Ralph Bigwig Eats His Oats
Is Ron Burkle Just Sewing His Wild Oats Or Is This A Marriage Worth Rooting For? Billionaire grocer and Democratic Party donor Daddy, Ron Burkle, purchased 2.6 million shares or 9.2% of Wild Oats, and according to reports, may start issuing orders to the Oats Board of Directors. Burkle, ranked by Fortune Magazine as 51st […]
Calcium Reporting is ALL WRONG–Bad Science, Lousy Reporting
In case you were wondering how thousands and thousands of calcium studies over dozens of years could be so wrong, stop wondering, because they weren’t. Fact is, the recent calcium study by the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a U.S. government program showed a 29% reduction in bone fractures. Yet, as powerfully noted by Mike Adams, […]
NY Times Required Reading on Aspartame
As opposed to our online persona where NBN is bitchy, relentless and bit of a complainer, offline NBN is committed to change but actually pretty mellow. Honest. Well, come to think of it, online I’m not sort of a complainer, I’m actually a real big complainer, especially when it comes to the newspaper I was […]
Safeway Opens Lifestyle Store in Boulder
A report in Supermarket News on the opening of Safeway’s new lifestyle store in North Boulder, Colorado quotes from a Safeway press release that sounds like the store followed all the analyst’s advice reports on how to compete with Whole Foods. But NBN knows natural shoppers can smell a phony wannabe a mile away, so […]
Whole Foods Quarterly Report Shines Bright
While Wild Oats shares are handled with care (think volatile, folks, like liquid nitrogen) news from Austin, Texas, land of Whole Foods Market make shareholders happier than a pig in that word my mother hates. WFM reported a sales growth of 22% and an increase in profits of 26% during the fiscal first quarter ending […]
Burkle Buys More Oats As
Yucaipa Group Increases Stake in Wild Oats Supermarket bigwig Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Investment group increased its share in Wild Oats to 14.9% last week after purchasing 1.5 million share of Oats at $12.50 per share. Analysts cite Burkle’s interest may have to do with the impending sales of Albertson’s. Regardless Yucaipa’s increased interest is good […]
Former USDA, Hershey Exec, To Head Organic Trade Association
The Organic Trade Association announced last week that Caren Wilcox, former director of Governmental Relations for Hershey Foods, will replace Kathleen DiMatteo, who announced her resignation last year. Wilcox joined Hershey after serving as Under Secretary for Food Safety at the U.S.D.A. In addition, as noted in the OTA website, Wilcox recently served as a […]
Memories of Mrs. Gooch’s
I remember it vividly. My shock and awe at seeing a store like none I had ever seen before. It was huge, bright and packed floor to ceiling with nothing but the natural products that back in the 1980’s were only seen in little 1,000 and 2,000 square foot stores that were often hard to […]
Organic Year End Review, Strong Growth, Less Supply
Hot on the heels (or should we say hooves) of Stonyfield Farm’s look at importing organic milk from New Zealand to satisfy demand for their organic yogurt, comes a study from the Organic Institute. The Institute, a London research group, reports that limited supplies are impacting organic food sales. The good news: demand is growing. […]
Japanese Unveil New Chip, Potato Chip not Computer
Japanese snack maker Tohato introduced what the company calls a revolutionary potato chip, (actually though we the word revolutionary, might be a bit of an ovestatement, sort of like calling Wells Fargo Banking, personalized). As reported in Japan Today, the ‘Jagasane: Bacon & Black Pepper’ has a different flavor on each side of the chip: […]
