Act:

The objective of safeguarding consumers would be more effectively met if the bill didn't perpetuate the existing system of splitting oversight among multiple agencies. Most notably, the Department of Agriculture -- which receives 80% of the food safety funding, although it's responsible for just 20% of the nation's food -- would continue to oversee meat and eggs. Combining the missions under one agency would make better organizational sense and provide more flexibility for spending regulatory dollars where they are most needed.

You can read more about the act at the Examiner.com.

Further Reading

More on the IBM survey via Media Post
Food Safety for Warehousing via Authorstream
Food Distributors and Safety via DMA Online
A review on the new movie Food, INC, via the NY Times