Fresh Produce Discussion Blog

Created by The Packer's National Editor Tom Karst

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Jolly Rancher leads to suspension

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/05/jolly_rancher_detention.phpJolly Rancher leads to suspension
A third-grader in a small Fort Bend school district has received a week-long suspension because of a rogue Jolly Rancher consumed at lunch, KHOU reported.
The parents are upset, and the incident seems to stem from confusion over state nutrition guidelines. We're sure it will all get settled.
But our question is -- what the hell is up with Jolly Ranchers and despicable criminal acts?
Last month we reported on someone trying to smuggle Meth, pot, Ecstasy -- and Jolly Ranchers -- into a state prison. A TDCJ spokeswoman told us a Death Row inmate once requested Jolly Ranchers as a last meal.
JollyRanchers0507.jpgTrust no one who eats these​Is there something we don't know about Jolly Ranchers? Besides that they suck, for the most part?
1. They're made in CANADA, but America.Sure, you thought they were American. And they were for a long time; they originally were made in Colorado. But after the company was sold a number of times (it's now owned by Hershey), the manufacturing is done in that alien country to the north, and the candies are apparently smuggled across the border by coyotes. (Although Wiki could be wrong; this seems to indicate the plant up north is closed. It's a mystery, just like Jolly Ranchers themselves.)
2. The official "serving size" is three pieces.Leighann Adair, the outlaw who had the contraband in Fort Bend, only possessed one piece. The feds say a full serving of Jolly Ranchers consists of three pieces. That will give you 70 wholesome calories and 10 milligrams of sodium.
3. Flavors include "Blue Raspberry."Nothing that includes such a monstrosity should be trusted.
We can only hope authorities all over Texas continue with their recent campaign of confiscating this gateway drug.

Wal Mart the largest sustainable company ever

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-winston/wal-mart-the-largest-sust_b_565909.html
Wal-Mart the largest sustainable company ever
The 2010 Fortune 500 list just came out and I'm completely blown away by Wal-Mart's size. We all know that the retail giant is the largest company in the world. But it's by how much that gets me.
Wal-Mart clocked in at $408 billion in revenues in 2009. The second-ranked Exxon Mobil, brought in $285 billion. If the difference between the two -- $124 billion -- were a company, it would be ranked 7th on the list. Let me say that again: Wal-Mart is bigger than the next largest company by the equivalent of an AT&T.
Let's exclude the oil companies from the list for the moment, since their revenues depend heavily on the price of oil and swing wildly -- Exxon's revenues were over $400 billion last year. Looking at companies that make anything but oil, Wal-Mart is basically three to four times the size of the largest ones, including Ford, HP, Citigroup, GM, IBM, and so on.
All of this scale matters a great deal to the green movement. Wal-Mart's pursuit of sustainability in its operations, and in particular in its supply chain, is changing the way products are made globally. The company's five-year shift in strategy and in its approach to the external world (which I consider the largest strategic shift that we've ever seen) has spread beyond Wal-Mart's own walls and is influencing how the rest of us do business.
The company has improved fleet fuel efficiency 30%, and started experimenting with new fuel and engine technologies for its fleet, creating a very large impetus for truck manufacturers to build new models. Its push to adopt lighting technologies and energy management systems is helping to drive scale into new technologies that everyone can use.
But it's the supply chain pressure that really matters. I've covered this topic many times (see my pieces on Wal-Mart's trips to China and Brazil (here and here) to put pressure on suppliers). From my conversations with people in the retail space recently, including a top consumer products exec this week, it seems that nearly every other retailer is behind on this front. Sure, many are working on their own energy and waste projects, and doing well at it.
But only Wal-Mart has built tools of scale like the Sustainable Value Networks (bringing together partners in the value chain to work on big sustainability issues) and the packaging scorecard it made everyone fill out; and only Wal-Mart has gotten so involved in the sourcing choices of its suppliers.
Many people will, perhaps rightfully, still find fault with Wal-Mart on many social issues, such as health care or pay (and this week they even got fined on the environmental front for not handling hazardous waste well in California). But still, it would be very hard to find another company doing more. The race is on, even during (and coming out of) the recession, and Wal-Mart is winning. But it doesn't matter, as their scale will force everyone else to speed up as well.
Follow Andrew Winston on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GreenAdvantage

