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13209. neato - 1/13/2005 1:07:26 PM I bet all those Macnas's like a puff or two 13210. Magoseph - 1/13/2005 1:34:17 PM Hello, everyone! Hi, Neato, long time, no see, as they say around here. I hate to say it, but I relegated coffee pots and coffee machines to the pile of stuff to be sold eventually. Instant coffee is just fine for us and even that is on its way out. 13211. PelleNilsson - 1/13/2005 1:37:33 PM We must show due respect to Macnas. I lives, I think, in Europe's 2005 cultural capital.
Hello Neato! Long time. 13212. alistairconnor - 1/13/2005 2:08:48 PM Instant coffee? ... now I understand why you feel you could never go back to live in France.
... you'd be lynched. 13213. Magoseph - 1/13/2005 2:42:59 PM Ali, there I get Nescafé and Nestlé milk (the sweet condensed one), naturally to the horror of my relatives, who aptly call me "l'américaine". 13214. Macnas - 1/13/2005 2:44:55 PM Cork, the European capital of culture. Who'd have thunk it.
Actually that long haired long bearded brother of mine lived in the south of Holland, where coffee shops sold.....coffee.
As for myself, why, I couldn't say. 13215. PelleNilsson - 1/13/2005 2:56:10 PM Instant coffee was the rule when I lived in the Mideast. I promised myself never to drink it in Sweden. They had German coffee but I like that even less.
That a classy French lady can drink Nescafe (and boast about it) is entirely beyond my comprehension. Life sure is a mystery as AlD used to say. 13216. Magoseph - 1/13/2005 3:17:42 PM You are very kind, but I would never call myself classy, Pelle, definitely pedestrian however, yes, for some things that are too bothersome to me, as I get older. 13217. thoughtful - 1/13/2005 3:29:44 PM Re 13196, Pelle, Maxwell house owned Gevalia...hardly the other way around. I heard that from the CEO of maxwell house several years back so I assumed it was true. 13218. thoughtful - 1/13/2005 3:43:09 PM My mispeak...she was the Pres of Maxwell House, not the CEO.
Anyway, the history of Kraft Foods shows that in 1853 Gevalia was started, in 1971 General Foods acquired Gevalia, General Foods being the owner of Maxwell House since 1929. 13219. PelleNilsson - 1/13/2005 3:55:27 PM You are absolutely right, thoughtful. I discovered that myself but I hadn't got around to posting it. My claim that Gevaila is family-owned is seriously dated but I have been brought behind the light (as we say here) by its advertisements which emphasize their roots and hide the fact that it is owned by a multinational giant. Now, when I think about it, it is very cleverly done. 13220. thoughtful - 1/13/2005 4:06:05 PM Pelle, I find 2 things amazing about it. One that the same company that can produce such excellent coffee is also capable of producing sludge that passes for coffee. The other, to turn it around, that a huge conglomerate like kraft can have the flexibility to allow such a premium coffee to continue to exist rather than sacrificing its quality for profits as so many other conglomerates have done once they take over a premium product.
Given the globalization of the food industry over the last 30 years, I would imagine it's hard to find any food producer that isn't part of some conglomerate, excepting the local shop keeper around the corner. Heck even Ben & Jerry's is owned by Unilever. 13221. Magoseph - 1/13/2005 4:45:52 PM Men Just Want Mommy by Maureen Dowd
A few years ago at a White House Correspondents' dinner, I met a very beautiful actress. Within moments, she blurted out: "I can't believe I'm 46 and not married. Men only want to marry their personal assistants or P.R. women."
I'd been noticing a trend along these lines, as famous and powerful men took up with the young women whose job it was to tend to them and care for them in some way: their secretaries, assistants, nannies, caterers, flight attendants, researchers and fact-checkers.
Have you noticed this trend too? 13222. alistairconnor - 1/13/2005 4:57:36 PM Surely not!!!! Ah you've floored me there Thoughtful.
Is that a recent development??
I visited the B&J factory a few years ago...
The business model strikes me as frankly strange for Unilever : the emphasis for B&J outlets (perhaps this has changed?) being on employing people who are in rehabilitation of various sorts, and other do-gooder stuff...
The quality of the product itself isn't necessarily incompatible with belonging to a multinational, but I would have thought the busniss ethics would be. 13223. thoughtful - 1/13/2005 5:13:06 PM From B&Js web site:
April 12[, 2000]: Ben & Jerry’s announces the company’s acquisition by Anglo-Dutch corporation, Unilever. Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors approve Unilever’s offer of $326 million ($43.60 per share, for 8.4 million outstanding shares), as well as a unique agreement enabling Ben & Jerry’s to join forces with Unilever to create an even more dynamic, socially positive ice cream business with a much more global reach. Under the terms of the agreement, Ben & Jerry’s will operate separately from Unilever’s current U.S. ice cream business, with an independent Board of Directors to provide leadership for Ben & Jerry’s social mission & brand integrity.
13224. thoughtful - 1/13/2005 5:13:24 PM
just checking toys
13225. wonkers2 - 1/13/2005 5:13:47 PM Re: Gevalia/Maxwell House sludge. What Kraft is doing is called segmenting the market, a technique by which a company produces products with distinct images and characteristics spanning the entire market for the particular product rather than focusing on one end or the other. General Motors almost put Ford out of business by offering everything from a Chevrolet to a Cadillac in a variety of colors while Henry Ford offered only one model in any color you wanted as long as it was black. Many customers never realized that Chevrolets and Cadillacs were made by the same company. 13226. alistairconnor - 1/13/2005 5:23:14 PM That'd be right, we visited in 1999.
How very clever. Have an ethical business as a social alibi... 13227. thoughtful - 1/13/2005 5:24:41 PM wonks i am aware of market segmentation, but often the corp culture gets in the way. It's one of the reasons why so many mergers fail...management often can't comprehend a different way of doing business, is sure it's way is right, then destroys the acquired company by forcing it into an inappropriate mold. It's difficult for management to let something different survive. That's why, for example, saturn is so remarkable...and don't think GM hasn't tried to bring it back into the fold many times.
Another example, Ford takeover of jaguar. If i were running the co, I would have kept jaguar's styling, but fixed the quality problems. Instead, ford has created a vehicle that looks very much like a taurus with a different hood ornament. IMO ford didn't understand what it was buying, and was determined to force jaguar into the ford mold.
I mean does this look like a car for James Bond?
13228. alistairconnor - 1/13/2005 5:35:47 PM Hahaha! I've lived through something similar : worked for many years for a small IT company. We were Jaguar, we were bought by Ford.
We all left in the end. Not a very profitable acquisition, I imagine.
Imagine calling that thing a Jaguar.
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