Dated: 1 July 2008 Daphne Tan, Outgoing editor and eternal consumer
“What exactly do consumers want?”
It would be pure folly to try and tackle this question in the short space of an editor’s note. But this being my precious last column in AFJ, I might as well give it a shot.
I belong to the generation where, growing up, the ultimate tea-time treat was a certain brand of chilled chocolate cake. To be sure, the thrill wasn’t so much in the taste but in what the product embodied—a food retail breakthrough that was to revolutionize completely our eating habits.
For the first time I could remember, the fuss of home-baking was tossed aside for modern ultra-convenience packed in a neat silver foil. After years poking around musty provision stores, the concept of supermarket shopping took off with as much delightful inevitability as a cocoon-to-butterfly metamorphosis. And so was triggered the rise of the processing empire.
Convenience and modern packaging were fresh concepts then; today, they are a given. On the one end, consumers, particularly in Europe, are now crying out for sustainable production, organic options, differentiated quality. And on most counts, consumers everywhere just want a good (high quality, well priced, convenient) product that delivers the goods (nutrition and taste). In a world brimming with choices and exotic new taste experiences, I’d like to believe that there’s power in nostalgia-induced consumption. We still enjoy best the foods we grew up eating, this time perhaps at the touch of a microwave button and with the right nutrition and organic labels.
Marrying technology with tradition—now that’s a concept I would buy.
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(1 April 2008) More than 50 percent of Americans, ages 18-44, are ready to dine on Singaporean staples like Singapore chili crab, Hainanese chicken rice, and laksa noodles. These finding are base...
(1 April 2008) The confectionery market in Vietnam is on the upwards climb. Datamonitor forecasts that it will be worth $707 million in 2011. By the end of 2011, the sugar-confectionery category ...
(1 April 2008) Frozen-food packaging in the US is expected to soar to $6.4 billion in 2011, due to an increase in demand for convenience foods. Smaller household sizes, an aging population and mo...
(1 March 2008) By 2006, Coca-Cola looked as though it was finally succumbing to the blows of its arch rival PepsiCo, which had attained a similar market value of around $100 billion. Ten years ea...
While Tesco had previously resisted offering mortgages on the grounds that the margins were so tight that they were unprofitable, finance director Andrew Higginson said that the credit crunch seems to have created an opportunity. Tesco may begin offering home mortgages to compete with the major lenders.
In response to consumer research and the global trend for convenience, South Africa's Pick n Pay has opened its first small format convenience store in Fairland, Johannesburg.
Marks & Spencer has opened its first store in mainland China with hopes that it might lift flagging results. As the flagship store opened on West Nanjing Road, Shanghai’s premier shopping street, the UK retailer reported its worst performance for three years with like-for-like UK sales down by over six per cent over the last three months.
Sorin Minea, chairman of the Romanian Federation of Food Industry Business Owners (Romalimenta) says the food industry is currently overdeveloped in Romania and explains that the weight of current expenses...
US grocers including Whole Foods Market, Kroger and Stop & Shop have had to hire third party verifiers to root out produce that contains pesticide residue despite organic seals. Some supposedly organic producers are certifying conventionally-grown produce in order to increase the price.
Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, has shown it operates best in tough markets, racking up a 10.3 per cent increase in profit of €1,824 billion for the first six months of 2008 to 23 August. Total sales rose 13.8 per cent to €32.1 billion.