Wal-Mart working on getting groceries into Chicago

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-05-06/business/ct-biz-0507-notebook-walmart-20100506_1_wal-mart-stores-chicago-store-city-store
Wal-Mart working to get fresh food flowing into city store
Retailer renovating Austin store to make room for more groceriesMay 06, 2010By Sandra M. Jones, Tribune reporterWal-Mart Stores Inc. has yet to secure the city approval necessary to build a second Chicago store, but that isn't stopping the discount chain from bringing fresh groceries into the city.
As aldermen and labor leaders sparred the past two weeks about whether to allow Wal-Mart into the Pullman Park development on the Far South Side, the company was busy securing the city's permission to turn its only Chicago store, on the other side of town, into a Supercenter that sells groceries.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer plans to spend $5.4 million to remodel the 150,000-square-foot discount store in Austin on the West Side to create space for a "grocery" with "fresh food," according to a building permit issued April 22 by the city and obtained by the Tribune

Tesco heats up again in UK retail battle

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/may2010/gb2010059_356062.htm
Tesco Heats Up U.K. Shopping Cart WarThe fiercely competitive British supermarket business has seen big swings in momentum during the recession, but now No. 1 Tesco is regaining strength
Sainsbury (JSAIY) will put the final piece in the jigsaw of the three big listed grocers on Thursday, when it delivers its full-year results. The UK's third-largest grocer is expected to deliver a further uplift in underlying pre-tax profits to £595m for the year to 20 March, following impressive performances from rivals Tesco (TSCDY) and Morrisons (MRWSY).
But the seemingly relentless march of the big supermarkets belies the fact there has been a substantial shifting of the tectonic plates in the £130bn grocery sector this year.
Of recent seismic shifts, Morrisons on Thursday reported a dramatic slowdown in its underlying sales growth to 0.8 per cent in the 13 weeks to 2 May. On the same day, it emerged that Asda's trading director, Darren Blackhurst, had left the Walmart (WMT)-owned grocer after being passed over for the role of chief executive. The move seems to have paved the way for Andy Clarke, the chief operating officer, to be anointed shortly.
Meanwhile at Morrisons, Dalton Philips joined at the end of March, as chief executive, following Marc Bolland jumping ship to take the helm at Marks & Spencer (MAKSY).
While this changing of the guard could change the fortunes of these grocers in the long term, far more significant changes have been taking place on the shop floor. These have included Asda slipping behind its three big rivals this year, Waitrose emerging as the sector's fastest-growing supermarket and the Co-operative Group's troubles integrating its Somerfield acquisition.
Above all, arguably the biggest change in the sector recently has been the return to form of Tesco, the market leader with a 30.5 per cent share. Clive Black, an analyst at Shore Capital, says: "Tesco was materially underperforming over the last 18 months to two years and now it is performing in line, if not slightly outperforming." Based on Tesco's market share, Mr Black says that in terms of generating cash, Asda and Sainsbury would have to grow their volumes by 2 per cent to match 1 per cent growth at Tesco, while Morrisons would have to grow by 2.5 per cent.
Tesco's recent fight back has been driven by its Clubcard loyalty scheme. Among a series of Clubcard initiatives last year, the most significant was a huge investment in "double reward points" promotion, dubbed Clubcard2, last August. Edward Garner, a director at Kantar Worldpanel, said: "Clubcard is their biggest weapon and you can't blame them for using it." Tesco also uses the card to glean crucial data about the shopping habits of more than 16 million holders.
For the 12 weeks to 18 April, Tesco delivered sales growth of 3.7 per cent, based on till roll data, which was ahead of Asda's 2.5 per cent but behind Morrisons' 6.6 per cent and Sainsbury's 4.1 per cent, Kantar said.
At Asda, Andy Bond, who is stepping down from chief executive to chairman, said on Thursday: "Our performance in the past few weeks has been more than encouraging." However, Asda's trading has been weaker than expected this year, although all the big grocers have seen their sales growth hit by falling food price inflation.
Mr Black says: "The pace of sales at Asda [this year] has actually surprised us and probably them as well." Mr Garner says the sustained return of consumers buying premium lines, such as Tesco Finest, may have affected Asda as the economy moves out of recession. He says: "Among consumers, Asda is identified with low prices and if the market moves towards more premium prices then they could be wrongfooted."
For different reasons, questions have been raised about the Co-operative Group's integration of the Somerfield chain, which it acquired for £1.56bn in March 2009. According to Retail Week, a confidential board memo dated 20 April showed that sales have plummeted by 14.1 per cent at the converted Somerfield shops in the most recent month and the business is £25m below budget. While the group intends to rebrand most of the Somerfield stores to the Co-operative by the end of the year, it is still marketing about 400 Somerfield stores separately. However, Co-op said that Somerfield "was and is trading in line with expectations" and that part of the drop in sales is due to it lowering prices. But Bryan Roberts at Planet Retail says Co-op does not seem to have learnt from the mistakes made by Morrisons after it completed the acquisition of Safeway in 2004. He said: "There is a lot of overlap in terms of private [label] brands. They are making a lot of the mistakes Morrisons made in terms of running two businesses."
Perhaps a more unexpected development over the past year has been the industry-leading sales of Waitrose. Much of its growth has come from the launch of its Essentials value range in March 2009.
Overall, however, it is fair to say that with food price inflation having largely fallen out of the sector, all grocers will have to work harder to deliver profits and sales growth this year. More significantly, they face the prospect of weaker consumer spending – particularly on big-ticket non-food products – from measures taken by the next government, such as tax rises, to cut the UK's public sector deficit.
Mr Roberts says: "The whole political uncertainty is going to create a lot of uncertainty and a lot of hesitancy in terms of consumers' spending decisions. A lot of them are still seeing respectable levels of sales on areas such as clothing, but they will be hoping for a good World Cup."
Aldi finds the going tough after the recession ends
It was hard to pick up a newspaper 18 months ago without reading about the "Aldi effect" and how the middle classes were flocking to the German discounter and its rival, Lidl, during the UK recession.
In those heady days, Aldi's sales soared by 25.7 per cent for the 12 weeks to 28 December 2008, while Lidl was up by 11.2 per cent over the same period, according to Kantar Worldpanel. Edward Garner, a director at the research firm, said: "There was almost a recession-chic going around the "Aldi effect" and they got a lot of trial shoppers."
However, it does not seem that many of them wanted to repeat the experience on a regular basis, although Tesco launched a range of discounter products to combat the threat.
The latest Kantar data shows that Lidl's sales increased by just 2 per cent over the 12 weeks to 18 April. Aldi, which has a 3 per cent share of the grocery market, saw sales rise by a more respectable 5 per cent, up from a lacklustre 1.8 per cent reported in March.

