I worked in brand marketing at Big Food – can confirm it's all about collabs these days, whether it's for frozen pizza, cereal, beverages, or tired brands in the baking or dry-goods aisles. While the driving force behind these types of "collabs" and streetwear-esque limited "drops" are certainly consumer-driven and motivated by the company's desire for more press with Gen Z/Alpha, another important piece of the story is that the big food companies are actually doing worse post-Covid, and they need to get people into center-store aisles in the first place. Things like cereal, baking mixes, and basically anything you see on a shelf are all shrinking categories unless they have some kind of health spin. So the companies' goal is to get people into these aisles, and they hope consumers will pick up something else along the way. But they also realize strategically that the buzzy products will be short-lived, yielding some press and quick revenue, and that's about it. I think it's a strategy that may pay off for some brands, but it also reeks of desperation and may not be long-term sustainable. Curious to see what the landscape looks like in another 5-10 years.
Michael Pollan put it best. Food is generally found on the perimeter of the store. Fruits and vegetables (although I wonder about the Carbon footprint of organic anything from Peru). Meats, dairy and the frozen aisle where lots of wacky things are going on. I live in Florida and Costco sells tomatoes grown in Canada, maybe not for long).
The interior is filled with food-like substances like “Bread.” Looks like it, but far from 50 years ago. Read the ingredients. It reads like a chemistry set. Snacks all the salty and sweet and both flavors you refer to. Give me a nice in season Florida watermelon, and I’ll get the Henkel big boss out and go at it. The tortoise in our yard appreciates the rinds.
Thank you so much for researching and writing this piece, I thought it was just me getting “old” when I wondered who was buying these crazy products. I’m a mom of a 13-year-old, and I wonder if we are permanently running these kids’ palates with all of these chemical-laden flavor-bombs. Can you imagine heavy consumers of these novelty products ever being satisfied to sit down to a dinner of grilled chicken, vegetable and grain??
Yeah, but I’m hooked on Laoganma Black beans in Chili oil, and their Chili Crisp. A dab of that on the meat does it for me. A billion Chinese can’t be wrong.
I find it very depressing. None of it is necessary or good for us and definitely not for the planet. The packaging is obscene, promises a lot, delivers nothing. Most of the flavours are at best approximations of the real thing. Just more and more ways to get kids hooked on artificial UPFs and keep them away from less profitable real food.
I’ve worked hard - and generally succeeded - at keeping my kids off them. Nothing is a holy cow, I will let them try anything, even the things containing the ingredients we veto (palm oil etc) and as the default is proper food cooked from
scratch they don’t want it. They’re 18 and 15, so I am hoping that it sticks. But I wonder if it is because they never come to the supermarket with me - they did up until the first lockdown - and don’t know what is out there! I wonder what will happen when they are shopping for themselves, will they be tempted into convenience?
This is a really good point (and a sad one!) about kids going to the grocery store. We get almost all of our groceries delivered but it's true that when my kids do come with me to the store, they're unsurprisingly very excited by the brightly colored, novel things they see there. Hard to thread the needle between not feeling like a miser because you say no to everything, but also not wasting a lot of money and buying what you well know is garbage for them.
There's an overnight oats product called Mush. The company is women-owned and has lots of protein. Seems like some rolled oats and peanut butter would do the same...but Peanut butter isn't just ground up peanuts these days. The addition of oil, sugar, and salt is not well advertised and surprises my clients as we talk about knowing what you're eating.
These products all sound like things you’d find in Vegas: inexplicable and “fun” and with lots of shock value. Although I love kitschy, weird things, I have to wonder what percentage of these types of products go to waste compared with other grocery store products?
As in you buy it, try it, and end up throwing most of it away? Good question. In my own experience, when we buy a new snack or treat at my kids' request it VERY rarely ends up being liked enough to be a repeat purchase!
Exactly! Trader Joe’s has lots of new snacks that look fun to try, but at least most of them are palatable. Nothing tasty about a Cheeze-It pizza. And I love Cheeze-Its…and pizza.
