A programming note – we wish all of our viewers a Happy & Healthy Thanksgiving and we will be taking off next Thursday as well; our next episode will be on December 2. Our new product reviews are back and and today we have a special review just in time for the holiday cheer. There is a new corner store that might just change retailing, Chick-Fil-A has a big problem (but its not what you think), hints for social marketing, is your state the biggest food waster? – and more!
A programming note – we wish all of our viewers a Happy & Healthy Thanksgiving and we will be taking off next Thursday as well; our next episode will be on December 2. Our new product reviews are back and and today we have a special review just in time for the holiday cheer. There is a new corner store that might just change retailing, Chick-Fil-A has a big problem (but its not what you think), hints for social marketing, is your state the biggest food waster? – and more!
Welcome to the Lempert Report Live. A programming note, we wish all of our viewers a happy and healthy Thanksgiving, and we'll be also taking off next Thursday as well. Our next episode will air live on December 2nd. Our new product reviews are back and today we've got a special review just in time for holiday cheer. There's a new corner store concept that might just change retailing. Chick-fil-A has a big problem, but it's not what you think. Hence for social marketing is your state, the biggest food waster and more. We would love for you to add your insights during the broadcast in the chat. And we'll take those at the end of the broadcast. We bring you our unique insights on grocery retail, sustainability e-commerce new product reviews and consumer trends. And Sally, before we get started, um, we have some late breaking news, if you would, uh, from the farm bureau, uh, American farm bureau Federation every year issues right before Thanksgiving, what the price of Thanksgiving dinners going to be. So what they're saying, it's on average up 14% over last year, and it will cost on average$53 and 31 cents to feed 10 people less than$6 a person. I find that fact really interesting and hard to believe that you could feed 10 people for$53. What do you think?
Sally:Yes, I do find that very difficult to believe. Um, I don't know that we've ever been able to achieve that in our small household.
Phil:Yeah. Because you've only got four people to worry about. So, so what are the issues that we want to go over this week?
Sally:Well, Phil, over the years of working with you, I have heard you talk about so many times about the competition, um, that new products experience, um, getting on the shelves at retailers and what's happening right now is that there's a whole new submarket of products that's emerging that, um, are not necessarily luxury priced items, but have a little bit more design put into them and thoughtfulness. Um, as far as, um, sustainability, how they were made they're eye catching on Instagram. And it's really interesting to me because with these startups, a lot of things have changed for them. There are more resources accessible to them like commissaries, where they can join for a more affordable PLI price to work on their products, get, um, advice on how to market their foods. Cottage, food laws are changing. And most of all, there's free advertising on social media. But what we're seeing happening is some of these corner markets corner markets are these brick and mortar stores are opening up specifically to showcase these types of products that, that may become really popular on Instagram.
Phil:And what I love about these pop-up stores and whether they be permanent or pop-up either one is they're really partnering, um, with these new emerging brands, because as you said, you know, the emerging brands have a difficult time in order to get on those supermarket shells. Uh, they might not have the money to pay slotting allowances, but, you know, for example, the pop-up grocer, which has been here in LA, uh, visited the one in New York and so on really does a great job, uh, for these brands. And, uh, Emily Schmidt is the person who started it, I think back in 2019. And what she does is she really curated, very carefully what products go up and some of the others are wine and eggs. That's also here in Los Angeles, a Foxtrot, um, is basically a new kind of, uh, convenience store that specializes, you know, not in cigarettes and magazines and things like that. But these curated items, I think it's really a terrific idea.
Sally:Yes I do. And Fox trot, uh, opened it originally in Chicago and they are planning to open 50 more stores. So, um, so it must be something that consumers are really interested in. Right?
Phil:Yeah. And I also think that as a result of the pandemic, uh, when people do go in a store, they want something a little different. Um, they, they want to experiment. And also because of social media, to your point at horizons have broadened as it relates to the kind of products that are out there, whether they be ethnic foods or different plant-based foods. So, you know, I, I think we should watch his whole Cornerstore, uh, category because I think this is going to grow significantly. Uh, Chick-fil-A has a problem.
Sally:Chick-fil-A does have a problem. According to their CEO, there are reporting that they think 30% of their customers are abandoning the drive-through line before they order, because they're just frustrated with long wait times.