Abandoned stores leave grocery graveyard: Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15047968
Abandoned stores leave grocery graveyards in Denver areaSpace, money keep some in Denver area from having a well-stocked neighborhood groceryKaren AugeThe Denver PostThey're easy enough to spot all over town: The shuttered Safeways, with their swooping 1960s architecture; the converted former stores of chains long gone; the old Cub Foods stores. Some of them sit empty and crumbling, like the discarded husks of some lumbering animal.
Others have been squeezed into new roles: stuffed with auto parts or office supplies or even church pews. A few of the ex-supermarkets are in suburbs and beyond. But most sit boarded up and graffiti-scrawled in the urban pockets that need grocery stores most.
Neighborhoods rise and fall. The kids grow up, the factory shuts down, the middle class moves on. So, too, the grocery stores that feed it.
Efforts to lure those groceries back are slowly
gaining momentum, activists say. But to really succeed, to really get fresh, healthy food into nutrition-neglected neighborhoods labeled food deserts, will take leadership, creativity, a hefty helping of smaller-scale, smaller-volume stores, and an economic incentive or two.
The Colorado Health Foundation is trying to craft incentives that could help spark supermarket growth, said Jill Litt, an assistant professor of environmental health at the University of Colorado's School of Public Health.
Litt, who has worked with the foundation on food-access issues, said they are "advocating for policy changes that would remove some of the barriers that prevent stores from locating in low-income areas."
Those barriers include concerns about store security, finding a reliable workforce — and space.
"A lot of grocery retailers are looking at the demographics of a population, and income is one of those," said Monica Buhlig of Kaiser Permanente.
In inner cities, which were built before anyone dreamed of a supermarket as big as a city block, there just isn't enough available land.
King Soopers, the area's dominant food-store chain, does not have a single store within Denver city limits north
An shopping cart sits in the parking lot of an abandoned Safeway at the corner of Malley Dr. and Washington St. in Thornton, CO. Judy DeHaas, The Denver Post ( )of Colfax Avenue — with the exception of its Quebec Street location serving the Stapleton community.
"Building anything in those areas that are food deserts is so difficult," said King Soopers spokeswoman Kelly McGannon. "There just is not the availability of suitable retail space. We actively look in those areas and will continue to look."
North of Colfax, Safeway, the state's second-biggest chain, has one store on East 20th Avenue, a few blocks from the Five Points neighborhood, and one in Montbello.
Denver doesn't have generations of ingrained blight or the burned-out, ravaged neighborhoods of some urban areas.
In the middle of less
But the city faces a challenge that some other big
Racks stand idle inside an abandoned Grocery Warehouse at South Federal Boulevard and West Louisiana Avenue in southwest Denver. (Photos by Judy DeHaas, The Denver Post )cities don't: geography. With no major cities nearby, Denver — and the rest of Colorado — is far from most food distribution hubs.
"Trucks have to drive a long way to get to Colorado," said Drew White, supermarket analyst with Sageworks Inc., based in Raleigh, N.C.
"You're a big city in the middle of desolation," he said.
That's one reason Denver has fewer major chains competing to sell residents their bread and breakfast cereal.
Mike Gilliland, the Boulderite who founded Sunflower Farmers Market, said metro Phoenix, with easier access to West Coast distributors, is a perfect example of competition's effects.
With several major chains and strong local independent grocers, Phoenix, which
An abandoned Albertsons sits at the corner of East 88th Avenue and Washington Street in Thornton. The chain has closed more than 30 stores in Colorado in the past five years. (Judy DeHaas, The Denver Post)houses Sunflower's corporate offices, is a food shopper's paradise.
"It's a bloodbath down there," he said.
Profit margins on grocery stores are notoriously low, even in good times. So many chains' desire to play it safe is not surprising.
"It all comes down to money," said City Councilman Paul Lopez, who represents the 3rd District, which stretches to Denver's western border.
"If we had more resources, we could partner up with local grocery stores in opening up neighborhood markets."
His district may need more grocery stores, but it is chock full of convenience stores and liquor outlets.
"We desperately need fresh, healthy choices in our neighborhood," Lopez said. "It's totally unacceptable
A field is all that is left of the once-busy Dahlia shopping center in the heart of Denver's Park Hill neighborhood. A King Soopers once stood here, along with other stores. (Judy DeHaas, The Denver Post)that the only options we have are potato chips and beer."
Empty spot after fire
Lopez's district also is home to the city's highest concentration of unemployment, and one of the biggest pockets of home foreclosures, according to state statistics.
He knows those people and knows many don't have reliable transportation to get them to grocery stores even a few miles away.
Not very long ago, Lopez's district was home to a thriving little market, the kind everyone who grew up in the Barnum neighborhood shopped at or had a friend who worked at.
But the story of the Knox Court Supermarket reads a lot like the history of the neighborhood itself.
