Nobody cares about food.

[Maggy Hazelnut]

Ok Sid I can understand the difference in growing seasons but there are many varieties of corn just as there are most garden crops. Some sweet corn has a fairly short growing season. I'm sure that Europe imports some foods that don't grow well there just like the US & many other countries do. The US doesn't grow bananas, coffee, tea & a lot of tropical fruits yet we still have plenty of them in the grocery stores & people eat them as part of a normal diet here. I'm sure you can find those things in European grocery stores too yes? So why not sweet corn?! Remember we aren't talking about other varieties of corn used for animal feed or other corn products. I feel like I should send you a box of fresh corn so you can taste how delicious it is! haha

 

[Sid]

There are differences between the US and European cultures. and the food culture between Europe and the US differs a lot as well.
Corn is only a tiny part of it. We have no corn history.

And within Europe there are big differences in food cultures as well. A Greek restaurant will have completely other dishes on the menu than then a German one.

Of course you can find McDonalds and KFC all over Europe. But fritures/snackbars are far more important fastfood concepts in The Netherlands and Belgium for instance and the Possesbude in Germany.

French/German cuisine is standard in this part of Europe. Italian is pretty common as well.
The more exotic restaurants are Greek, Spanish, Yugoslavian, Chinese/Indonesian, Turkish, North African, Japanese, Indian and Mexican.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

1: Growing corn on the scale we do in the US requires two things: government subsidies and massive amounts of fertilizer. Corn is hard on the soil, and can deplete the nutrients in a few crop cycles if you don't add more.

2: Humans have a gene that creates an enzyme the starts to break down starch into sugars as we chew and mix food with saliva. All non-human primates have two copies of this gene. Humans have between 2 and 14 copies (7 is average). That variance is why some people taste grains as sweeer than others: the more copies you have, the more sugar you get as you chew.

Which is also why the whole "Paleo" diet is wrong about how pre-agricultural humans ate. We literally evolved to eat grain. We are the only hominids that have this many genes to process it.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

There are differences between the US and European cultures. and the food culture between Europe and the US differs a lot as well.
Corn is only a tiny part of it. We have no corn history.

And within Europe there are big differences in food cultures as well. A Greek restaurant will have completely other dishes on the menu than then a German one.

Of course you can find McDonalds and KFC all over Europe. But fritures/snackbars are far more important fastfood concepts in The Netherlands and Belgium for instance and the Possesbude in Germany.

French/German cuisine is standard in this part of Europe. Italian is pretty common as well.
The more exotic restaurants are Greek, Spanish, Yugoslavian, Chinese/Indonesian, Turkish, North African, Japanese, Indian and Mexican.

When I was there, I noticed something but I'm not sure that it wasn't because I was in certain areas or just didn't really see them, but I didn't see the huge grocery stores that we have here in America. I saw some grocery stores and went into one in France, it was I believe, but its size was a fraction of what we would see here. It was more on the size of say, a traditional drug store here. I also noticed a LOT of fresh food being sold by small vendors on street corners or in specialized areas for that.

Surely you've seen ours portrayed in movies and such. They usually are quite large and can be found every few miles or so. Do you have many of those? If not, I believe those might contribute to different dietary traditions as well.

 

[Sid]

In America it is always bigger. From the size of a coke in a fast food joint up to the size of supermarkets, the lies of a president, the distances between cities, everything. A medium bag of USA chips is considered a large bag in Europe etc.

American supermarkets tend to be bigger, have broader lanes, larger shopping carts, products in other quantities in stock.
The concepts differ I think.

But you name it, we got it.
Different brand names, other package sizes, other products more or less popular than in the USA. What is the use of stockpiling corn cubs if almost nobody will buy them?

We probably buy some things in different places. I think we have more specialized stores over here.

As I said before, there are a lot of differences between the US and Europe. And each European country has it's own traditions, rules and regulations.
Marmite is a thing in the UK for instance, but over here in NL practically non existent. You need maple syrup? You'll find it for sure in most supermarkets, but don't expect several different brands of it. We tend to sweeten our food with other things. Now if you need licorice, we have a lane full of different variations, brands and package sizes in every supermarket here in NL. Not so much in other parts of Europe where they prefer other candy.
And the list goes on and on.