Phil:And you know, what this article really talks about is they've tried technology, uh, to fix this. Uh, but it's not working. Um, McDonald's on the other hand is working with IBM, uh, to speed up their drive-through and Chick-fil-A always comes out as the slowest drive-thru. Now what, uh, Dan also said is that, um, the drive-throughs, um, that were backed up, even if they open up another, Chick-fil-A a couple blocks away that doesn't solve the problem. They still have a lot of these people that are just driving away. He also points out that there's one Chick-fil-A in Philadelphia that does$16 million worth of sales a year. They're just one unit. And guess what? 50% of their products are delivered by four dash.
Sally:That's amazing. We, and we have several Chick-fil-A is here and it is always there. There's always a big line. I think it's interesting also that they're talking about one of their solutions being, creating more ghost ghost kitchens for the brand.
Phil:Yeah. Um, and, and right here in Santa Monica, they opened up one, no seating inside. Um, I would call it, uh, you know, a ghost kitchen drive through, but I also think that what they need to do, and if I look at the one right here, they need a longer or bigger piece of property so that, you know, the line doesn't look as long because it wraps around or, you know, they do something in a circular way or something like that. Uh, prediction time, uh, everybody's coming up with their predictions, we'll have our soon, uh, but we have some predictions as it relates to social media marketing. What are those all about Sally?
Sally:Well, social media, um, and we know this and you know, everyone in the food business knows how important it is and how it, how it is ever changing. And we've got to keep up with that. So some of the things we're hearing is first of all, Snapchat is emerging as a social media marketing tool that has a growing revenue of 57%. And they've got now over 300 million daily active users. So if you haven't taken a look at Snapchat, you probably should.
Phil:And, and also, um, with some of the other predictions are that I think are really interesting is that, uh, lost my place here is that Greg Jarboe, president and co-founder of SEO PR uh, also an author is saying that don't ignore YouTube. That YouTube is powerful. Um, and if you go on Facebook, I was, I was dumbfounded at this stat. Organic posts on Facebook is only 5.2% reach. And the average engagement rate is 0.25. So people are moving more and more to YouTube. They now have over 2 billion active users of YouTube. Also, Angie, I'm going to make a mess out of her name. Nikolay Chuck, um, comes from search engine journal says that her prediction is that AI with higher quality data is really going to be the leader in 2020 images of interfaces of a particular target audience color palettes that the customer prefers, um, ad examples that they click on most often just bring AI into social media seems to be a very big trend that we're going to see more of.
Sally:Yeah, it's getting as specific as a language choice differences as opposed to work when you're at work, when you're at home. Um, that's really interesting to me. I know sometimes we feel like, oh, it's so scary that they know so much about us, but, um, but, uh, this is how they tailor the who they're marketing to.
Phil:And then there's one other prediction. Heather Campbell, who's director of marketing at search engine journal points to LinkedIn as the social destination for B2B organizations looking to build their authority and attract new customers and partners, which is why we're on LinkedIn live. She's a big fan of LinkedIn live as well.
Sally:Yes. And I think the main thing that, that, that we're hearing too is that as that marketing is going to be really diverse across all of these platforms. So I don't really think that we can ignore any of them.
Phil:Yeah, I think you're, I think you're right. Um, talking about technology, um, metaverse, let's talk a little bit about metaverse and not the meta Facebook company. Uh, but, um, you know, when we, when we talk about Metta versus, you know, what brings it back for me is frankly, second life. Um, we developed a second life with, uh, Frankie Pasqual over at national grocer's association some years ago. And the, the most interesting thing is that now, um, what Zuckerberg and everybody else is talking about is the metaverse, um, bringing it to grocery stores. And in fact, what Zuckerberg actually did, they did a post on Facebook, uh, challenging HGB, uh, the grocery retailer to talk about, you know, how they would use it and what the future looks like.
Sally:Yes, it is very interesting and reminds me so much of our, of our second live project, which was, was really great. And it kind of makes me think of where, uh, my 10 year old son is right now. Um, all the kids are using these Oculus quest, um, goggles that they wear and they can use virtual reality, virtual reality to interact with their friends. Um, and my son is telling me that sometimes they go into rooms together and watch a movie together. And, you know, there's just like in second life, there's food, there's there's games, there's, there's all kinds of ways to interact virtually. So we could see ourselves at some point, um, shopping for our food, uh, via virtual reality. Can you imagine having, putting those goggles on and, uh, actually being able to touch things on the shelves and maybe pick something up, read something on the package.