The store was the quintessential mom-and-pop shop, run by a string of Moms and Pops, each new owner reflecting the neighborhood's changing face.
Then in 2008 a fire there closed the store, and it hasn't opened since.
Late last month, Knox Court got yet another owner — a Los Angeles bank.
That's sad, Lopez said. But it's also an opportunity.
Lopez hopes the bank will be interested in selling to someone who'll rebuild and reopen.
He isn't dreaming of a massive store as big as a village. His vision is for what he calls a "junior-sized grocery store," maybe an Azteca. "Just so they sell a lot of fresh produce and fresh food," he said.
Or, maybe a Sav-A-Lot.
"We look for those areas where there are underserved neighborhoods," said Mike Cioppa, Sav-A-Lot's licensing and distribution manager for Colorado.
And Sav-A-Lot is one of the few organizations that prize those abandoned, empty stores.
"We've rehabbed almost all our buildings, which were at one time or another other supermarkets," said John Leevers, who owns seven of Colorado's nine Sav-A-Lots, including five in metro Denver.
While a typical King Soopers or Safeway can be 65,000 square feet, and a Wal-Mart Supercenter twice that size, Sav-A-Lot stores are more like 15,000 square feet.
That slimmed-down profile means Sav-A-Lot can squeeze into inner-city neighborhoods where vacant land is scarce.
Of course, that also means less merchandise.
"We have a limited assortment," Cioppa said. "Where Kroger or Safeway might have 20,000 to 30,000 items, we have about 2,000."
That's easier to do than it sounds, he said. "Take ketchup. King Soopers may have five brands of ketchup in five sizes for each brand. We may have one brand, one 24-ounce bottle of ketchup."
Cioppa is well aware of the security concerns that scare some grocers away from less-affluent neighborhoods.
But he said that in general, theft and vandalism aren't bad enough to run Sav-A-Lot out of its niche neighborhoods.
"In Kansas, we're located in the middle of a residential neighborhood that two-and-a-half years ago didn't have a choice of where to shop," Cioppa said.
"We've found the neighborhood actually helps protect the store because they like having it there."
In fact, Leevers said he sees room for more Sav-A-Lots in Colorado. But in some areas, such as Globeville and Swansea, there is nothing to rebuild.
In Globeville, jammed at the intersection of Interstates 70 and 25, residents have been clamoring for a grocery store for years. Leevers would like to give them one, "but there are just a lot of natural barriers — rivers, railroad tracks," and no suitable sites.
Transportation for those without cars also is an issue.
"We talked with the (Denver) office of economic development to see if potentially they could adjust bus routes or put together partnerships to get a van that would go around the neighborhood," he said.
But there just isn't money for that, he said.
Still, Leevers hasn't given up.
"We were kind of hopeful that with food deserts getting some attention from the White House and elsewhere that there might be some help."
Small markets gain steam
While many look to government boosts such as tax incentives or neighborhood revitalization dollars, there is another, surprising source of help for neglected neighborhoods.
Call it the slow-food movement, the organics craze or simply a growing interest in knowing where food comes from. All that may be the creation of people with enough money to have a choice in the matter. But the have-nots may benefit too.
Industry analyst White sees a backlash against behemoth grocery stores.
If that backlash grows, "there could be greater emphasis, a resurgence, of neighborhood grocery stores, farmers market every Saturday," White said.
Sunflower wants to be one of those stores. And last year, there was public talk that got a lot of downtown residents excited about Sunflower taking over the one-time Safeway at East Colfax and Josephine Street.
Back in 1963, Colfax Avenue was a thriving thoroughfare and the perfect spot for the modern new Safeway.
But in the 1970s, Interstate 70 was pulling most through traffic off Colfax, and the avenue's fortunes turned.
By 1991, when pastor Michael Walker turned the key on the building, years of sitting empty, except for those who crept in and took cover there, had left it "totally destroyed," Walker said.
"There was broken glass everywhere, old tires, trash."
Nearly 20 years later, the Church in the City has moved down the street. And the former Safeway is boarded up, once again a home for the homeless.
Not for long though; the city of Denver bought the property, which it hopes to turn into something the neighborhood needs almost as much as a grocery store: a recreation center.
But it wasn't a lack of customers, or of customers with money, that scotched the Sunflower deal, Gilliland said.
"We loved that site" and its demographics.
"We've kind of decided we don't want to be in super-high-end areas," he said. "We're looking for people who are conscious of healthy food but don't want to pay that high price."
The problem with the old Safeway-cum-church was the site plan, Gilliland said.
So he keeps looking.
In the meantime, downtown residents are getting a place to play. But they'll have to keep waiting for a year-round nearby source of healthy food.
Leevers predicts that whoever fills that need will reap more than money.
"I get comments every time we open a new store, customers come up literally shaking my hand thanking us for opening a store in their neighborhood," Leevers said. "It's a great feeling knowing we're helping those people out."
Karen Auge: 303-954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com

