Can you trust the food industry? Here’s one doctor who thinks you can

Posted on September 27, 2014 in Health

I’m as jaundiced as possible about the food and beverage industry, its shenanigans and products so far removed from their natural state they don’t deserve to be called  food. The contribution the industry makes to the global epidemic of NCDs (non-communicable diseases – a clumsy term for chronic, life-threatening illness), such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, gets me particularly green around the gills. Huge profits the industry makes while making people sicker and fatter are equally nauseating. It’s not surprising the industry is embarking on a makeover, given the tsunami of research on health risks linked to its highly refined, high-sugar, processed foods and soft drinks. It’s easy to be cynical, and to see it as a ploy to protect massive profits. Dr Derek Yach, a South African public health specialist who heads Discovery’s Vitality Institute in the US, gives a more positive view from the inside out, as a former Pepsico executive. He says positive change is possible in the industry, and it’s already underway. MS

By Derek Yach*

When I gave up my post as a World Health Organisation executive director to join PepsiCo in 2007, my friends and colleagues thought I had lost my mind. They and others were understandably skeptical that large food and beverage companies could ever become a positive force for improving public health.

But now, there is new evidence that proves the skeptics wrong. An independent academic study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and just published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows that big food companies can improve what we eat.  Specifically, it found an effort by 16 major food and beverage companies (including PepsiCo) to make food healthier resulted in the sale of 6.4 trillion fewer calories in 2012, compared to 2007. Do the math and you’ll realize that’s 78 fewer calories per day for every man, woman and child in America — a major achievement for public health.

However, cynics are criticising the programme.  They believe big food companies can’t be trusted and programmes like this are shams, motivated by greed and profit. Having been on the inside of big food myself, I can tell you this is far from the truth.

The cooperative effort of these 16 companies is called the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF). It is a campaign to change consumer behaviour, lead people to make healthy eating choices and improve the collective health of our country.

Early on, as the HWCF was being formed, some companies resisted the use of numeric targets and any reference to “their” products playing a role in the smoldering childhood obesity epidemic. However, eventually consensus was reached that the food industry would have to act in meaningful ways that showed their commitment to impactful change. The target was set to sell 1.5 trillion fewer calories in five years, so the companies went to work changing recipes, introducing new low-calorie foods and reducing portion sizes.

The results were astonishing. The coalition exceeded its goal by more than 400%, and better yet, the steepest declines in sales were reported for the least healthy products. In other words— both food quantity and quality is starting to improve.

However, this work is far from complete. More than a third of American adults are classified as obese. In order to accelerate the progress, deeper partnerships between food, beverage, retail and food service companies are needed. Investors need to reward companies for making a commitment to health. Government should incentivise positive change by supporting prevention science that builds better food-based solutions, increasing physical activity in schools and community settings, and aligning agricultural policy with healthy diets. We need to collaborate across sectors.

These first reports of progress by the HWCF offer hope that should encourage us to call for more. We no longer have to doubt that widespread change is possible in the food industry. Even a skeptic has to admit, positive change is underway.

Dollar store traffic continues to grow

9/25/2014 - by Keith Nunes

Three-quarters of all shoppers in the dollar store channel convert to purchase on each visit, and the amount they spend is up 3% on average since last year.

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. — Dollar store shopping visits were up 14% this past quarter while the rest of the brick-and-mortar retail market was down 4%, according to The NPD Group’s Shopping Activity Services report. The report’s authors noted much of the dollar store increase may have been driven in part by new store openings.

“Not many other retailers are opening new stores, focused instead on taking advantage of those already in their stores and maximizing conversion to purchase, as well as expanding their on-line presence,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for The NPD Group. “Consumers walk into a dollar store with the intention to buy, not to browse, and almost always walk away with something. In addition, dollar store traffic has been increasing over the past few years because they have expanded their selection of products, making the channel even more useful and pleasing to price-savvy consumers.”

Three-quarters of all shoppers in the dollar store channel convert to purchase on each visit, and the amount they spend is up 3% on average since last year. In the past two years, the dollar store channel shopper has become younger, with 50% under 45 years of age, compared to 42% two years ago.