Phil:Yeah. And also look at the sourcing of the ingredients. I mean, again, everything that we were doing and try to do in second life, um, now you can just do it, not on a computer, but through these goggles. Um, I, I hesitate to think that people are going to be wearing these goggles when they go into the store themselves. That I think there'll be some combination, um, of, of in-store experience as well as at a home experience. Cause right now there's two ways to buy food. You either order it online, have it delivered or pick it up or go into the store. So if we can come up with some kind of hybrid to that, um, that's also entertaining and fun. It would be cool. Um, and I'm just wondering if the next iteration of Oculus also is, you know, when I was a kid, um, what they started doing in movie theaters, I forgot what it was called. I'm going to call it smell vision. Uh, but basically they would pump, you know, a fragrance into the movie theater that related to what was on the screen. Um, so, you know, having something like that built into Oculus. So if I'm looking at, you know, a very fancy piece of brief, for example, it can emote, you know, the aroma of break.
Sally:It doesn't sound far fetched at all.
Phil:No, it doesn't, it doesn't now food waste is something that we're all concerned with. And a new, uh, survey just came out, um, from lawn starter, they collected data on the 50 states in the U S to find 20, 22 states that waste the most food, tell us which those are Sally.
Sally:Well, what we're hearing is Arizona is the state that is wasting the most food. Um, we're hearing that the states that are wasting the least amount of food include Oregon, Washington, California, Vermont, and Massachusetts.
Phil:You know, it, it, it makes sense to me of who, um, who wastes the least. I'm not exactly sure about Arizona, um, why they waste the most. Uh, but what they also point out is that those people who live in Hawaii have the highest average cost of food in America. Obviously everything has to be imported. Uh, it costs them over$200 more per month than the national average for food. Um, and you would think, they say that as a result of that added cost, people in Hawaii would waste the least. Uh, but they ranked number three on the list of states that waste the most food.
Sally:Wow. That is very interesting.
Phil:Yeah. And unfortunate. And we all have to do our best to stop wasting food, especially as we see these prices going up. And a lot of it has to do with overbuying in my opinion, that people just aren't checking their cupboards, uh, before they go shopping and they have a list and they just see something on sale and they buy it not a good way to shop. Oh, go ahead.
Sally:Oh, go ahead. I was just going to point out that there are a lot of great, um, retailers and recipe sites that are showing you how to, you can look in your fridge and see, what do I have that's about to go bad and you can search that ingredient and find something to make so that you're not wasting it.
Phil:Great point, great point. Great tip. And especially as we go into the holidays where we know we're going to spend more than$51 to feed 10 people. Um, so thanks Allie. On today's lumper report, we talk a lot about climate change and how it has an effect on the supply chain, how the wildfires, the floods and the other natural disasters have driven up prices and created shortages for many of our foods. What we haven't heard a lot about though is how climate change will have an effect on just how nutritious our foods will be in the future. A new review paper published in advances in nutrition draws together the existing science of how climate change threatened staple, grains, fruits, vegetables, and nuts across the globe, while also underscoring the significant need for further research, the team of public health researchers from John Hopkins, Bloomberg school of public health and the children's investment fund foundation in London conclude the climate change, including the combined impact of rising temperature and carbon dioxide, rising sea levels and climate disasters will cause crop yields or the amount of food that we can produce on the planet to fall the authors project that this could trigger, increased spikes in food prices, deepening food insecurity and micronutrient efficiencies. The paper shows very clearly that production will definitely be diminished. According to Martin bloom, the director of the John Hopkins center for a livable future and an author of the review. The researchers also found that foods that are rich in micronutrients in particular, vitamin a zinc and iron will see decreased yields, especially threatening the staple food and nutrient supply of low and middle income countries while unable to draw more nuance conclusions. He says that there's enough evidence that we need to turn to solutions today. The reality is that over 2 billion people or 30% of the global population suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, a major cause of death and