"sales" news and stories

Admit it: every time you read another study about how one food or another has been shown to have a direct link to cancer, heart disease, good health, long life or intelligence, you roll your eyes a little. It's interesting to read the studies to find out what scientists are working on, and, even if you take the study with a grain of salt, it's not a bad idea to stay on top of what foods have been shown to have health benefits. The sheer number of studies may cause you to wonder whether or not anyone really takes them all seriously. We can't follow up every single study to see whether people are buying into them, but we do know that the at least one industry is enjoying some benefits of the well-promoted health benefits of their product: the wine industry. Red wine is enjoying a huge boost in sales, a boost the benefits producers and retailers. From October to November of this year, sales were up more than 8% over the same period last year, and the holidays are expected to boost sales even further.

Consumers say that the health benefits are just another plus for drinking something they already enjoy, but they also admit that it gives them an excuse. A Harvard Medical School researcher behind the study that said a chemical in red wine could increase life expectancy said that "wine drinkers were going overboard."

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After months or declining sales and despite a good deal of negative publicity, McDonald's announced that they hit a six year high in sales both in the US and abroad, with the best performances from stores in the UK. The company cites in increase in healthier menu items, including salads and less fattening kids' choices. At UK restaurants, the new options include deli sandwiches, free-range eggs, more fruit and beef that is only "from the forequarter or flank of a cow."

While some applaud the changes and point to these new options as the reason for the sales growth, critics point out that the healthier options account for only 10% of total sales and that the company "sells eight double cheeseburgers...for every salad." The critics seem to be failing to take into account that that 10% is a huge change in the past 5 or 6 years, when the company didn't offer that many options, and that it is still primarily a fast-food burger restaurant. A sales boost should reinforce the company's desire to retain healthier menu items - and that should be a victory for the critics in and of itself.

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If you haven't watched PBS, Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel lately, a new study says that you may be surprised to see that a significant portion of the advertising, as well as the sponsorships, in the case of PBS, comes from food companies, including McDonald's, Chuck E Cheese, and others. Those who support limiting the "junk food advertising" seen by children are using this as ammunition, saying that children are too young to make "critical judgments about advertising" and that they are heavily influenced by the products they see. In short, they feel that advertising is a leading cause in making children crave high-fat, high-sugar foods and leads to an increased risk of obesity.

The networks, for their part, insist that they have cut back on food advertising and that many ads are not accepted unless they are in some way promoting education, social development or physical activity.

In the past, studies have shown that the average American child from infancy to 6 watches one hour of TV per day, while 8 to 18-year-olds watch 3 hours daily. This means that they could be seeing as many as 40,000 ads. An alternative solution to heavier restrictions on advertising is that the concerned parents behind the study could simply stop allowing their children to watch that much TV. If the numbers drop even by half, they would have that much less to worry about from advertising, no matter what products were being promoted.

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Single-serving wines are growing in popularity, and though they make up just under two percent of the total wine market, sales in the relatively new sector have grown by 14.7% in the past year and are increasing daily. As the market grows, higher quality wines are being repackaged, where once only lower-end wines used non-traditional packaging.

The reason for the explosion in the industry is a simple one. Although wine is enjoying an unprecedented high in popularity, many people still view it as being for a special occasion, when company comes over or they really want to kick back and celebrate. They don't want to open a whole bottle for just one or two glasses per week; they want wine to be convenient. Single serving boxes and mini bottles offer the perfect solution, since they hold 1 to 1 1/2 glasses of wine each and don't give an occasional drinker the sense that they are "wasting" a whole bottle by opening it. They make wine more more accessible to a large audience of occasional drinkers who were underserved by the market.

"It gets wine on the table every night," said one winemaker.

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Ad Age reports (subscription) that sales of dark chocolate are up 40% this year, in increase leading to $1.62 billion in sales, after only a 29% increase from 2003-2005. One of the reasons for the increase is the fact that this past year has seen many reports that dark chocolate and cocoa are good for your health, in addition to chocolate bars promoting themselves as health foods. All the media coverage of the subject, on top of companies continually rolling out new dark chocolate products, has really made consumers more aware of dark chocolate and more willing to try it.

Any health benefits aside, consumers are learning to appreciate chocolates in the same way that they learned to appreciate different coffees so many years ago. Chocolate has nuances and the fact that people want to taste and learn about them is evidenced by the fact that more and more chocolates are stating their cacao percentages and countries of origin on the label.