Younger shoppers are walking through more dollar store doors, but the 16-24 age group has increased its number of overall brick-and-mortar visits, with 11% growth among males, and 4% among females. This trend was also evident in the previous retail quarter.

“Millennials are increasing their activity in the market, because as much as on-line and mobile channels are ingrained in their brain, shopping is still a social behavior for this group,” Mr. Cohen said. “Seeing and touching, as well as researching and deciding where to purchase a product, are all important aspects of their shopping experience. This omni-channel and omnipresent age group also seeks instant gratification and at the lowest price, which is why younger consumers are also increasing their dollar store visits.”

Wal-Mart opens its Pickup Grocery format in Northwest Arkansas

Submitted by The City Wire Staff on Mon, 09/29/2014 - 6:34am

story by Kim Souza (photos courtesy of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.)
ksouza@thecitywire.com

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Shoppers will check in by using a kiosk that notifies the warehouse attendants they are ready to collect their grocery order.

The no-frills warehouse format contains roughly 10,000 food and other consumable grocery products. Orders are placed online and paid for at that time. Pickers inside the warehouse fill the orders and sack up the items which are then ready for delivery to the consumer car once it pulls up to the kiosk area at the warehouse. The shopper selected a pickup time that is convenient for them, ranging from 2 hours to 3 weeks.

Warehouse employees are dispatched to the car once the driver checks in at the kiosk station. The order is confirmed by the employee and the groceries are loaded into the shopper`s vehicle.

Wal-Mart has said its goal is get shoppers on their way within 5 minutes of their check-in at the kiosk station.

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Grocery drive-up convenience with low price guarantees are the latest ploy by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to bridge the digital and physical retail worlds. And on Monday (Sept. 29) the retail giant is unveiled its Walmart Pickup Grocery service to registered customers in Northwest Arkansas.
A grand opening ceremony is set to take place at 7:30 a.m. at the warehouse site located near the intersection of J Street and S. Walton Boulevard in Bentonville. Wal-Mart said its employees have in recent weeks tested the new format and it wants to continue expanding the test by allowing registered shoppers to use the service beginning Monday.
Former Walmart U.S. CEO BIll Simon first announced the plans for a drive-up grocery depot in March. The Bentonville City Council approved the warehouse site in early May and construction was underway within days. Last month Wal-Mart revealed the name for the format – Walmart Pickup Grocery – and began letting employees test the service.
USER GUIDE
Consumers who want to use the service must first register online with an email address. Wal-Mart said it will begin extending invitations to try the same-day service via email.
Registered shoppers can order from the online site (Link here for the page.) which contains roughly 10,000 grocery and consumable items including fresh meat, dairy, produce and common household products. The consumer then schedules a pickup time ranging from two hours to three weeks after the order is placed.
The shopper then drives to one of the kiosk stations at the pickup grocery site at the scheduled time and notifies the attendant who will bring their order to the car. Orders are paid for online. Wal-Mart said this test extends its everyday low prices with no hidden fee or surcharges.
“We know at Wal-Mart our customers’ needs are changing. They want and need more shopping options and we have the means to give them low prices, wide assortments along with value and convenience in a seamless shopping experience,” Deisha Barnett, Wal-Mart spokeswoman, told The City Wire in April when the new format was made public.
Barnett said the new convenient grocery format in no way is meant to replace traditional stock-up trips at its supercenters and Neighborhood Market stores.
MIRRORING A U.K. MODEL
Judith McKenna, the chief development officer at Walmart U.S. who has years of expertise as the retailer’s British grocery chain ASDA, is one of the leaders of the new format. In June, she said the ASDA model offers “learnings” as the U.K. market is more adept at online grocery than the U.S.
“ASDA customers have moved quickly to online and pickup grocery models. A program called Click & Collect was not available two years ago. It’s in 300 stores now and will be in 600 stores by next year,” McKenna said.
McKenna said population density is needed for the home delivery option to make financial sense for retailers. But in drive commuter markets, she said the click & collect models for grocery could find favor among many shoppers. She said the new format in Bentonville is a trial, but there is evidence in other places that it has possibilities.
Wal-Mart has been clear from the beginning that the new mini warehouse format is a test, one of many it’s conducting across the country to assess consumer sentiment toward delivery options versus pickup services for groceries.
The retailer has said the grocery home delivery tests in Denver were going well, but one   lesson learned in the process has been that more consumers would just as soon pickup their online orders at their own convenience for no added fees. The home delivery fee in the Denver market ranges between $5 and $10.
The online grocery market, worth $6 billion annually, is projected to grow at 9.5% a year between 2012 and 2017, according to the market research firm IBISWorld.
EXPERT INSIGHT
“Wal-Mart is testing this format because it is a vehicle – literally – for next-stage scale-building and a complement to its small format strategy,” said Carol Spieckerman, CEO of newmarketbuilders.