disease and the authors project that this will likely worsen as the climate crisis progresses. The planet is becoming less inhabitable, not only for humans and other animals, but also for our plants and crops. Richard Simba, the reviews lead author, and a professor at the school of public health hopes that the paper will draw attention to this urgent, but often overlooked aspect of the climate crisis. We're watching this disaster unfold. He told civil eats people who work in international health and nutrition needs to start pointing out the changes that are going to come with rising temperature, atmospheric carbon dioxide, and sea level rise. Both iron and zinc are found in lagoons nuts and grains, which the authors expect. We'll see critical drops in yields, zinc deficiency, especially in children, makes you a lot more susceptible to severe cases of dying from respiratory infections, diarrhea diseases, malaria iron deficiency can cause anemia, lower IQ and cognitive ability. Also reducing work capacity and increase mortality for mothers and their children. The review also looked at vitamin a commonly found in leafy green vegetables and yellow and orange fruits, vitamin a is important for immunity and decreasing the risk of infections. A deficiency can also lead to vision problems, including night blindness, and we need to change the food system said, bloom, we need to do it fast, and we need to do it with everyone, which is the perfect lead into our latest episode of farm food facts. Farms have typically been farmers have typically been framed as the problem, not the solution to climate change that all changed at cop 26 because of two of our leaders and me, the chair of us farmers. Here's an action. And Erin Fitzgerald, CEO of USF RA, who was in Glasgow at COP and led the foundation for change and made sure that farmers and ranchers have a voice at the table. They filled me in on what happened there for the full episode of farm food facts and all that occurred at cop 26, visit USF RAs, Facebook page and website. Here's just a tease of one of the most important issues that they address their, and I know you've got, um, a passion for my next topic here and it has to do with finance. And you know, what, what you've been talking about is that all these finance people are talking to each other. They're not talking about farmers and the farmers are really the ones who need the longterm financial help in order to achieve these goals. Tell us more.
Anne:Absolutely. Um, there's, there's a lot of interest and there's finance out there, investment finance that wants to invest in real solutions for the climate. So, and they're looking to invest in climate solutions in a big way, and this capital needs to land in rural America or rural world to benefit farmers in a way that we are really going to be impactful on this path of continuous improvement to make these changes at the farm level, toward climate smart practices, the changes that are needed. We all have a wishlist on our family farms. You know, we want to buy a drill to plant the cover crops. We need new equipment. We need irrigation systems that use less water and use a variable rate and, and technology. But all of that investment has to have a return for our farm to make those decisions. And if there's this interest in these ecosystem services that are going to benefit society, then there needs to be an avenue that, that investment reaches the average farmer and rural America and a real investment. And that's beyond a government. This is private capital, we're talking about.
Phil:So how, how do we get farmers and ranchers voices heard to the financial community, the private financial community, and get a seat at that table. I'm going
Anne:To let Erin talk about our project.
Erin:Yes. In, um, February of this year, um, from United States soybean board, and from Wells Fargo, they funded our first ever transformative investment report that really looked at where dollars are currently moving into ag from the private sector. But most importantly, if we imagine, as Ann said, environmental social governance funds these new people that want to invest in green or eco solutions, we want agriculture be the number one place where that investment happens. We know renewable energy was a sector invested in 10 years ago, and it it's for its growth. We think agriculture could do the same thing I was struck. And Anne to that on, on Wednesday was producer day. And that was all the farmers trying to say it was producer day and we had these side events, but the main stage show was finance day. And you saw a lot of the financial institutions step up and make very bold commitments to climate change. But what you didn't see was commitments to funding agriculture. And so what we were putting this out there now, we want to see that at cop 27, uh, that, uh, finance day and farming day, you know, come together. We think that there's a great opportunity, um, to invest in this sector. And, um, there's still a lot of work to be done.
