Coca-Cola seems to have discontinued (at least temporarily) Diet Barq’s Root Beer. Someone claimed they heard that due to the pandemic, Coca-Cola was concentrating on its best-selling varieties. That makes sense, especially if they’re running fewer bottling plants or production lines.
1 Like
Blackburn, a town of some 150K in northwest England, is facing a mini-lockdown. As in Leicester, the spike is coming amongst the South Asian community who tend to live in fairly crowded multi-generational homes and are at the bottom end of the economic ladder.
If we do not get a grip of this quickly, I can see our increasingly active racist and white supremacist groups having a field day with this. They will blame the community, not the social and employment conditions that cause the infection spread.
1 Like
Interestingly The Atlantic, a liberal US magazine that considers itself a “thinking” publication recently published a long “analysis” that the nuclear family is/was a mistake, as if it was a choice or decision instead of a reflection of a changing society.
We should all be cognizant that racism is not unique to any one ethnic group.
2 Likes
While parked waiting, we recently heard a supply chain expert on the radio explaining that retail suppliers are reducing the SKU count because consumers are concentrating their demand on fewer products, obviously those that they buy most often.
He also addressed the bigger math of shelter in place’s effects on markets – overall consumer products demand might be comparable, but the place of consumption determines most distribution paths. Everyday example: The country is using the same amount of toilet paper, but significant usage has shifted from business settings to home – different product size/package/middlemen relationships – so it’s not a simple if even possible exercise to shift production for commercial accounts to home market. He even mentioned products where new production lines would have to be built.
2 Likes
From a NYT article:
"Americans have become accustomed to enjoying an extraordinary variety of choices — sometimes a dozen or more brands of everything from ketchup to potato chips to, yes, toilet paper.
The pandemic changed all that.
Many companies have “[really curtailed the number of different offerings.
Companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi have [reduced the number of products. they make, and during the pandemic some manufacturers have stopped producing some varieties of recognizable brands, like lightly salted Lay’s barbecue potato chips and reduced-fat Jif peanut butter.
“We’ve adjusted our operations to be as efficient as possible — and in some cases, we’re making fewer varieties of some products,” said Lynne Galia, a spokeswoman for Kraft Heinz.
Hershey’s has had to adjust to consumers wanting more chocolate bars and less gum.
“If you think about mint and gum, it’s very much a social courtesy, so when you’re home for whatever reason people are less concerned about minty fresh breath than when they are out and about,” said Susanna Zhu, the Hershey Company’s vice president of commercial planning and supply chain.
But now, as states have loosened their lockdowns, interest in gum seems to be rebounding, Ms. Zhu said. One Hershey’s brand, Ice Breakers, has started an advertising campaign built around the slogan “[Mint Before You Mask
1 Like
That “variety” was often likely a junior marketer’s assignment to “extend the brand”, hence the different flavor spins on the flagship product.
It’s the Paretto Principle (80/20) expressed as the marketer’s challenge – you’re doing your job when a fifth of your customers account for four-fifths of your sales. But where do you go from there ? A while ago we casually knew a West of Mississippi brand manager for a very visible and entrenched product. We asked where his portfolio was in terms of The 80/20 Rule; his answer: 90/10. That’s why the proven competitors give the young ones the hard jobs to see what stuff they’ve got. He was a good guy; hope he made things work out for his family and career.
1 Like
Excellent point which I hadnt considered. Of course, the considerable increase in home working and people on furlough will have shifted where folk go to the toilet. By the by, the UK now seems to be back to having consistent supplies of toilet paper. In fact, there are no significiant shortages of anything.
More about how supply chains are constructed for different markets and challenges of making adjustment to sudden demand-altering developments:
oh for fucks sake
9 Likes
Tell us how you really feel @Babette! Oh you did in four succinct words! Perfect. Heard a nursing director state on TV that non-maskers should have to sign a waiver saying they will forgo use of a respirator if they get sick, and others need them. Not a bad idea…
2 Likes
You can now report non-compliers in Seattle via the find-it-fix-it app that people use to report potholes, illegal dumping, stolen vehicles, etc. https://durkan.seattle.gov/2020/07/as-cases-exponentially-rise-statewide-mayor-durkan-urges-community-wide-action-to-combat-the-spiking-cases-covid-19/
Was at cash & carry yesterday, saw a chef I used to work with his mask on his chin. I never liked that guy …
2 Likes
Just very hard to understand the lack of testing in the US.
The Wifeacita caught it early and was diagnosed on four virtual visits with no testing. We have a very good doctor. Testing was not set up then. Our doctor said do not go near an ER unless you have breathing difficulties.
She just had unrelated blood work done and has Covid19 antibodies. They faxed the results to her office and the boss intercepted it and she was quickly sent home.
She was diagnosed positive in March but all they cared about was a note from the doctor and her job was on the line because of the time she missed with Covid and TypeA flu she had in January.
She works for the Houston Health Department and most likely caught this when they were seeing a thousand kids a day plus lots of adults.
The city is and has been in CYA mode the entire time.
They don’t care about the employees.
Idiots!
2 Likes
A (any) municipal Health Department sent her home because she has antibodies? (After having actually been “diagnosed” with it and then cleared by an MD 4 months ago?) Does her boss know/understand what antibodies are?!
What on Earth are they going to do assuming a vaccine becomes available? Order their employees not to get vaccinated because then they’ll produce - gasp - antibodies? 
/
(sort of…)
2 Likes
She is on the phone with an RN from her office right now and they 
are trying to figure out what the heck is going on.
1 Like
Or…
3 Likes
I’m not sure which would be scarier - the boss (at a health department) misunderstanding what the antibody test results mean, or misconstruing what has probably been a long stream of probably conflicting “guidelines” as to who should and shouldn’t be sent home, for what reasons.Though I have to say, I lean heavily toward the former…
1 Like