Continuing, Spieckerman noted: “Wal-Mart has everything to gain as it offers yet another option for convenience-starved customers and without the overhead of its other physical formats. Shopping eats up time and can be a major inconvenience for parents with small children and the elderly and infirm. This is also a great way for Wal-Mart to make the most of its digital platform, to acclimate more customers to using it and to gather more information on its customers’ searching and shopping habits as they place orders online.”
She adds that the while the click & collect locations are common in the U.K., this new format may have more influence in the U.S.

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“It’s a pioneering move in the U.S. and that alone has the potential to bring new customers into Wal-Mart’s physical and digital ecosystem,” Spieckerman said.
WHY BENTONVILLE?
During shareholder’s week in June, Wal-Mart execs were asked why they chose Bentonville as the home for this newest concept. They responded, “Why not?”
Northwest Arkansas is a commuter society – with some estimates of more than 500,000 living in the metro area – and thousands of potential shoppers drive by the 15,000 square-foot pickup warehouse each day. In Wal-Mart’s own corporate ranks there are roughly 10,000 working just a few blocks away, many of whom commute into Bentonville from nearby towns.
Analysts said having the new grocery format close to the home office and technology center is also a benefit because they will be able to test new technology capabilities quickly and conveniently without travel.

Which brand attributes matter most to Millennials?

By MarketingCharts staff

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

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Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from MarketingCharts, a Watershed Publishing publication providing up-to-the-minute data and research to marketers.

Three in 10 Millennials (aged 25-34) around the world are cynical about the way brands market to them and that figure rises above 40 percent in the U.S. and UK, finds Initiative in a new study. With such skepticism evident, brands should demonstrate their commitment to social causes and emphasize attributes such as authenticity and trustworthiness, per the study, which is based on a survey of almost 10,000 25-34-year-olds in 19 countries.

Results from the survey indicate that the top brand attributes globally, for Millennials, are:

• Trustworthiness (31 percent);
• Creativeness (29 percent);
• Intelligence (23 percent);
• Authenticity (22 percent); and
• Confidence (21 percent).

Some of those prized attributes (such as trustworthiness and authenticity) can be seen as directly related to the skepticism that many Millennials hold for brands. But they also align with some of Millennials' common traits: Millennials' economic uncertainty and insecurity, for example, means that they appreciate brands that are useful to them and can emotionally connect with them in an authentic way.

Meanwhile, Millennials' desire for intelligent brands likely reflects the fact that, per the study's authors, "Millennials ... are adults with all the expectations and responsibilities of adulthood." As for a desire for creativity from brands? That speaks to Millennials' own creativity — one of the three themes (along with the ability to adapt and their desire to collaborate) that emerged as common traits among global Millennials.

While those attributes are most important to Millennials, these young consumers also prize brands that work for positive social change. Indeed, a majority of respondents believe that:

• Brands should actively participate to improve causes (59 percent);
• Brands have the potential to be a force for good (58 percent); and
• They are more loyal to a brand that helps improve societal or ecological issues (54 percent).

By contrast, only 13 percent feel that brands should just focus on their products and services.

This social bent has been found in other research, too. Recently, a Harris Interactive survey of American adults found that Millennials are more likely than other generations to take a company's reputation for social responsibility into account when making purchase decisions. An earlier survey fielded by Ipsos OTX similarly found Millennials to be more willing to pay a premium for "green" products than their older counterparts.

