From The MNB Archives

North Carolina-based Lowes Foods announced yesterday that it has developed, with MyWebGrocer.com, a social networking site for parents that serves as “a place they can organize, share, discuss, and find things to do with their kids.” According to the announcement, LowesFoods.MyBaby.com “differs from other parenting social networking sites by aggregating a full range of information and networking possibilities for parents, such as, advice, blogging, photo and video sharing and organizing, personalized homepages, and event listings.”

The Associated Press this morning reports that “stores nationwide are continuing to sell recalled canned chili, stew, hash and other foods potentially contaminated with poisonous bacteria even after repeated warnings the products could kill.”

MNB reported earlier this week that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is urging consumers to throw away more than 90 different products that may contain meat that comes from a Castleberry's Food Co. plant in Georgia. The meat has been linked to a botulism outbreak that has caused at least four people to get sick.

The AP notes that the recall now covers two years' production and includes tens of millions of cans.

CNN reports that as more and more Americans worry about eating food imported from China – a recent poll said that 46 percent of US residents are “very concerned” and another 28 percent are “somewhat concerned” about eating such imports – the fact remains that it is extremely difficult to avoid it.

The story uses as an example a Louisiana woman who decided to try not to buy anything made in China. Anything.

Not so much to make a political statement, according to the piece, but just to see if she could. “It was a way to try to understand in a very real and personal way my own family's connections to this big fuzzy concept of the global economy, and specifically to China,” she tells CNN.

And one of the places where it was most difficult to achieve her goal was in the supermarket. “"As much label reading as I did, there's no way I could know whether or not I was buying something with ingredients from China," she says. All she knew was that according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the United States imported $4.1 billion worth of seafood and agricultural products from China in 2006. In 1995, it was $800 million.

One of the things that the woman stopped buying – apple juice. CNN writes that “50 percent of the apple juice imported in the United States today comes from China. That's an estimated 161,000 tons of apple juice compared to the 110,000 tons produced in the United States, according to the USDA.”

USA Today this morning reports that Burger King is licensing out its name to a company that will begin selling fried potato chips that will come in two flavors - Ketchup & Fries and Flame-Broiled burger.

The chips will have no trans fats, and also will be available in vending machines and Burger King outlets.

The New York State Restaurant Association (NYSRA) opened its arguments in its lawsuit against New York City’s new nutrition information laws saying that the NY City Health Department “overstepped its authority when it ruled that some restaurants must list calorie counts on menus and menu boards,” according to a report in Nation’s Restaurant News.

“NYSRA attorneys also argued that the regulation discriminates by requiring only restaurants that already list calorie content on the Internet or brochures to also post the information on menus and menu boards,” the report says. “As a result, chains that already offer nutritional content voluntarily have felt compelled to remove that information in an effort to avoid having to post it on menus or menu boards, thereby impinging their First Amendment rights.”

The judge in the case deferred rendering his opinion.

The Seattle Times reports that Haggen, the Washington State-based supermarket retailer, “is near the end of a two-year hiatus from opening new stores, spending tens of millions of dollars to remodel several existing locations instead.” According to the story, company executives “thought the older stores could do considerably more business if they were overhauled.” The remodels have been taking place at both Haggen stores and the company’s Top Food & Drug units.

Company CEO Dale Henley tells the Times that Haggen expects to begin opening new stores again in 2008.

In Missouri, the Columbia Tribune reports that Hy-Vee plans to open two new stores in the area, taking over both a former Wal-Mart site and a former Mega Market store.

"It’s a good market for us, and we’ve been looking for quite some time," Hy-Vee spokesperson Chris Friesleben tells the paper. "The stars just lined up correctly, and we ended up with two properties."

The stores are expected to be open within a year.

Fortune reports that despite an investment of more than a billion dollars and almost as many man hours to its Seiyu operation in Japan, Wal-Mart continues to struggle there.

“It's a battle that Wal-Mart cannot afford to lose because of the imperative to avoid over reliance on a U.S. market that may be reaching saturation,” Fortune writes. “Having pulled out of Germany and South Korea after faring poorly in those markets, the giant retailer is doing well in China and Mexico under its own brand and reasonably well in Britain under the Asda name.

