Food Makers Want To Sell You Cheap Food For Big Profits
Gone are the days of pushing "premium" food offerings, says the Wall Street Journal-- big food manufacturers like Kraft and Campbell are going to be pushing "cheap" foods like tomato soup and cheese singles -- foods which are thought of as "easy on the wallet" but are still hugely profitable for the manufacturers.
From the WSJ:
But lower-priced "value" products can also have wide margins because they're cheaper to make. "Food companies will be careful to shift consumers to products that are still high margin," says Robert Moskow, an analyst with Credit Suisse. "Powdered Kool-Aid beverages are one of the most profitable food products in history."
Also Monday, the milk industry will begin running ads touting milk as a bargain. Financial guru Suze Orman will don the familiar milk mustache in a print ad that reads: "Even at today's prices, a glass of milk only costs about a quarter...." The ad is a big departure from prior "Got Milk" campaigns that focused on the nutritional value of milk.
The milk industry plans to spend just under $1 million on the Suze Orman ads.
The WSJ says the new campaigns indicative of a food industry that's afraid of consumers. Shoppers have been pinched by a 7.5% jump in food prices in the first 8 months of 2008, and have started buying generics. Oh, no!
If you're a member of the PTA, you can expect ConAgra to start giving you the hard sell on their cheap Banquet frozen dinners -- they've hired "hundreds of mothers to provide money-saving tips and free product samples at PTA meetings and church groups across the country. The moms will be paid in Banquet product coupons, the company said."
Campbell will begin calling their soups, "the original dollar menu," stressing that you just have to add water, and Kool-Aid's new claims the product provides "more smiles per gallon" compared to soft drinks.
Food Marketers Cook Up 'Value' Campaigns [WSJ]
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Comments:
and it's lovely how much of the cheap "food" doesn't seem to have much actual or nutritional food ingredients in it. ::glares menacingly at Kraft::
Everything old is new again, I guess
Also: "The moms will be paid in Banquet product coupons, the company said." - That is so sad. Really, to be cool with working for Banquet coupons.
Mmmm, grilled cheese and tomato soup. Perfect winter combo.
I tried a couple of the banquet TV dinners once. They were pretty disgusting.
I dont know about the rest of you, but growing up... cheese singles were considered "rich-people food". We had velveeta cheese in the big large brick form.
@forgottenpassword: Velveeta is not cheese. It's "cheese food". But you've got a good point: a lot of the overpriced crap people buy is stuff packaged for convenience, like the presliced cheese. Buy raw ingredients in bulk, and learn to cook, and you can get much higher quality food much more cheaply. Farmers' markets and CSA's are great for this purpose, especially if they operate for a large part of the year where you live.
I'd love to see ConAgra at my district's PTA meeting... telling a bunch of Jewish mothers how great their treif food is...
@forgottenpassword: I was born in 83, where velveta was actually more expensive. I had to eat powder mac & cheese.
@forgottenpassword:
64 slices of american cheese
*gulp*
63
*gulp*
...
2
*gulp*
1
*gulp*
Homer, did you stay up all night eating cheese?
I'll be so happy when the "Got Milk" ads are gone.
Will they please, please take the million stupid knock-off slogans with it? Worst I ever saw was flashed before me every 4 minutes while in a cinema waiting for a movie to begin..."Got Realtor?" Ugh. Can't get that stupid image of the woman in the milk mustache with her stupid grin out of my head.
Thankfully, I don't remember the agency that did the ad, so it didn't work.
Would an education campaign help? The last time I used tomato soup that I didn't make from in-season (thus cheap-and-also-good) tomatos was when I thought I had tomato sauce, but didn't, and needed to finish up some jambalya.
And, I primarily stopped getting the basic Campbell's soups because of the price being too high. I lived on the stuff, adding ingredients to make a real soup or thick rice dish, until it crept above half a dollar when on sale.
Now I have some vegetable soup to go home to, with packaged broth (I admit some laziness, OK?), and otherwise fresh or dried ingredients. It looks nasty, but tastes divine, and took very little work to make.
Cambell's soup isn't easy on the wallet--who are they kidding? Especially, when I would need to buy more than one at a time.
I'll make my own soups--cheaper and better for me. Have you see the sodium content in some of Campbell's soup?! Holy...
Sorry Campbell's...if I need a basic tomato soup, i'll still buy the store brand (since you probably made it anyhow).
Eat cheap, and eat Better than ever. Grains are so freakin yummy, yum yum yum. It's the only good thing about Whole Foods, err, Whole Paycheck, their bulk food bins.
@cf27:
Your example is an incredibly accurate depiction of the XXX industry.
(And yes, I meant adult entertainment)
Campbell's Chunky Chicken Sausage Gumbo -with a little Tobasco and garnished with shredded cheese. $1.50 at Wally world. Heaven in a can! Cheapest large lunch or light dinner on the planet.
Hmm... I think several of the Select Harvest types aren't too bad on price, nutrition, and quality of ingredients, and that several of the Chuny soups rank very high on the camp/nostalgia vector (e.g., the "mini burgers" with freakin' grill marks in "Sirloin Burger with Country Vegetable"). And the cream of this or that is indispensible for making "comfort food"/not at all classy chicken dishes...
Too much salt, yeah, so drink some water to flush it, and I guess the plain-old tomato variety isn't exactly a bargain. I'd go for the generic on something like that.
But generally Campbell's soups are of a decent quality (compare to the nastiness of various vegetables and meats in Progresso - some of them are way too squishy and some of them are way too jerky-y) and some of them are in some way fun. That "Fully Loaded" line, though? That's nasty and I'm sure it won't last long.
