Question for this thread:
Are any of the major food chains in the U.S. starting to stock large lines of organic products yet?
Just wondering as I've noticed that Loblaws (a major food store chain and food distributor in Canada) has been expanding its "President's Choice Organics" product lines. A couple of years ago, they started selling a few products under their label -- mostly things like pasta, pasta sauce, rice, etc... However, over the past couple of months, the number of products seems to be steadily increasing. And not just under their own label, but under other organic product labels as well. They now have milk, yogurt, butter, and eggs available under their own and also other companies' labels. The organic produce section has grown a lot recently, including things like grapes from other countries, bananas, etc.. They have an unbleached and whole wheat flour milled in Canada that I've been using recently, and lots of other "dry" products like that. Now I've noticed that they're even carrying frozen dinners with organically certified ingredients, etc.. under their own label (obviously being prepared by companies, but under their label). This week, I noticed that they had a frozen dinner with brown rice, edamame beans, carrots, etc.. in the freezer section. Kind of surprised me to see how many new products seem to be steadily appearing.
My guess is that they tested the waters before going in deeper. This same chain did some product testing of organic stuff back around 10 years ago, but I don't think it went over too well and they seemed to discontinue the lines. The new line came out a couple of years ago, but just a few things and very small. However, this is getting very conspicuous in their Loblaws and Independent Grocer's chain stores now -- plenty of shelf space being given to the growing variety of products. Also, the packaging is fairly attractive in a low-key kind of way, so easy to spot against the more loudly coloured packaging of competing brand names.
It seems to me that there may be several winners out of the growth of these products. First, the consumer who will be able to get the kind of products he or she is looking for without having to go on a scavenger hunt. Then there are the farmers who will be able to depend on a more stable market for their produce. They will be able to devote more energy to growing food instead of running around trying to find local markets or struggle with direct-to-customer distribution. Smaller food processors will probably benefit from being able to process organically produced grains and produce to fill custom orders for the large chain. However, there may be one loser in all of this and that will be the health food or whole food type stores who have been the main marketing outlets for organic foods for 25 years. I expect that the growth of organic products in this major grocery chain will put at least a bit of a dent in the income of those stores. I believe that the smaller specialty stores are going to have to depend on customer loyalty to hold onto their share of food sales -- and they'll certainly get that from many who have been shopping there for years -- I know that's true in my own case. I believe there is a certain amount of "ethical loyalty" that exists between the merchants and customers of these stores, and I expect that is likely to continue, at least for some time, regardless of the appearance of organic products in the larger chain stores.
Anyhow, from a trend-watch point of view, it will be interesting to see where all of this goes. Will we see a greater and greater share of the food product market going to organic foods now? Will that, in turn, spur organic farm operations and food processors to enlarge their operations, or to experiment with new crops and products to supply a growing market with new items?
croc |
