[GreenYes] Excess Packaging/Obese Bodies Go Together Like Free Market Capitalism and High Profitability

["Peter Anderson" <anderson@recycleworlds.org>]

fyi (It's great to know that along with the mountain of unnecessary
packaging that the single serve revolution entails, we are also, at one and
the same time, inducing people to eat larger portions of junk food to become
truly obese.  But, at least the premium prices charged for "convenience"
produces the high profits that justifies the market's high P/E ratios to
turbo charge our economy... so long as no one asks to what end ...and to
think my pension and retirement is interlinked with all this...someone,
please, tell us how to get off this merry go round -- peter)
WALL STREET JOURNAL - 7/23/02

Marketers Push Single Servings

And Families Hungrily Dig In

By EMILY NELSON

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL



"A frozen, individually wrapped peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"Surely no one would want that, thought executives at jam maker J.M. Smucker
Co. After all, there's nothing easier for someone to slap together than
PB&J.

"But after testing a hockey puck shaped, plastic-wrapped sandwich in several
midwestern states, and generating $20 million in sales, Smucker's now is
shipping frozen PB&J almost everywhere except the coasts. Television
advertising boasts that the crusts are cut off, perfect for the youthful
palate. Parents can put a frozen sandwich in their child's lunch box in the
morning and it will thaw by noon, says Tim Smucker, chairman and co-chief
executive of the company founded by his great-grandfather. There's no need
for a microwave.

Changing Tastes

"What people want from their food is changing. These days they want it
prepackaged, and they don't want to share. Years ago only school-lunch milk
cartons and candy bars were sized for one person. Then came potato chips and
juice boxes for little ones. Now marketers, ever on the hunt for the latest
food fad, are taking food-for-one to the extreme. They're prepackaging
everything from breakfast to fried chicken, and repackaging yummies so that
they're easier to wolf down in the car. Single-sized food packs have become
the major source of financial growth for the food industry. And for
consumers, they are substituting for traditional after-school snacks and
even dinner.

"But there are hidden consequences to the convenience. Though food industry
executives like to talk about their packaging as "portion control," the
increasing popularity of individual-sized munchies actually means that
people are losing control of how much they eat -- and how much they feed
their children.

"...

"Meanwhile food marketers say that for the most part low-fat snacks, even in
single servings, don't sell well. A spokeswoman for P&G, which makes
fat-free Pringles, says "it's only 5% to 10% of the population who's
interested in that variety of food." Individually wrapped low-fat muffins
sold at convenience stores "just were a total failure," says Ms. Boisseau,
the Dallas food consultant.

Ms. Boisseau says the best-selling individual-serving foods she has helped
launch all have come in larger than typical sizes. "I don't think I've had a
single item that's gone out in a larger size that hasn't done well. That's
kind of sad," she says. "You get used to it. Then, it's a normal portion,
and that's why everyone is so overweight."

______________________________
Peter Anderson
RECYCLEWORLDS CONSULTING Corp
4513 Vernon Blvd. Suite 15
Madison, WI 53705
Ph:    (608) 231-1100
Fax:   (608) 233-0011
Cell:   (608) 345-0381
email: anderson@recycleworlds.org
web:  www.recycleworlds.org

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