@snoop-blog: Don't you forget about the magical rainbow of flavor and color that is Kool-Aid...
OOOOOOHHHHHHH YYYYYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!
(While crashing through the wall)
I dunno, me and my BF had a Fantastic 5 dollar dinner two nights ago. I bought:
2 fresh salmon steaks (farm raised) for 7.16
2 yams: 1.11
One large broccoli crown: 1.50
Some garlic cloves from a bulk container (1/20th of 7 bucks): 30 cents
Mrs. Dash (1/15th @ 3 bucks a bottle): 45 cents
Total: 10.52
Dinner was awesome, and it cost 5.25 each. Do I eat like that every day? No, but close to it.
Splurging doesn't have to cost a fortune.
Maglet, you wrote: Cambell's soup isn't easy on the wallet--who are they kidding?
I totally agree. I am shocked to pay a whole dollar for a can of tomato soup. It should be more like 69 cents. And cream of mushroom is even more.
The milk industry plans to spend just under $1 million on the Suze Orman ads.
And this is part of my problem with the Suze Ormans of the world: they have made their names as people who are supposed to be teaching people about how to use their money intelligently, and yet, they are helping to tout morketing campaigns that capitalize on fiscal ignorance (be it willful, or unintended).
@StyckyWycket: I meant marketing; but now that I've said it, I'm interested to see what a morketing campaign would do...
*checks the address and the banner displayed at the top of the page once more...*
Yup, this is still The Consumerist. Kinda sad that, "The original dollar menu," and " [...] The moms will be paid in Banquet product coupons, the company said." almost made me think I had wandered over to The Onion.
Ohhh yeah. There really is nothing like grilled cheese and tomato soup on those cold days!!!!
I make about 5 gallons of chicken veggie soup at a time, freeze it. Guess what? No added salt is needed! I don't even add the carb infested noodles. It about 30 cents for each big bowl. Yes, lunch for 30 cents! I make 6 gallons of chili at a time, cost for 5 meats and 30 other ingredients - not sure, you do the math, but I know its aweseome! People , stop buying that crap
Off brands people. Aldi's and such. Cheaper price, just as good on quality.
My comparison is as follows:
Campbells Tomato: nearly $1.00 per 12oz. can
Off Brand at Wal-Hell (The only grocery store in my area): $0.75
Off-Off brand at Aldi's: $0.50
And they've got LOTS of different varieties for sale. Usually I stock up on Tomato, Cream of Mushroom, Celery, Chicken and use them in tons of different things.
Bargain shop, people. Make your dollar stretch more.
I like those bags of bean for 15 bean soup. I'll make a ham, then throw the leftovers in a pot, add two bags of beans and some water and voila, a huge pot o soup.
@johnva: So are cheese singles. It's called "American PROCESS cheese." That means the same as "cheese food," whatever the f*** that is. I put Alpine Lace baby swiss on my cheezburger; it's better for ya.
@dynamix10: I do the same, and will be doing it even more in future. It is better for you, cheaper (or at least no more expensive), and tastier. I think cooking is about to make a big, big comeback, and not just for the foodies.
@Marshfield: Yeah, I think Cream of Mushroom is like $1.25...considering you need to add milk (you can add water, but who wants watery cream soup?) it really isn't that much of a bargain.
I'm not impressed, Campbell's. And the Kraft individual cheese slices taste like wax. No thank you.
I WISH there was an Aldi's around here! But, alas... there isn't.
Who said drink more water to flush all the sodium? That's not a good counter... my high blood pressure can tell, even with copious amounts of water. Paying $3 for one can of soup (I like the different varieties, not just plain chicken noodle or tomoato) is out of our budget. Even if I didn't have our family to feed, I'd still have a fundamental problem with a WEE can of soup being more than a buck!
@testicles, I make a big pot of soup like that. It freezes really well, too. I love fall and my crockpot. HAHA!
I don't buy soup because it is over priced. 1 dollar for a can of soup? Craziness. Canned pastas like ravioli and spagettios are like 55 cents.
@Zulujines:
That's because there's hardly, if any, milk in them anymore. Several years ago, they changed the formula. Remember those commercials where they were touting "milk in every slice!"?
There's a Kraft factory here in this city and a former coworker's husband worked there. He tipped us off right before they changed it.
I still like the Deluxe slices, although I get the Aldi's brand.
@forgottenpassword: In our house Velveeta was exotic and luxurious! We had generic cheese slices and kraft mac n' cheese, so the occasional mac n' cheese made with velveeta was like a gourmet meal. We weren't particularly poor (well, I guess we were, but not like food-shortage poor) we just didn't keep it around as a staple so it seemed like a luxury when we had it.
@Nofsdad: I think those that use the term "sheeple" are sheeple themselves for using that word. What a stupid word.
"Financial guru Suze Orman will don the familiar milk mustache in a print ad that reads: "Even at today's prices, a glass of milk only costs about a quarter...."
And immediately after that, she'll talk about your FICO score. Of course that she's paid by Fair Isaac, F.I.C.O., has anything to do with is.
The milk industry plans to spend just under $1 million on the Suze Orman ads.
@Murph1908: They will keep the slogan just change the focus, at least in the medium term.
The recognition rate for Got Milk is so high as to be ludicrous.
@RandaPanda0283: Aldi's rocks for good off-brand stuff. Their saltine crackers (often eaten with soup) are the best for the price as most other store brands usually can't even get close in texture and taste to Premium Brand saltines.
I love my local farm CSAs more and more.