Europe is not the USA just with many different languages.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

In America it is always bigger. From the size of a coke in a fast food joint up to the size of supermarkets, the lies of a president, the distances between cities, everything. A medium bag of USA chips is considered a large bag in Europe etc.

American supermarkets tend to be bigger, have broader lanes, larger shopping carts, products in other quantities in stock.
The concepts differ I think.

But you name it, we got it.
Different brand names, other package sizes, other products more or less popular than in the USA. What is the use of stockpiling corn cubs if almost nobody will buy them?

We probably buy some things in different places. I think we have more specialized stores over here.

As I said before, there are a lot of differences between the US and Europe. And each European country has it's own traditions, rules and regulations.
Marmite is a thing in the UK for instance, but over here in NL practically non existent. You need maple syrup? You'll find it for sure in most supermarkets, but don't expect several different brands of it. We tend to sweeten our food with other things. Now if you need licorice, we have a lane full of different variations, brands and package sizes in every supermarket here in NL. Not so much in other parts of Europe where they prefer other candy.
And the list goes on and on.

Europe is not the USA, but then with many different languages.

Thanks. A lot of our corn produce ends up as high fructose corn syrup. It is profitable in that sense. A lot also ends up as feed. But, we do like our corn on the cob and off in this country.

The one thing that we are often told is to follow a circle around the outer edges of a supermarket. Around the edges you will find your meat, produce and dairy. In the aisles in the center you find processed food; gobs and gobs of it, aisle upon aisle, which could possibly account partially for the vastness.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Corn also ends up as auto fuel. Usually 15% ethanol is blended with gasoline in the US. Corn farmers pay a lot of money to keep this requirement.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Around the edges you will find your meat, produce and dairy.

Putting power hookups for refrigeration is easier in walls than floors.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Putting power hookups for refrigeration is easier in walls than floors.

True and likely the reason, but you can often find the frozen section in center aisles as well. At our local Cub that is how it is set up, and dairy is as well. Not sure if that is to circumvent the outer circle theory or just a matter of their particular store designs.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

True and likely the reason, but you can often find the frozen section in center aisles as well. At our local Cub that is how it is set up, and some dairy is as well, like cheeses.

Identical here in all outlets, all the things that require power outlets are all blocked together. Likely there's outlets throughout the floor when the concrete was laid, as well as it's a trivial manner to dangle cable from the rafters. Also, the butcher and bakery department need an out of the way section to do work, packaging, and holy shit, in some places they still actually bake!

And for the love of pete, don't make me go review my costing textbooks that talk about the science of retail floor layouts, I have work to do!

goddamit now I'm reading stuff on the web (Dorky stuff, to be sure)

 

[Sid]

Putting power hookups for refrigeration is easier in walls than floors.

Nope.
Main reason: Studies show that the outer lanes of a supermarkets sell the best. So they place the goods with the highest profit margins in those lanes: fresh food of all kinds (veggies, bread and other bakery, meat, fresh milk products and juices) and bottled beverages.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Identical here in all outlets, all the things that require power outlets are all blocked together. Likely there's outlets throughout the floor when the concrete was laid, as well as it's a trivial manner to dangle cable from the rafters. Also, the butcher and bakery department need an out of the way section to do work, packaging, and holy shit, in some places they still actually bake!

And for the love of pete, don't make me go review my costing textbooks that talk about the science of retail floor layouts, I have work to do!

goddamit now I'm reading stuff on the web (Dorky stuff, to be sure)

Ah yes, I forgot about the working areas for meat and bakery. That makes sense.

p.s. Thanks for the interesting link.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

'Baby Shark' is being turned into a cereal, doo doo doo doo doo doo

Parents who thought they'd heard the last of toddler anthem "Baby Shark" are out of luck.

www.cnn.com

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Nope.
Main reason: Studies show that the outer lanes of a supermarkets sell the best. So they place the goods with the highest profit margins in those lanes: fresh food of all kinds (veggies, bread and other bakery, meat, fresh milk products and juices) and bottled beverages.

