The Battle to Get on Your Plate

The grocery business is a $4 trillion industry, with a plethora of products on supermarket shelves vying for the lucrative consumer dollar. The supermarket owners, food processors and food producers are all in the battleground for these dollars. It is a competitive business with low margins, thus food products have to capture the imagination of the consumer to remain on store shelves over the long run. Product developers scour the globe looking for flavors that might be the next big thing in the national food market. In product development, the food is often transformed to the palate of the local consumer. Many supermarket chains have their own in-house brand, which is in competition with other products in their stores. The food not only has to be good, but it has to be made known to the public through in-store and general marketing campaigns. The local food movement is also infiltrating the large scale grocery business as they are aware that many consumers now want to know from where their food is coming.