Hope's Edge_ The Next Diet for a Small Planet - Frances Moore Lappe [77]
We, the consumers, ultimately foot the bill—even if the product never makes it. Foremost-McKesson, with $3.3 billion in annual sales, spent a whole year and $200,000 developing “Quick ’n Saucy” sloppy joe lunches, then ditched them before they ever hit the supermarket.24
While product proliferation has gone wild, with 60,000 brand-name processed food items introduced in ten years, only 100 basic foods still account for three-quarters of the food we eat.25 Doesn’t this suggest that the billions of dollars spent on processing, advertising, and packaging are peripheral to our real diet? Most of us have plenty of variety with a minuscule fraction of what is offered.
The “Don’t Just Make It, Serve It” Strategy
More than a third of America’s food dollars are spent on food eaten away from home. To profit on this trend, you’ll need to buy into the fast food business and spread your stores throughout the nation.
THE IMPACT OF YOUR STRATEGY
Into every city and town enter the fast food outlets, their invasion often fueled by the big money their new conglomerate owners can put behind them. (See Figure 9.) The same food giant that brings us Pillsbury flour brings us Burger King hamburgers. The same conglomerate that feeds our dogs Gainesburgers feeds us Burger Chef hamburgers. The same multinational company that brings us Pepsi serves us Pizza Hut pizzas. These giant corporations have driven out of business the roadside diners and Mom and Pop cafés which once served us local specialties and real cooking—soda biscuits, corn bread, and homemade soup. After a tour of over 26 fast food restaurants in a five-mile stretch outside Tucson, MIT nutritionist Judith Wurtman reported: “Despite the number and variety of these places, their menus were relatively similar … pancakes, doughnuts, fried or ‘char’-broiled meats, hotdogs, fried potatoes, soft drinks and soft ice cream.… None served carrots, chopped liver, whole wheat bread, vegetable soup, baked potatoes, yogurt, skim milk, bananas or broccoli.”26 Forced to select foods only from these places, she concluded, “one might begin to feel deprived.” Deprived not only in variety but nutritionally, too, because the fast food joints hit us with every nutritional hazard from high fat to high salt to low fiber.
Figure 9. Who Owns the Fast Food Giants?
All but Royal Crown Cola are among the 200 largest industrial corporations in the country.
The “Cut the Calorie” Strategy
Now that you’ve captured the national market, how can you expand U.S. sales? Our population is growing very slowly. And while some Americans might aspire to owning 20 pairs of shoes, most can eat only three meals a day. Since you can’t produce bigger people, you could launch a “fat is beautiful” campaign. No, that might not go over … Why not just take the calories out of food? That will appeal to the weight-watchers, and since the food will have no calories, people can eat almost unlimited amounts!
This ingenious sales expansion strategy also increases your profit on each item. For while you can charge the consumer the same price, or even a premium price, manufacturing low-calorie “foods” costs you less. Saccharin is cheaper than sugar. “Light” beer costs less to produce.
THE IMPACT OF YOUR STRATEGY
Diet sodas and low-cal foods are born. By the late 1970s, three diet sodas were among the top ten best-selling soft drinks in America.27 By using less expensive ingredients but charging the same for diet sodas, soft drink makers are overcharging American consumers $300 million each year, estimates the Center for Science in the Public Interest. No one’s added up the overcharges for “light” beer, but buying Michelob Light means paying a higher price for regular Michelob plus water.28
The “Salt Plus Soft Drink” Strategy
Now there must be another angle on this. Since people can eat only so much at any given meal, what about between meals? Can’t you make some progress there? Snack food—that