“But if Wal-Mart walks away from Japan, where it has invested more than $1 billion in a 51 percent stake in Seiyu and in bringing in its own distribution and computer systems, the company's hopes of creating a credible international strategy will take a serious blow. ‘Wal-Mart, being a company that would like to grow around the world, cannot just ignore a market of this particular size,’ says Ed Kolodzieski, Wal-Mart's top executive in Japan.”

Part of the problem apparently stems from Wal-Mart’s decision to fire 25 percent of headquarters staff when it took over 51 percent of Seiyu, a mass firing that rarely occurs in Japan.

“Partly as a result, the fired employees and current ones as well have created a climate of resistance,” Fortune reports. “They are frequently quoted in Japanese media complaining about Wal-Mart's efforts to instill an American operating model in Japan. The company says it is being flexible, but the carping persists: Wal-Mart is moving too aggressively to cut out distribution middlemen; it is making life difficult for managers by mandating that stores remain open for 24 hours; it is introducing products from China and elsewhere that don't meet Japanese tastes or standards of quality.”

In addition, according to the story, local competitors are “fanning the flames of discontent” because they want Wal-Mart to fail so they can acquire the Seiyu chain. And, Wal-Mart is under pressure at home because investors are looking for increased returns and are less willing to be patient with foreign misadventures.

• The Wall Street Journal this morning reports that UK officials have arrested a British man, Philip McHugh, and charged him with two counts of blackmail and two counts of making false bomb threats against Tesco.

The hoaxes caused 14 Tesco stores to be temporarily shut down earlier this month.

• In the UK, Tesco has hired Lance Batchelor, former marketing director at Vodafone, to be its new marketing director. He succeeds Ian Crook, who moves over to Tesco’s online business.

On the subject of plastic wine bottles being introduced at Sainsbury in the UK, something I said was yet another signal of the decline of western civilization, one MNB user wrote:

This is the first time that I've found the need to reply or respond to one of your informative and entertaining newsletter articles. I've been a subscriber for a couple of years now and look forward to the news, views and ideas that I pick-up.

However the report today quoting The Telegraph reporting about Sainsbury's plan to introduce plastic wine 'bottles' has me spurred me into action. [It's probably a reflection on my priorities that this, and not any of the countless 'hard business' articles that I've read that has caused this reaction!!].

I share your horror at the thought of a plastic wine container. And being an Australian, living and working in Oz, I can assure you and your readers that plastic wine bottles are not available in the Australian market, and to the best of my knowledge never have been. You can think anything you like about Australia, its people, culture, politics and business, but PLEASE don't think that we would do that to the noble grape!

You're right of course, the creeping death that is the screw top is the precursor of this dreadful spiral into unacceptable standards. And as we all know, the screw top was not introduced for the stated reasons of wine quality, it was simply to make the product easier to consume and opened up a whole new market of people unable to master the skills required to operate a cork screw.

Having said all of that, it wouldn't surprise me to find Aussie wine in plastic bottles in overseas markets. Unfortunately most of the Aussie wine sold overseas if pretty low quality and very few of the so-called Australian brands that I see on the shelves in Asia, Europe or North America are available here.

Keep up the vigilance, we need to keep up the standards.

I will. And I look forward to the day when I can visit Australia and taste of the wines that you folks are keeping for yourselves.

Another MNB user wrote:

How can plastic be more environmentally friendly than glass? Glass is just molten sand with pigmentation added. Glass, like plastic, is recyclable. The only benefit to plastic that I see is the cost savings to the wine maker. The wine maker can charge the same amount of money, because it is the wine that demands the price, while saving money in shipping a product that weighs less.

Another MNB user wrote:

I have to agree with you whole heartedly on this issue. I remember buying a gallon of purified water and noticed that it had an expiration date. I remember thinking how in the world does H2O expire? I bet it has everything to do with the container and not the water.

I know there are numerous types and qualities of plastic but in the end I think they all impart their own “flavor” over time. I don’t like the idea of the delicate acids and tannins reacting to their container. Give me glass, this is not a nostalgic issue. Besides glass is 100% recyclable and continually renewable.