This surely has to be a chicken-and-egg thing. As long as I've been alive, I've never seen any supermarket arranged substantially different from the way they all are now: all produce and refrigerated items along the walls, all freezers together.

 

[Brenda Archer]

'Baby Shark' is being turned into a cereal, doo doo doo doo doo doo

Parents who thought they'd heard the last of toddler anthem "Baby Shark" are out of luck.

www.cnn.com

That would be a good example of a face staring right at a kid at eye level.

And they don’t seem to have even bothered to make the cereal be little sharks.

 

[Sid]

This surely has to be a chicken-and-egg thing. As long as I've been alive, I've never seen any supermarket arranged substantially different from the way they all are now: all produce and refrigerated items along the walls, all freezers together.

In modern supermarket marketing there are shelf space wars. At least over here. Because the supermarkets are a bit smaller over here, shelf space for a new product is not a given fact. Manufacturers have to work hard (do something with the price etc) to get in. Just running ads doesn't sell, if you don't have your product for sale in the major supermarkets.

And when you are in, it is not over:
If manufacturer X wants his product Y on top spot shelves, they have to pay for it, and for every inch more that they desire. The marketeers know exactly which shelve in what lane sells product Y the most.
They have knowledge about which spot in a lane sells best, in the middle more to the right or more to the left, the shelve at eye level or the one just one above or under that one.... they test and test again. Supermarkets don't only earn their money from their customers but from their manufacturers and wholesalers as well.

Manufacturers even have to pay to become a supermarkets promotion item like 2=1 or 25% bonus card discount at check out etc.
It is totally not everything stays because we always did it that way. It is because the psychological tricks still works, longer than you live already.

Every known trick in the book is used, from lighting, smells (fresh baked bread etc) a coffee bar (have you tried these cookies and the brand of coffee you are dinking right now?), a reading table close to the promotion isles, all thought true and fine tuned on a dayly bases.
Watch the suits walking around regulary with store management, pointing at goods, making notes etc. They are constantly optimizing.

tldr:
We are tricked over and over, to buy more and other stuff then we came for.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

In modern supermarket marketing there are shelf space wars. At least over here. Because the supermarkets are a bit smaller over here, shelf space for a new product is not a given fact. Manufacturers have to work hard (do something with the price etc) to get in. Just running ads doesn't sell, if you don't have your product for sale in the major supermarkets.

And when you are in, it is not over:
If manufacturer X wants his product Y on top spot shelves, they have to pay for it, and for every inch more that they desire. The marketeers know exactly which shelve in what lane sells product Y the most.
They have knowledge about which spot in a lane sells best, in the middle more to the right or more to the left, the shelve at eye level or the one just one above or under that one.... they test and test again. Supermarkets don't only earn their money from their customers but from their manufacturers and wholesalers as well.

Right; it's certainly true that soup brands, say, fight over where exactly in the soup aisle their can gets to go. But that's a different animal altogether from where freezers and refrigerators get placed. That's decided when the building is first constructed and pretty much never changes. You can see the dry-goods and canned-goods shelves in supermarkets being rearranged every so often, for the reasons you mention (much to the grumbling and complaining of every shopper I've heard, who now can't find what they want as quickly); but the coolers and freezers never move. Practically speaking, in most places they probably cant move, not without closing the store and extensively renovating to move the utilities.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

If you look at where the prime locations are, it is often on a line between the front door and the milk. You could put high demand items in the front of the store to make it easier for customers, but the more products that a person has to pass, the more likely they are to make impulse purchases.

 

[Lady Darnk Juniorette]

I made bonless fried chicken and made it into a sandwich, it twas good.

(Corn on the cob is overrated)
*Runs away*

 

[Free]

I made bonless fried chicken and made it into a sandwich, it twas good.

I'm cooking sandwich steak tonight as steak for...a sandwich.

/me ignores your corn cob heresy