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Americans are picky eaters


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Anybody else see a little irony in this statement?

"Consumers want more control over their lives — especially over what they eat," says Stephen Quinn, Frito-Lay's marketing chief."

I'm on the pavement

Thinking about the government.

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The right to choose, only in America. Informational article, thanx for the link.

It would have been nice if they went into private restaurants and surveyed the pickiness of their customers. Is there an article/discussion about Americans being picky in non-commercial restaurants.

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Interesting article. But something rankled me. Perhaps the constant use of the word "picky." Perhaps "discerning" is more appropriate, particularly when describing why Whole Foods carries many types of lettuce.

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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When Whole Foods opened in 1974, it sold two kinds of lettuce, says CEO John Mackey. Now, it sells 40. Its stores sell 15 kinds of mushrooms, many of which weren't sold in the USA five years ago.

So what. I was in a rather ordinary hypermarche in a small town in France and and saw half a dozen different varieties of garlic in the produce section. There were about the same number of different kinds of lemon and they were all noted as to whether they were treated with pesticides or not. There were as many prepackaged luncheon meats as I've seen anywhere else, but in the fresh charcuterie section they had rillettes of pork, rabbit and duck as well as rillettes of a special breed of pork, all at different prices. Maybe the author is only looking in his backyard for what's special about the US. It isn't special, it's the 21st century that's different than the 19th. When Henry Ford build the model T, there was an economy in allowing the customer no choice in color. When Alvin Toffler wrote Culture Shock it was as cheap to print the paperback edition of the book with a choice of covers and so they did that to prove his point about change. The 21st century is happening just as fast outside the US as inside, not that USA Today would notice.

Robert Buxbaum

WorldTable

Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.

My mailbox is full. You may contact me via worldtable.com.

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Interesting article. But something rankled me. Perhaps the constant use of the word "picky." Perhaps "discerning" is more appropriate, particularly when describing why Whole Foods carries many types of lettuce.

As in "I've got a weak idea and I can find the statistics to prove it."

Robert Buxbaum

WorldTable

Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.

My mailbox is full. You may contact me via worldtable.com.

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It's, "I say I'm discerning/ *you* say I'm picky"...........tomato, tomahto! Maybe it's like this: Discerning people shop for themselves, picky people ask other people to cater to them.

:huh:

I'm a canning clean freak because there's no sorry large enough to cover the, "Oops! I gave you botulism" regrets.

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Me: I've got money, and I want more variety.

They: WE only make two varieties.

Me: Fine, I'll go elsewhere.

They: Wait, come to think of it, we can provide 26 more choices.

Me: Okay, I'll buy.

They: Damn, you're picky.

:laugh:

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The piece says that 70 per cent of restaurant customers "customized" their order last year, which I suspect means "hold the pickle" or "hold the mayo."

If this is out-of-control consumerism, we're in big trouble.

Arthur Johnson, aka "fresco"
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Interesting article.  But something rankled me.  Perhaps the constant use of the word "picky."  Perhaps "discerning" is more appropriate, particularly when describing why Whole Foods carries many types of lettuce.

As in "I've got a weak idea and I can find the statistics to prove it."

Here's what bugged me about the article. With the exception of some discussion about Whole Foods and their offerings, the whole article is about vast corporations pumping out minor variations on spirit-less, mass-produced fare. Consumers are being manipulated by corporations who would have no problem utterly destroying what eGulleters would call good dining and real choice, if it brought them another three points of market share, and consumers are duped into believing their choices are expanding. (Oscar Meyer) balony.

Customizing your dinner at Applebee's, demanding vinegar-dill-ridged potato chips or precisely calibrating the temperature of your latte is being neither picky nor discerning. It's being manipulated.

Real choice -- real power -- is having a choice of restaurants, coffee shops and munchies, not what some marketing honcho and a focus group of "representative" Americans think will fit into a bland and soul-killing mass market.

Hey, I eat potato chips and I go to Starbucks. And I know that a case can be made that Americans have more choices today than they did "way back when," but it isn't Arby's who gave them to us. It's determined cooks and farmers who have introduced to new foods and fought off the larger grocery and restaurant chains; it's immigrants who introduced us to exotic and unusual ingredients and founded the stores and networks that bring them into our neighborhoods; it's adventurous few (us, of course!) who created the markets and demand that supported the spread of responsive entrepreneurs.

Choice is a dozen kinds of artisanal cheese at a Farmers market, not 50 types of frozen pizza at Safeway.

I'm on the pavement

Thinking about the government.

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Perhaps that's why Food Network has been parodied so often on Saturday Night Live. What makes us laugh is often what makes us tick.

I watch SNL fairly regularly, and don't recall seeing many Food Network parodies. I remember some pre-conviction Martha Stewart skits, a Jamie Oliver character in a skit, and maybe an Emeril joke here and there. Did I miss something, or do they run all the Food Network jokes in the last 15 minutes of the show (which I rarely see).

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It's, "I say I'm discerning/ *you* say I'm picky"...........tomato, tomahto!  Maybe it's like this: Discerning people shop for themselves, picky people ask other people to cater to them. 

:huh:

Now we're getting closer. I would define "picky" entirely differently than the article. I think a picky person is one who limits their diet severely, and refuses to eat if their favorite brand or type of food is not available, not a person who wants more shapes of baloney available in lunchables, and certainly not a person who demands dozens of types of lettuce in top condition.