On the subject of 7-Eleven’s marketing tie-up with “The Simpsons” movie that comes out today, MNB user Gene Peace wrote:

I had the chance to visit the “Kwikee Mart” on 63rd street in Chicago with my teenage son and his friend. What a riot! There was a security guard monitoring the amount of people being allowed in and the line was 20 people long outside at 6 pm on a Tuesday.

Once in the store, I have to give 7-11 a ton of credit for creatively merchandising the “Squishee” machine, with custom cups, and having huge stacks of the pink donuts on hand. People weren’t just looking at the stuff, they were buying a lot of consumables and just laughing about the merchandising.

In our age of “PC” it was fun to see people (like this 51 year old) laughing at a bunch of goofy cartoon characters.




Responding to yesterday’s MNB Radio commentary about Amazon, Harry Potter and loyalty, one MNB user wrote:

Your brand experiences with Amazon helped develop your loyalty. But, understand, my brand experiences with Amazon are infuriating. I logged on to find a book...found it and ordered it. Everything was OK. Then I started getting the SPAM...didn't realize buying a book gave them permission to SPAM me. I went online to cancel my account...extremely difficult and in the process I became enrolled twice...getting duplicate SPAM. Again, disturbing. I ordered a second time (two books)...within minutes of my order, I received two confirmations for two sets of books (because I had two accounts)...I went online to discuss this...impossible...I finally spoke to a live person who assured me I would get only one set of the books that I had ordered. A month later, two sets of the books arrived on my doorstep and two sets of books were charged to my credit card. I spoke to a live person, who initially not believing me...finally agreed that they had messed up...she sent return authorization.

To this day both sets of books sit in my den...unread, unappreciated, reminding me of how many ways I don't like Amazon. I continued to get SPAM...until one day I called, and after trying very hard to convince a person that I didn't want an account with Amazon, finally resolved the SPAM situation. There are too many other options, I will never use Amazon again!

MNB user Marty Gillen wrote:

We pre-ordered book # 5 though Amazon and it showed up two days late. We now have four of those books. You see, my two daughters were absolutely distraught when the books did not arrive on the appointed day, especially since many of their friends had purchased the book at 12.01 a.m the night before and were almost finished with it by the time my daughters got theirs. The point here is that we did not use Amazon to pre-order books 6 and 7. Not because of a lack of faith in Amazon, but a lack of faith in the distribution process. As a matter of fact, we purchased the current book at a Kmart at 12:05 a.m. Why Kmart? Because we had faith there would be very few other shoppers in the store! And we were right! Many other stores in the area were jammed at the appointed hour, but not K-mart!

By the way, we also have a copy of book 1, signed by J.K.Rowling. We were living in Atlanta area at the time and she came though on a tour promoting the book. My daughters were 8 and 10. Little did we know at that time of the impact of the Harry Potter books!

Betcha the Kmart folks were thrilled to read that endorsement.




MNB had a story yesterday about the popularity of bison meat, which prompted numerous emails. MNB user Barry L. Polner wrote about the chain of Ted’s Montana Grill restaurants that specialize in bison:

Ted's Montana started in Atlanta and is one of my favorite restaurants. Bison meat is lower in fat and good for you.

I joked yesterday that since Ted’s Montana Grill is owned by Ted Turner, eating there would help pay off whatever settlement he made with his ex-wife, Jane Fonda. Which led one MNB user to write:

I doubt whether the money goes to Jane but the bottom line is we ate buffalo 3 times in various parts of the east coast, and one of them was Ted's Montana Grill in Crystal City outside of DC. When we travel to Montana, which is quite frequently we head for the featured bison restaurants. It's a taste treat and flavor unique to this fine animal.

If you haven't tried it recently you should.

Can’t wait.

And another MNB user wrote:

I recently purchased a quarter side of bison from a farm in Iowa and enjoy the leaner aspect of the meat versus normal beef. My guests have shared in the pleasure as well and not one has ever mentioned any distinctive or different taste. Their only comments is that staring at the bison mounted located over my grill while eating the meat from this animal is a bit weird!!