Sweetgreen

Buy local: Not just for foodies anymore

By Daphne Howland | September 29, 2014

In the mid-1980s, when a McDonald’s franchise was proposed for the piazza at Rome’s iconic Spanish Steps, a gourmet (what we now call a "foodie") named Carlo Petrini and a group of fellow-minded activists in Italy staged a demonstration and launched a quiet revolution. 

Called the Slow Food Movement, that first push 28 years ago has become a global organization that has boosted the fortunes of small farmers and artisanal food purveyors in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. 

Its manifesto reads, in part: 

Against the universal madness of the Fast Life, we need to choose the defense of tranquil material pleasure. Against those, and there are many of them, who confuse efficiency with frenzy, we propose the vaccine of a sufficient portion of assured sensual pleasure, to be practiced in slow and prolonged enjoyment ... 

Now that sentiment to support local growers, grocers, and restaurants is extending to other areas of retail, giving smaller businesses something of an advantage in their competition with big-box stores.

Small stores vs big box chains

One of the biggest local-store success stories of the current retail era is thesurprising survival and even revival of the local bookstore. While bookstores were once written off as Amazon's first victims, in the past four years new bookstore openings have outpaced closings. 

Despite the inability to compete on price, the local bookstore has found a way to appeal to customers. Customers see an advantage in not just browsing amid actual books, but also turning to staff for recommendations and general book chats. Author readings, a more diversified set of merchandise (selling toys, candles, and other sundries beyond bookmarks and blank books) and sellingused as well as new books have helped indie bookstores draw people in. 

And while independents may have to charge more than Amazon or chains do for each book, they have also learned to reduce some of their costs by updating their inventory methods and other business tools.

The buy local movement has helped these retailers too, giving people another reason to buy the same book they could find more cheaply on Amazon. Shopper and bookseller might talk about not just books they've read, but also about their children (who may be at the same school), local news, or some new restaurant in town, and the bookseller might even give their dog a treat.

And while e-books may seem to be the future and in some measure they’re here to stay, bookstores aren't just catering to aging customers; the great majority of young people in their teens and twenties prefer print.

A sense of higher quality

At a bookstore, a record store, or an appliance store, most of the inventory is the same that can be found nationally. In those cases, it is customer service that wins the day — one type of superior quality for sure.

Some local retailers, though, sell jewelry, clothing, or other products that are unique or of higher quality (or both) than what can be found at chain stores. It’s this same inclination that is making Etsy so successful: lovely things, made and sold by talented people who use superior materials and, above all, care. Many times the person behind the counter is the same one who made those earrings or knitted cap, refurbished a barn door, or found and fixed up that vintage typewriter.

This appeals to people who agree with the slow food movement, but also to millennials, who, studies show, desire to wear and own things that will set them apart.

An antidote to fast fashion

Even fast-fashion powerhouse H&M is now slowing things down somewhat, offering higher-quality, less trendy apparel in its COS (“Collection of Style") stores. The disposability of fast-fashion bothers many younger shoppers, and those issues appear to be gaining traction. 

Local retailers have the opportunity to make or curate higher-end merchandise that doesn’t carry the stigma of being made in overseas factories that mistreat workers or harm the environment.  Of course, being more expensive is no guarantee that any item is guilt free, but local retailers interested in making a point of it have an excellent pitch to make to their customers.

Supporting friends and neighbors

Cities and towns also have a role to play in boosting the “buy local” movement. Very often, it’s smaller retail stores that fill vacant buildings in downtowns. And compared to e-commerce, at least for now, local retailers are more often passing on more tax revenues to city and state governments.

Plus, those business owners generally have more of a stake in local politics, schools, and other issues that larger corporate retailers operating in any given area may not even be aware of. 

The idea of “buying local” can, as with bookstores, lead people to opt to pay more, just to keep their dollars close by. That attitude, surprisingly, actually grew stronger during the recession, according to Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

"There is this larger, cultural shift ... to buy local,” Mitchell told CNN. "Rather than pulling back and buying into the idea that they could save a few bucks elsewhere, in many communities, people seemed to make even more of an effort to steer their spending to businesses owned locally.”

WHAT IS INTERNET OF THINGS?

