Stores, Food Makers Compete on Retail Prices.

[elleng]

Source: AP/NYT

"Retailers, who begrudgingly went along when food makers pushed up prices to recoup record-high costs, are flexing newfound muscle and demanding price cuts to match the recent steep retreat in ingredient costs.

Food makers are resisting, saying the uncertain economy and volatile costs make price cuts unwise. But retailers aren't backing down."



Read more: http://nytimes.com/aponline/2009/03/15/business/AP-Food-Fight.html

[depakid]

1. If ever there was an article (or set of issues) where there's likely much more than meets the eye

or where one would be well advised NOT to trust the likes of the NY Times without doing some further investigation, this would be it.

<on edit that would be AP>

[elleng]

2. Explain, please?

.

[depakid]

3. Think about it.

Who are their major advertisers now that housing related things and auto sales have fallen off?

Where do the conglomerates that own numerous large grocery chains look for spin or positive press?

Has the Times (or AP) been forthright about issues with conglomerates and competition in the past?

Are food vendors -especially smaller producers getting a fair shake? Or are have they been getting squeezed at the margins by various other entities- only to have that squeeze pocketed by Wall Street, et al?

Where are the "in store" brand coming from?

Needless to say- neither the article nor the history of the publication and the business practices ring true.

[elleng]

4. I can't answer all the questions and/or come up with a useful understanding..

Please discuss.

[depakid]

5. Actually- that's what we need honest investigative journalists- and ethical regulatory agencies

for.

All I can say is that it doesn't ring true. Sounds like a lot of corporate bickering and lazy stenography- much like Jon Stewart was talking about.

[Sherman A1]

6. Having worked in the grocery biz for 35 years

and very low on the food chain. I know that when this all started they pushed very hard on store brands because they have a better margin. We also saw a huge effort on cross merchandising (putting related items together to spur impulse sales) that we had never seen in the past. Don't forget that the manufacturers of the products already pay the stores, slotting allowances, co-op ad allowances along with various other fees just to get on the shelf. I have really only seen one manufacturer do some push back on trying to maintain consumer loyalty and market share, that being P&G with several "buy $25.00 of P&G items and get a $xxx coupon for your next shopping trip at the checkout".

I will tell you that price increases have slowed down considerably. These last few weeks have been maybe just a couple of dozen as opposed to hundreds I had at the first of last year ( I do post these each week before the ad changes) . I have also seen a greater number of decreases (but I don't do those, that is another clerk that posts them after the ad changes).

So maybe things will be a bit better, but I don't hope for much.

[depakid]

7. Thanks for that input

We all really need to put outr collective heads together and think about this stuff- because the two journos from the AP surely aren't going to do much of that.

Here's a somewhat more informative (i.e. thought out) article on the subject that's more than just he said/she said stenography:

Price battles looming for food maker

http://www.reuters.com/article/FoodandAgriculture09/idUSTRE52C51A20090313

Could of course be better in terms of helping people understand what's going on at their level- every day they go to the store...

[elleng]

8. Maybe we all will determine to become educated consumers,

and demand some things from our retailers in the future. How otherwise will suppliers/producers feel our 'power?'

[ensho]

9. thanks for the insight - we need to know all we can so a sensible

and economical way of doing 'food' can be put in place.