Another MNB user wrote:

I recently spent a week in the Black Hills: bison burgers with blue cheese and fried onions, bacon wrapped tenderloins, and rib eyes. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. If bison is done right it is delicious. If bison is overcooked it can get very dry, similar to turkey burgers and sausage.

That’s not nice. Now I’m hungry…




I suggested yesterday that groups calling for John Mackey to be ousted from his Whole Foods CEO job ought to be patient and let the government proceed, that we don’t know yet if he did anything illegal. Which led one MNB user to write:

I seem to recall a time when you called for Larry Johnston's head to be canned for his misdeeds, which were anything but illegal.

That was different. Johnston mismanaged his company into the ground, knew nothing about retail, cost a lot of people their jobs, and, from everything I can tell, can fairly be accused of looking out more for himself than for his employees and his shareholders.

Mackey had be guilty of bad judgment, but he’s hardly mismanaged the company.

Here’s a barometer:

If Mackey and Johnston each announced tomorrow that they were starting separate, new retail businesses, which one would you invest in? And would you need to think about it for more than, say, one half a second?




Responding to our report about the study saying that obesity can be contagious, in essence because if you hang out with fat people it makes the condition more acceptable, MNB user Mike Griswold wrote:

Yet another “study” that fosters a climate of “not my fault”. While I can be convinced that genetics plays a part in obesity, this “contagious” notion does not fly with me. If your friend is on his third helping of turkey, stuffing, and gravy you can still say no thank-you. Am I the only person who is sick and tired societies lack of personal responsibility?

No. You’re not. Though I’m not sure I’d be as tough on the study as you are.

It used to be that the sports pages – and sports in general – were a safe haven from much that was wrong with the world. It was where adults often played children’s games, where the rules were supposed to be the same for everyone, and where, ultimately, talent was what made a difference.

No more.

Right now, the sports pages are damned depressing. You have the referee in the National Basketball Association (NBA) accused of betting on games where he was officiating. You have one of the big quarterback names in the National Football League (NFL) indicted for his involvement with a dog fighting ring, and now at least temporarily banned from working out with his teammates. You have the Tour de France yet again tingled a cheating scandal. And you have a guy who probably has used so many steroids that he looks like his head is going to explode about to break the all-time home run record in Major League Baseball (MLB).

It is particularly bothersome in sports because it is where records and achievement are supposed to matter, and when the integrity of the games is threatened, it means that records and achievement could be illusory. And in this case, perception is reality.

And it isn’t just sports. Read the front pages and it is a little tough to believe almost anyone who says anything on either side of the aisle.

The message, when you pick up the newspaper or look at a news show, is that you can’t really trust anyone. Or anything.

In the food retailing business, I’m afraid things aren’t much better. Or at least, they are on a path to where things might be equally as depressing. CEOs use aliases to attack their competitors online. Executives don’t want to tell people where products come from, or what they may be made of, or how they’re being preserved so that they look fresher. Politicians don’t want labels that say “BSE-free” or “contains genetically modified ingredients” because they are afraid that these words might scare people or raise other issues. And then they wonder why trust may be eroding among consumers.

I’m not proposing for a moment that these executives are trying to hurt people. I am suggesting that they are guilty of a certain level of arrogance that says “I know better,” and that there are certain things the consumer doesn’t need to know.

Job Johansen of the Institute of the Future likes to say that we live in what he calls a “VUCA World,” which means Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.

It seems to me that when it comes to issues like food, it the retailer’s job to make the world less so. Less volatile, less uncertain, less complex and certainly less ambiguous.

The retailer that doesn’t do this simply isn’t doing his or her job. And today, I believe, complete transparency – making every possible bit of information available to consumers – is what is expected by a growing constituency of consumers.

There is an old Latin proverb that translates roughly to, “Trust, like the soul, never returns once it goes.”

The stewards of Major League Baseball and the NBA, and the politicians and executives who hold sway over much of our lives, ought to consider these words very carefully. Because once they lose the rust of the consumer, they and the institutions they represent will be irrelevant.




