2% milk to make Starbucks customers skinnier (shhh!) in U.S., Canada originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I snacked on carrot sticks Tuesday and Wednesday evening and feeling a bit naughty, I even added an herb dip on Wednesday... man, I am going to become patient-of-the-week. Thursday was the coup de gras or whatever it is the French say -- I had baked trout, with lemon juice on the side, of course, and a baked potato, no butter, no chives, just low-fat sour cream. I had a high-fiber breakfast cereal every day this week... so who cares about the stock market's bad week, I had fantastic returns from eating right and feeling good. Those old jeans aren't so snug anymore!!

Friday evening... let's see, the chicken looks boring, the trout and salmon look and taste like cardboard -- I have had it!! I am going to splurge and the doctors and nurses can kiss my $%^&&... off I go to "Heart Attack Grill"!!

Continue reading If you have to sin -- go for the Big One!!

If you have to sin -- go for the Big One!! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 03 Mar 2007 11:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Organics are bad for you -- financially

Organics are bad for you -- financially originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 07 Nov 2006 14:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We parents of young children love to rail and rant at Disney and its Princesses, going so far as to hail the New York Times when it did an exposé of sorts on the cult of princess. Not only do the princesses create all kinds of stereotypical, feminine-victim role models, goes the theory, but also they promote unhealthy products! The scourge of every grocery store shopping trip is the begging for Disney Princess cereal, or fruit snacks, or (as I encountered last week at Walgreen's, and I don't even have a little girl): Disney Princess gummy bracelets. I do not lie. In fact, I even ate one.

Well, I may have to begrudgingly thank The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), who has finally decided to be a little more circumspect about the products its princesses, and the rest of the company's characters, push like so many barely nutritional drugs over the supermarket counter. According to the Wall Street Journal today [subscription required], Disney's CEO, Robert Iger, introduced guidelines to ensure that "its name and characters only will be used on kid-focused products that meet certain guidelines in terms of calories, fat, saturated fat and sugar."

Hurray! Parents of little girls (and princess-loving boys, like mine) can finally venture into the grocery stores again. Well, not so fast: Disney will be bound by its existing contractual agreements for as long as two years, and the campaign will take "several years" to roll out internationally. As PR moves go, it's wonderful and I honor Iger for his foresight. Incredibles instant oatmeal? Incredible!

However. The impact of this move will be slow and the brand damage has already been done. I mean! Disney Princess gummy bracelets! Can Disney recover?

Disney Princesses to push healthful products: thank you Disney? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 16 Oct 2006 15:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I sat next to a guy named "Trent" at my first real job. He took sick days about once a week, and we all laughed about it; but secretly resented him for taking advantage of the rest of us working stiffs, who actually worked every day. And dared not to take sick days for fear our bosses would think badly of us; that we were lazy, or hypochondriacs, or unhealthy.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is cracking down on the Trents in its workforce, according to the Wall Street Journal this morning [subscription required]. The company has enacted a new attendance policy. Now, if you have the sniffles, or chronic back pain, or a hangover, or mono, you have to call an 800-number; obtain a code; and give that code to your manager. The system will track sick time and whether or not your absence is authorized; those employees who get too many unauthorized absences will be terminated.

Even more ominous, employees with too many sick days will be encouraged to apply for an unpaid leave of absence. Critics naturally are attacking Wal-Mart from every direction, wondering if the company is trying to shuck the unhealthy workers from its roles. Whether or not this is true, it's certainly an icky process for Wal-Mart to enact, and seems a bad move for a company already under fire for overworking its employees.

Wal-Mart cracks down on unhealthy workers originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 14 Oct 2006 05:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When my b-school buddy, Jaime, started working in the corporate strategy group at PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP), I knew the time had come: soon she'd somehow convince the company to change its ways and become healthy! Starting with that high fructose corn syrup that fills so many of the company's sodas and is (I insist) one of the leading causes of childhood obesity.

Imagine my surprise when I saw one of the front-page headlines for the Wall Street Journal today [subscription required]: "Pepsi Sales Force Tries to Push 'Healthier' Snacks in Inner City." No, it wasn't that scourge of sweetener, HFCS: it was chips. Especially those preservative- and saturated fat-packed Flamin' Hot Cheetos and Nacho Cheese Doritos. I can just see the orange fingers all over Chicago, now.

Company executives are using top-down tactics to push Baked Lays and other lower-fat options in the inner city. Already Pepsi is on my good list for having removed trans-fats (i.e. partially hydrogenated vegetable oils) from the company's chips. Chicagoans, though, are skeptical and the convenience stores where PepsiCo sales efforts are focused are reacting with the speed of dinosaur bones fossilizing. Or thereabouts.

Maybe customers aren't jumping all over themselves for Baked Lays. [And it's interesting to note that these efforts are all the work of outgoing CEO Steve Reinemund, who was relieved of leadership by Indra Nooyi earlier this week -- there's no telling what her plans regarding the healthy sales will be.] But I have an idea, Pepsi! Take out that high fructose corn syrup and replace it with some nice cane syrup, or something else far less chemically altered. Your customers won't notice. And boy will I buy your stock then.

As it is, nice effort. Keep up the good work Pepsi, I'd much rather have corporate efforts wasted (if indeed they are, as the WSJ suggests, beating the corporate head against the inner-city Chicago wall) on trying to convince customers to eat my healthier options than on, I don't know, spying on one another, or padding the pockets of tainted lobbyists. Ya know?

I may be the only one, though. Despite the mention, shares of PEP were down 13 cents today, to $64.78. It's worth mentioning that the stock is only a dollar or so from its 52-week high, and the three-year trend is nuthin' but up. Healthy just may be good for increasing the wealth in your pockets, as well as the pants that hold them.

Pepsi cares about the health of Chicagoans ... how about everyone else? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 05 Oct 2006 20:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.