Sep 25 2014

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is a scenario in which objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to automatically transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. In simple words, everything is connected over IP and would interact would each other based on pre-defined logic, e.g. refrigerator can order milk by itself when it is about to get over based on past consumption trends.

The keyword is “Things”. Here things includes people and animals which means that in future even the people might be connected to objects like health equipment or household appliances. This might sound straight out of a science fiction movie but that is how human to machine and machine to machine interactions are likely to take place. IoT describes a system where items in the physical world, and sensors within or attached to these items, are connected to the Internet via wireless and wired Internet connections. These sensors can use various types of local area connections such as RFID, NFC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee. Sensors can also have wide area connectivity such as GSM, GPRS, 3G, and LTE. In summary, the Internet of Things will:

1. Connect both inanimate and living things

2. Use sensors for data collection

3. Identify, track and communicate with objects over IP network

IPv6′s huge increase in address space is an important factor in the development of the Internet of Things. With IPv6, it is possible to assign a unique IP address to each atom on earth and still not run out of IP addresses.

EXAMPLES OF INTERNET OF THINGS

There are multiple ways in which Internet of Things can be used to drive the economic value across sectors. Today, we have a few examples of IoT but it is just the tip of the iceberg and many new use cases would emerge in the future. Some of the prominent examples are as follows:

1. Home Automation - home automation has become the central battlefield of the Internet of Things. This is probably the first and most celebrated use case of Internet of Things. Many houses are moving towards some form of home automation though this area is still evolving and currently very rudimentary form of home automation is being used.

2. Smart water systems and meters - The cities of Doha, Sao Paulo, and Beijing have reduced leaks by 40 to 50% by putting sensors on pumps and other water infrastructure. Smart metres are being used for preventing electricity pilferage and balancing grid loads.

3. Connected advertising and marketing - Cisco believes that this category (think Internet-connected billboards) will be one of the top three IoT categories, along with smart factories, and telecommuting support systems.

4. Healthcare - Hospitalized patients whose physiological status requires close attention can be constantly monitored using IoT-driven, non invasive monitoring using sensors. Remote patient monitoring is also a possibility by securely capturing patient health data from a variety of sensors, apply complex algorithms to analyze the data and then share it through wireless connectivity with medical professionals who can make appropriate health recommendations.

5. Public transportation/smart cities - London iBus system is a good example. It works with information from over 8,000 buses that are fitted with GPS capabilities alongside various other sensors which relay data about the vehicle’s location and current progress so bus stop signposts can display details of a bus’s impending arrival.

MATURITY OF INTERNET OF THINGS AND MARKET FORECAST

Internet of Things is still in infancy and would take over 10 year to get to mainstream. The Gartner hype cycle for emerging technologies (refer image below) clearly shows that the Internet of Things is still in the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” and it is still long way from reaching significant adoption.

As per Gartner forecast made in Dec, 2013, the Internet of Things (IoT), which excludes PCs, tablets and smartphones, will grow to 26 billion units installed in 2020 representing an almost 30-fold increase from 0.9 billion in 2009. Gartner said that IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion, mostly in services, in 2020. It will result in $1.9 trillion in global economic value-add (which represents the aggregate benefits that businesses derive through the sale and usage of IoT technology) across sectors in 2020. The verticals that are leading its adoption are manufacturing (15 percent), healthcare (15 percent) and insurance (11 percent).

The potential for IoT is huge. The chart on the right shows the potential of Internet of Things with respect to some of the successful inventions of the digital space. Clearly, the potential is larger than anything till date but for that a lot of players in the ecosystem will need to come together and make IoT a reality.

KEY PLAYERS IN INTERNET OF THINGS

The evolving vendor ecosystem that is emerging to enable the Internet of Things continues to be extremely fragmented and includes a wide variety of small emergent players. A number of start-ups and established players are showing interest. I see the players broadly in two major categories

1. Platform Builders: These players would be the building blocks for internet of things like the carriers/MNO, OEMs, systems integrator, chip vendors, infrastructure services (device management, data modelling, etc. ), Analytics, etc.

2. Vertical Industry Players: These players would develop industry specific solutions on top of the platform builders, e.g. Nest Labs in energy efficiency