My favorite moment of the Democratic presidential debate sponsored by CNN and YouTube.com was when, after a discussion of global warming and climate change, the candidates were asked if anyone had traveled via private jet to the South Carolina debate site. Five did – Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Richardson and Dodd. One – Mike Gravel, who probably will be known for little else in this campaign – actually took the train.

Good for him.




Personal congratulations to Senator Feargal Quinn, who won election to a new term in the Irish senate this week.

There are few people who are as charming and smart as Feargal Quinn. His book, “Crowning The Customer,” remains a classic of the business…and if you’ve never read it, you should order it now.

If he takes care of his constituents as well as he took care of his customers, then they are very well taken care of indeed.




Speaking of trains, I had to go to Washington this week for a couple of meetings, so I decided to take Amtrak’s Acela high-speed train instead of flying. In part, I was curious about the train service because I hadn’t taken it for awhile, and because I recently spent a number of hours traveling by train through the French countryside, and I was curious how they compared.

Not well, I’m sad to say.

I’m not sure if it is the trains or the condition of the tracks, but the trip was rockier and slower than anything I experienced in France. Not an awful experience, and I had a lot of time to work on a few projects. But hardly the kind of experience people would yearn for.

I have three suggestions for Amtrak.

One, put in free high-speed Internet service on the train. It would be a huge advantage of train travelers.

Second, cut a deal with Starbucks and serve better coffee and food on the trip.

Three, at night, you’ve got to have a better bar car. It doesn’t have to be on the scale of the Orient Express, but you could do a lot better than fake wood and aluminum.

That said, I have to admit that while I was waiting on the platform for the train to arrive, another train pulled in, and the engineer blew his whistle. And I smiled. Maybe it is the kid in me – or the latent hobo – but there’s something incredibly romantic about the sound of a train whistle.




“Live Free and Die Hard” is exactly what you’d expect it to be. Which is terrific. Mindless action and violence, lots of wisecracks from Bruce Willis, and a decent plot. Not nearly as good as the first and second in the series, but better than the third.

And, as I say, you get what you pay for.




Interesting juxtaposition in the Washington Post the other day. There was a story about how the minimum wage went up this week, along with a story about how a union - the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters - is hiring homeless people to walk a picket line for them.

I may be wrong about this, but it seems to me that if organized labor really wants to show some backbone – in an environment where unions increasingly seem to be losing relevance and strength – the least it could do is have it members actually walk the talk.

Otherwise, when union officials complain about outsourcing, it might be a little hard to take them seriously.




Not sure if you’ve seen this, but they announced casting on the new ‘Star Trek” movie, and Zachary Quinto, who plays the evil Sylar on “Heroes,” has been tapped to play a young Spock. No casting has yet been announced for the role of the young James T. Kirk, but the producers already have said that Leonard Nimoy will appear in the movie and that they expect William Shatner to do so as well.

I’ve got goosebumps.

The new “Star Trek” premieres on December 25, 2008. Can’t imagine a better Christmas present.




I got an unfortunate surprise the other day when I decided to do a quick check of a marathon training schedule and compare it to the calendar for the Marine Corps Marathon, which I’m scheduled to run (if my knees, feet, and most of all my heart hold out) on the last Sunday in October.

And discovered that I’m three weeks behind on my training.

Oops.

Which means while you’re sitting in your office reading this, you can think of me out there doing six or eight miles. And sweating.




If you haven’t seen the new Glenn Close series on FX, “Damages,” go watch the first episode (which they’ll probably be rerunning all weekend). You’ll be hooked. Guaranteed. Because it has all the trappings of a great thriller, with terrific performances by Close, Ted Danson and Rose Byrne. Because it has interesting characterizations of people with complicated and often conflicting motives. Because it has dastardly lawyers, murder and mayhem, wealthy bad guys and New York City as a backdrop. It’s just great.




I have a wonderful Tuscan wine for you to try – the 2005 Aia Vecchia Morellino, which goes wonderfully with a nice spicy pizza.




That’s it for this week. Have a great weekend.

Sláinte!!