Phil:It was December 28th, back in 2006, that I did a feature on tequila on the today show. It was called how to become a tequila connoisseur. Now, weeks prior, when I landed at JFK airport, I ran into a very famous and successful LA Laker who was wheeling a cart filled with boxes that were destined to become Christmas gifts for his New York friends. I asked him about the gifts as the outer carton was marked tequila. I explained that I was preparing for my segment on today and looking for unusual and extraordinary tequilas. He opened up one of the boxes and handed me a gorgeous bottle and said, here, take this, try it. I think you'll love it. He was right. Awesome brochures owner. Ricardo Gamarra created the first ever Bordeaux rested Reposado, this tequila rest or ages, and previously used French Bordeaux Oak barrels for three months, which produces one of the most mellow and subtly sweet tequilas have ever tasted. Now, the aroma is heavenly and the tequila itself is a beautiful shade of pink, which is inherited from the Bordeaux that was in the barrels previously. Awesome. Brozo LA Rosa Reposado is a hit with one of our highest scores ever at 98. Now most of us think the way to drink tequila is in a shot glass with some salt and a squirt of lime. Stop that a true tequila aficionados would never do this as it actually hides the quality of the tequila, the best way to taste LA Rosa Reposado tequila is to pour in a Brandy snifter. I don't have a Brandy snifter in the office. So I'm using a wine glass, hold the snifter at the base, not the bowl. So you don't heat up the tequila, swirl the tequila gently for about one minute, then take a small sip, which I'm not going to do. Keep between your lips and the tip of your tongue for 10 seconds before swishing the tequila around the inside of your mouth, then swallow it retails for about 50 bucks a bottle and is available at Kroger, Costco, and total wine and more. And yes, awesome. Grosso is my favorite tequila since that point. And it still is makes a great holiday present to other points. Awesome. Brochure is the Spanish word for amazing. And please drink responsibly. Now it's time for the bulls-eye. I'm sure your inbox is flooded with food predictions for 2022. As I said before, you'll be receiving air soon as well on most lists this year is that the beverage industry is changing dramatically and moving towards alcohol free beverages and away from hard seltzers beer and wine tequila, doesn't have to worry. As in the last five years, it's seen a 41% growth in the category according to impact data back. In fact, according to MarketWatch to keel is the hottest spirits category and has a lot of growth. And it's come from the top shelf tequilas like awesome. Brosso what we're seeing is that consumers want to be healthier and moving towards less often drinking, but higher quality spirits gambling, GERS diet beer was developed in 1967 by a chemist that worked for Ryan gold, it flopped, but it started the light beer category that Miller light perfected and made very successful because of brands like Miller and Michelob ultra who targeted their beverages to the calorie and carb conscious. They reinforced the image that drinking was contrary to having a healthy lifestyle, which led to the success of craft non-alcoholic brews and cocktails. We're also seeing on the trend watcher list more about CBD Loyce beverages, quite possibly the future replacement of alcohol based bruise as CBD continues to tout itself as a health and wellness product. I little doubt that this category will be changing dramatically over the next few years, watch this space. So, Sally, what kind of comments do we have this week?
Sally:Well, we have Brian Todd, uh, comments, something that I wanted to share with you about our Thanksgiving meal costs. He says interesting that Thanksgiving meal costs are up 14% from last year while the consumer price index for retail food is up only 5.4% from a year, according to the October report.
Phil:Yeah. And what's interesting about, um, the, the report that the farm bureau does is they have the same list of ingredients every year. And we know the turkeys are in short supply. There are going to be shortages, especially on those smaller turkeys. Um, and we really have to look at that entire list to see what's going up. You know, also cranberries. Uh, we did a report the other day with, uh, insight edition and they found that canned cranberries and fresh cranberries were up. I think they said about 20%. So it really depends on that list, but Brian is a great point that what we have to do is look beyond what just the headline says. So we know Thanksgiving is up 14%, uh, but also look at the entire category of food.
Sally:Yes. And then John Panadol, our top commenter every week, uh, says, um, also about the Thanksgiving story, more expensive Thanksgiving dinner, my Supermart circulars full of loss, leading margin, bleeding, Turkey prices of less than a dollar, a pound for frozen sub$2 a pound for fresh and even free Turkey with a hundred dollars per purchase. But what will the out of stocks be? And he also says, I hope out of stocks. Don't ruin Thanksgiving.
Phil:Exactly. John you're as always right on the mark. Thanks for, thanks for that. And don't forget, um, next week, no, Lemper report live. Uh, we'll be back December 2nd and don't forget to go to supermarket guru.com, sign up for our newsletters and all the other information that you could find there. Have a great, happy, healthy Thanksgiving, and we'll see you in December.