Things have been a little hectic for me around The Ranch, I’ve been making notes when things catch my attention, but I haven’t had the bandwidth to put together blog posts. So this might end up being a double-header or 2-parter, just to break things up a bit and to let me get caught up.
 
 
In the land of e-commerce, grocery has been the one area that just hasn’t really taken a good foothold. Not sure it’s as simple as just a better ux (user experience) but there is something to the idea of presenting the online products in a way that the consumer traditionally shops in the store, displaying all the products on a shelf.
(link to AdAge: Fixing Online Grocery’s ‘Failure to Launch’)
 
 
Time is one of the more valuable things for people these days, so things like experiences, authenticity, and simplicity are what consumers are seeking.
(link to Fortune: Six Eating Habits Transforming The Food Industry)
 
 
My podcast listening queue has How I Built This in it. This episode was really interesting, hearing about the very early days of Whole Foods aka Safer Way and the bumps that they went through.
(link to podcast – search for May 15th 2017 episode: Whole Foods Market: John Mackey)
 
 
I continue to be intrigued by alternative farming methods, like hydro- and aero-ponics. I’m actually trying to put together a very small hydroponic setup in my backyard, just to see how it works. In this article they talk about doing it on a large scale and how it could make sense to set up urban farms, not necessarily in the center of the city, but out on the outskirts where the existing distribution system is already set up. Makes sense.
(link to Fast Company: Has This Silicon Valley Startup Finally Nailed The Indoor Farming Model?)
 
 
Flaming Hot Cheetos and Hot Takis are pretty popular these days. This article about the guy who cam up with the idea caught my attention. It shows that anyone with an ah-ha idea and a very supportive management can make big things happen.
(link to Daily Bulletin: How a Rancho Cucamonga janitor came to invent Flamin’ Hot Cheetos)
 
 
Something that I observed while watching various cooking/chef competition television shows is that Walmart is sponsoring (not only running commercials) cooking segments or particular competition events, where they are mentioned as well as there are logos both onscreen and within the set. Not just product placement in the old fashioned sense but a full branding, promoting their grocery selection and quality. This along with all the new products that they have been carrying in store, organic, natural, healthy, it just shows that they are really trying hard to be a big player in this space and will be taking market share away from the retailers traditionally thought of in the healthful segment.