That Applebee's quote is a real winner: the people in the kitchens at Applebee's have no flexibility whatever. They are limited to switching sauces, or omitting items from the plates.

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"It's a rejection of mass society," says Ron Shaich, CEO of Panera Bread, which has amassed a $1 billion business in 10 years by customizing virtually every order. "People just want to feel special."

Oh. A $1 billion business is based on rejecting mass society? No... it's built on figuring out how to cleverly market a decent quality mass-produced product and present the choices available as though they somehow represented a return to a quieter, slower time when quality in certian fods was far more tangible. Or maybe not.

The entire article does seem rather pointless but I'm puzzled as to why Dreyer's Grand Light variety is touted as a new thing. It's been available in the Edy's brand here in the east for many years. Breyer's was in fact a well established east coat ice cream brand when Dreyer's began penetrating eastern markets. They were wise to distinguish themselves with a name that would not be confused. Breyer's used to position themselves as a premium brand but they're not even remotely close to being as good as Edy's.

I used to sell networking products to best Foods. Any price quote we delivered was met by a response of "Damn.... that's a lot of mayonnaise!".

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Choice is a dozen kinds of artisanal cheese at a Farmers market, not 50 types of frozen pizza at Safeway.

Well, that's a nice blanket statement but it has nothing to do with reality. I live in the "50 different frozen pizzas = choice" neighborhood as I'm sure many other eGulleteers do. I may not have as many choices as you do but I do have choices.

Let's talk orange juice. They now sell "less acid" orange juice which is great for my mom who has acid reflux and doesn't need the extra acid. If I want "pulp free" o.j., they make it now. That is multiple choice. Sure, in the grand scheme of things we're just fooling ourselves. It's all really just one kind of orange juice packaged in different ways. Kind of like cable TV.

Am I really missing out because the o.j. squeezed by virgins under the new moon isn't being sold at my local supermarket? Nah. Because ignorance is bliss.

Perhaps if you had said "A good choice is...", then I would have had no quibble with your statement.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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I don't mean to sneer at your mom's low-acid juice and especially not at people who live in "50 types of frozen pizza" areas.

What I did mean to sneer at is smarmy Frito-Lay marketing execs who pretend they're empowering the consumer by topping their potato chips with another choice of artificial flavoring; or Starbucks bragging about their 15,000 combinations of coffee drinks when, in fact, they overlay targeted neighborhoods so heavily that there is little chance for an independent shop to survive - giving people a real choice.

And, as to whether or not I'm in touch with reality, I'd suggest that most people actually do live in places where they can make real choices If not with artisanal cheeses, then with local bakeries, with old-time butchers, with the one local fish vendor who has real line to fresh seafood, with a diner that has excellent grits or a great chili recipe.

When people, wherever they live, begin to think that choice is saying "hold the mayo" at Burger King, rather than chosing between Burger King (and I go there, too, I'm not trying to get too high and mighty) and another unique establishment, they've given up part of themselves to the marketing drones, and pushed the process of standardization one more step in the worng direction.

I'm on the pavement

Thinking about the government.

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I don't think of people who want choices as picky. I consider them, like myself, to have diverse tastes. If they're going out and no matter where they go want the same damned thing, then they're picky. The pickiness I don't appreciate are people who want to make everything fit their palate instead of trying to expand their palate. My impression is that we're moving towards expanding palates, not narrowing palates. That's not pickiness.

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I don't think of people who want choices as picky.  I consider them, like myself, to have diverse tastes.  If they're going out and no matter where they go want the same damned thing, then they're picky.  The pickiness I don't appreciate are people who want to make everything fit their palate instead of trying to expand their palate.  My impression is that we're moving towards expanding palates, not narrowing palates.  That's not pickiness.

I wonder if this is so. My impression is that a small percentage of the population is moving towards an expanded palate, but for most, the food choices have actually narrowed because of price, preference and other factors.

Arthur Johnson, aka "fresco"
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But a lot of these chains, even, are adding Thai-this and Curry-that. Sure, it's "dumbed-down" flavors, but it takes baby steps. Just like Emeril opens people to getting excited about food and gets them to move on to more adventurous foods.

Most of the country has finally accepted Mexican and Chinese food. That places like Whole Foods are expanding and Thai food is growing so fast and Indian and Sushi is becoming so popular not just on the coasts and in the cities shows the expanding palate. I just did a search and found Thai and Indian resaurants in Boise and Birmingham.

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The primary problem with this article is the misuse of the phrase "picky eater" and the scrambling of concepts. What they are referring to in part of the article is a marketing driven business trend often termed "mass customization" that has been going on for a number of years. Overall, it's a good thing. But it does not approach the level of choice most people here are talking about. An editor at USAToday should have sent the reporter off to re-write the story.

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But a lot of these chains, even, are adding Thai-this and Curry-that. Sure, it's "dumbed-down" flavors, but it takes baby steps. Just like Emeril opens people to getting excited about food and gets them to move on to more adventurous foods.

Most of the country has finally accepted Mexican and Chinese food. That places like Whole Foods are expanding and Thai food is growing so fast and Indian and Sushi is becoming so popular not just on the coasts and in the cities shows the expanding palate. I just did a search and found Thai and Indian resaurants in Boise and Birmingham.

I don't think it shows anything of the sort. How many customers does it take to keep one Thai restaurant in a community in business? A couple of thousand?

Arthur Johnson, aka "fresco"
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