I worked in brand marketing at Big Food – can confirm it's all about collabs these days, whether it's for frozen pizza, cereal, beverages, or tired brands in the baking or dry-goods aisles. While the driving force behind these types of "collabs" and streetwear-esque limited "drops" are certainly consumer-driven and motivated by the company's desire for more press with Gen Z/Alpha, another important piece of the story is that the big food companies are actually doing worse post-Covid, and they need to get people into center-store aisles in the first place. Things like cereal, baking mixes, and basically anything you see on a shelf are all shrinking categories unless they have some kind of health spin. So the companies' goal is to get people into these aisles, and they hope consumers will pick up something else along the way. But they also realize strategically that the buzzy products will be short-lived, yielding some press and quick revenue, and that's about it. I think it's a strategy that may pay off for some brands, but it also reeks of desperation and may not be long-term sustainable. Curious to see what the landscape looks like in another 5-10 years.
Oh, my. Ugh. I like your comparison to AI slop. Just crazy.
Michael Pollan put it best. Food is generally found on the perimeter of the store. Fruits and vegetables (although I wonder about the Carbon footprint of organic anything from Peru). Meats, dairy and the frozen aisle where lots of wacky things are going on. I live in Florida and Costco sells tomatoes grown in Canada, maybe not for long).
The interior is filled with food-like substances like “Bread.” Looks like it, but far from 50 years ago. Read the ingredients. It reads like a chemistry set. Snacks all the salty and sweet and both flavors you refer to. Give me a nice in season Florida watermelon, and I’ll get the Henkel big boss out and go at it. The tortoise in our yard appreciates the rinds.
The pace of innovation is only exceeded by the pace of new product attrition at retail. At least this is more fun, if a tad frothy.
Thank you so much for researching and writing this piece, I thought it was just me getting “old” when I wondered who was buying these crazy products. I’m a mom of a 13-year-old, and I wonder if we are permanently running these kids’ palates with all of these chemical-laden flavor-bombs. Can you imagine heavy consumers of these novelty products ever being satisfied to sit down to a dinner of grilled chicken, vegetable and grain??
So true. And even if you're fine with kids trying things (so they don't want them THAT badly) there are now so many to try. It's endless!
Yeah, but I’m hooked on Laoganma Black beans in Chili oil, and their Chili Crisp. A dab of that on the meat does it for me. A billion Chinese can’t be wrong.
This is so depressing. And sad. And wasteful. Ugh. Thank you for writing about this though!!
I find it very depressing. None of it is necessary or good for us and definitely not for the planet. The packaging is obscene, promises a lot, delivers nothing. Most of the flavours are at best approximations of the real thing. Just more and more ways to get kids hooked on artificial UPFs and keep them away from less profitable real food.
I’ve worked hard - and generally succeeded - at keeping my kids off them. Nothing is a holy cow, I will let them try anything, even the things containing the ingredients we veto (palm oil etc) and as the default is proper food cooked from
scratch they don’t want it. They’re 18 and 15, so I am hoping that it sticks. But I wonder if it is because they never come to the supermarket with me - they did up until the first lockdown - and don’t know what is out there! I wonder what will happen when they are shopping for themselves, will they be tempted into convenience?
This is a really good point (and a sad one!) about kids going to the grocery store. We get almost all of our groceries delivered but it's true that when my kids do come with me to the store, they're unsurprisingly very excited by the brightly colored, novel things they see there. Hard to thread the needle between not feeling like a miser because you say no to everything, but also not wasting a lot of money and buying what you well know is garbage for them.
There's an overnight oats product called Mush. The company is women-owned and has lots of protein. Seems like some rolled oats and peanut butter would do the same...but Peanut butter isn't just ground up peanuts these days. The addition of oil, sugar, and salt is not well advertised and surprises my clients as we talk about knowing what you're eating.
Thanks for this article.
These products all sound like things you’d find in Vegas: inexplicable and “fun” and with lots of shock value. Although I love kitschy, weird things, I have to wonder what percentage of these types of products go to waste compared with other grocery store products?
As in you buy it, try it, and end up throwing most of it away? Good question. In my own experience, when we buy a new snack or treat at my kids' request it VERY rarely ends up being liked enough to be a repeat purchase!
Exactly! Trader Joe’s has lots of new snacks that look fun to try, but at least most of them are palatable. Nothing tasty about a Cheeze-It pizza. And I love Cheeze-Its…and pizza.