Caught My Attention 013 (170614)


Most of the things catching my attention recently has been around the grocery store and online retailing. There is a little here on culture/photography and a hit of hot sauce. There is a lot of information out there on the interwebs, hard to pick the ones that are worth spending time looking at. Time is so valuable.
 
 
I really like Nando’s Peri Peri sauce. I think its got great flavor being a citrus based hot sauce. I like it even more now that I read about their campaign around election time. They don’t have restaurants out here on the west coast that I know of, but this campaign ran in the D.C. area.
(link on Dive: Nando’s tackled the inauguration with a bold campaign — and saw a 122% sales lift)
 
 
Growing your own food isn’t something everyone has had the experience of doing. I was lucky as a kid, that we always had a vegetable garden every summer and I learned a lot watching my parents and neighbors grow their gardens. I think it’s very important that kids know where food really comes from, not just that it is boughten at the store. Here’s an article about home gardening might be making a comeback.
(link on NPR Salt: Seeds Of Change: Mini Gardens Help Drive The Growth Of Food At Home)
 
 
I have a past life working in film and photography. I even did a little shooting, still do I suppose (but these days, everyone thinks they’re a photographer). I really think a picture is worth a thousand words.
(link on NPR Salt: The Big Picture: How Food Photos Have Told Our Story Over The Decades)
 
 
The number of products available on store shelves these days, compared to even just 10 years ago, are so much more. Even since the ’90s average number of skus in a store has gone from 7000 then, to 40-50,000 today. So many variations of the same thing. Just look at the condiment aisle, the aisle I am most familiar, the choices are plentiful. Is that really a good thing? I’m not sure. Choice is good yes, but I think that you can do a lot with a little if you get creative and a little adventurous in the kitchen.
(link to Marketwatch: Grocery stores carry 40,000 more items than they did in the 1990s)
 
 
Ready to prepare meal kits (think Blue Apron) have become popular recently and there are several on the market. More all the time it seems. Here is info that Munchies from Vice now has their own branded meal kits for sale.
(link to Fortune: Vice Media Launches ‘Munchies’ Meal Kits to Cook Up New Revenue)
 
 
More and more try to get into the online grocery game. Not just existing big box stores like Walmart, but specialty goods as well. Here is news of a new startup and looks like maybe they are going to focus on the 20% of products that move the most on other typical grocery outlets. Looking at some social media pics, maybe they are going to do private label goods.
(link to Food Dive: Online grocer Movebutter launches, touting low prices and curated selection)
 
 
I guess in-store restaurants, or grocerants, are becoming more and more common. I remember many (20+) years ago first seeing the start of something like this back east at Wegmans. And now seeing more Wholefoods having similar and more elaborate.
(link to Fortune: Bringing The Restaurant Into The Grocery Aisle)
 
 
This is looking like several technologies coming together, for the potential look of the grocery store of the future. Self driving vehicles. Robots. Artificial intelligence. Already test something in Shanghai. Pretty cool I think.
(link to Fastcompany: The Grocery Store Of The Future Is Mobile, Self-Driving, And Run By AI)
 
 

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