Free local produce market to begin

http://www.times-standard.com/lifestyle/ci_15049580
Free local produce market will begin this weekThe Times-StandardPosted: 05/09/2010 01:24:14 AM PDT

EUREKA -- Food for People, the food bank for Humboldt County, kicks off its 2010 season of free market-style produce distributions this week.
Food for People offers these free markets to ensure that low-income families throughout Humboldt County have access to the fresh fruits and vegetables necessary to support a healthy diet.
As in previous years, distributions will continue to be held monthly, between the months of May and October at Food for People in Eureka, the Garberville Presbyterian Church and the Redway Baptist Church.
A monthly produce market will also be launched this year in Fortuna at Fortuna Community Services. Anyone who meets the income eligibility requirements is invited to attend these produce distributions. It is also requested that those attend bring their own bags.
May's free markets will be held Tuesday from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. at Redway Baptist Church; Tuesday from 10 a.m. to noon at Garberville Presbyterian Church; May 19 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Fortuna Community Services; and May 20 from noon to 2 p.m. at Food for People.
Last year, the Eureka and Southern Humboldt markets distributed nearly 100,000 pounds of produce to more than 7,000 low-income people throughout Humboldt County, averaging about 60 pounds of fresh produce per household. In addition to fresh produce, some of the markets will also feature live music, free fruit and vegetable samples, cooking tips and food stamp application assistance to
individuals. Several community organizations will also be present with information about their services. These produce distributions are sponsored by Food for People through a St. Joseph Health System Foundation grant. Food is supplied through two statewide programs: Donate, Don't Dump and Farm to Family. For more information about attending or volunteering at a market, and to find out the complete schedule, call Food for People at 445-3166.