nickshanagher

The first book by Michael Pollan that I read was called the Food Rules and could be summarised in seven words: Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants. His latest book Cooked is a banquet of ideas with lavish digressions and an amazing cast of real life characters as he explores how people cook with fire, with water, with air and with earth. “People call things cooking today that would roll their grandmother in her grave,” food industry market researcher Harry Balzer tells Pollan. “Like heating up a can of food or microwaving a frozen pizza.” And this idea is why local shop owners find themselves in the food business. Balzer goes on to say: “A hundred years ago chicken for dinner meant going out and catching, killing, plucking and gutting a chicken. Do you know anyone who still does that? It would be considered crazy! Well that’s exactly how cooking will seem to your grandchildren. Like sewing or darning socks-something people used to do when they had no other choice. Get over i...

Fresh Kitchen is a stand-alone sandwich shop under the Sainsbury brand that the FT says is ear-marked for an "agressive roll-out" into the UK if the first site, opened in London's Fleet Street last month, is successful. The paper says that the supermarket chain could open 200 of these outlets, pitching it headlong with Pret-a-Manger and, by extension, with fast food chains like McDonalds. Waitrose, it notes, is already selling sandwiches in some Boots shops and ran its slide rule over the Eat, a coffee and sandwich chain. "Takeaway foods is likely to be the next battleground between the big supermarkets," the paper says. Of course, most local shops with a convenience offer are already aware of the opportunity for food-to-go. This story is further validation of their strategy. While it may be unwelcome to have fresh competition from Sainsbury and others, who are already attacking the c-store market hard, it is still further confirmation that the local gro...

"We're blessed with a wonderful business where we sell moments of pleasure at cents a time...billions of times every day," Muhtar Kent, who heads Coca-Cola, tells the Financial Times. I have cut the quote in half because the first half is what lots of local retailers are in the business of providing in the CTN market. CTN, which stands for confectionery tobacco newsagent, is a specific term that covers a loose style of retailing where people make frequent out-of-pocket purchases. In the modern convenience store, CTN is a major category alongside top-up shopping, food to go and a food for later offering (fresh and chilled). Mr Kent is clear that selling moments of pleasure for cents at a time is a recession proof business - provided you have enough scale. Most local shop owners recognise that they are in the pennies business, needing to build sales volumes. A second theme is his commitment to investment in the future of the business. It is why Coke has supported the ...

Visiting this central Dublin convenience store last week, I was struck by the investment in space. Across the road from a Spar offering pretty much the same mix of top up shopping, food to go, and eat in, the shops are massively different in terms of feel. I hope that this video helps you to see the attractiveness of the Centra/Dame cafe solution. In tone, it feels like a Waitrose.