United Natural Foods Conference Call—Will Wall Street See Roses in the Warehouse?
For a long time we’ve been wondering when Wall Street would wake up and smell the roses lurking in the forklifts, warehouses and trucks emblazoned with the United Natural Foods logo. UNFI’s recent conference call shows us more reasons why we wonder. The call suggests what we’ve said all along, that the company’s acquisition of […]
Caldrea, Mrs. Meyers Bought by S.C. Johnson
As reported in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal on April 28, Minneapolis based Caldrea, makers of the highly successful Mrs. Meyers brand of biodegradable laundry, house and pet cleaning products was purchased by S.C. Johnson for an undisclosed sum. S.C. Johnson & Son, makers of Windex, Raid, Scrubbing Bubbles and Ziploc bags is the second […]
Whole Foods Glastonbury, Greenest Supermarket in America Uses Hydrogen Fuel Cell Power
As reported in the Waterbury Republican-American the newly opened Whole Foods Market in Glastonbury, Connecticut is the first supermarket in the world to use fuel cell technology to power its store. The fuel cell power plant built which is located at the rear of the store was built and is owned by UTC Power a division of […]
Wilson Unveils Green Basketball
As part of the green trend we see lots of products come on our way, and until we get our new product review section set up, most don’t merit attention for our regular news. Once we get our product review section up we’re sure a lot of them will merit negative attention, but c’est la […]
Give a Gherkin to Someone You Love—It’s International Pickle Week
While we don’t normally report on industry or manufacturer based promotional gimmicks this one was so damn good and right up our pickle eating alley that we couldn’t resist. International Pickle Week was started in 1948 by the Pickle Packers International (say that three times fast) trade association during the heart of cucumber planting season. […]
Hain Impresses Wall Street While Whole Foods Leaves Em Worried
Wall Street’s love affair with natural and organic got a little more interesting as two recent conference calls suggest that our analysis of Whole Foods efforts as sluggish, are on the mark, while our previous doubts about Hain Celestial Foods long term strategy for growth needs some rethinking. While Whole Foods total sales increased 28% […]
Fine Tuning Our Cynical Radar and Rethinking Hain Celestial Foods
Lately we have been talking to more than a few readers and industry muckety mucks and some have suggested that we’re a bit too cynical and our critical thinking radar needs some fine-tuning. Frankly, while we love pointing out where other people have made decisions that we say are stupid, this time we see that […]
Who Put the Cassava in My Potato Chips
One of the benefits of writing is that people want your attention. One of the problems of writing is that people send you lots of stuff you’d never want to eat. Luckily we have gluttonous friend as well as nearby food bank so the rejects never get wasted. Recently we received were some cassava chips. […]
Best New Beverage for Summertime: Santa Cruz Organic Fair Trade Tea Blends
Unless you or your Uncle Tony are in the beverage business you might not know that soda sales are declining nearly as fast as George W. Bush’s approval rating. In the meantime, big soda players like Coca-Cola and Pepsi are scrambling fast and furious to reap sales in new markets such as water and ready-to-drink […]
Martha Stewart Goes Fair Trade with Alter Eco
Okay, folks: given our reputation among some as a cynical son-of-a-bitch, it might be hard to believe but we actually like Martha Stewart. Or said another way, we think she deserves a break. That she has gotten a bum rap, and more. Even before her jail time for insider trading—something we think so many Hedge […]
