When asked what keeps him up at night, the CEO of a nutritional supplement company told me it’s the fear someone will die after consuming something they bought on Amazon.com. With the volume of selling that occurs on the platform and the relative lack of scrutiny, it’s a conceivable scenario.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Those of a certain age may remember the public-service announcement when an egg was cracked into a pan and fried with a voiceover stating: “This is your brain on drugs.” Fast forward a few decades and your customers’ brains may indeed be fried – this time by addiction to technology,...
I set my bags down and plopped into the chair with the folks from iHeart at SupplySide West (SSW) to check off an item on my punchlist — getting familiar with my internal age. The iHeart device clips on the finger and measures stiffness of the arteries through the velocity...
The call came in from “someone with a story idea” within minutes after our weekly email newsletter went out carrying a lead item about Day One price cuts at the new Whole Foods + Amazon. As the first editor this independent health store owner tried to reach, I got the...
The role packaging plays in food, HABA and supplement success can be as important as what’s inside. Change your look and product sales can grow, but a misstep can cost you in lost revenue and damage to your brand. An optimized redesign generates an average 5.5% lift in revenue, according...
In the category of developments to watch is Brandless, a San Francisco startup that launched in July with $50 million in funding. Brainchild of serial entrepreneurs Tina Sharkey and Ido Leffler, every item in the online store is $3 and many are good-for-you items in non-perishable food, health and beauty,...
Combing through the WholeFoods Magazine archives while writing a tribute to Stanley Jacobson, I hit pay dirt with a statement he made in 1985 during his run for the presidency of the National Nutritional Foods Association (now NPA). “This industry has been largely responsible for turning the health ‘fad’ into...
Living with an illness that limits the foods she can eat renders journalist Debbie Galant an expert on Crohn’s, the chronic inflammatory bowel disease that sends her to the hospital periodically to clear out an obstruction. She’s like any of your customers seeking to spread these emergency visits as far...
I got an inside window to the state of school lunch earlier this year while spending time with Kindergarten and first grade students in an economically and culturally diverse community just outside New York City. Wearing my anthropologist researcher’s hat, I studied what came in and what went out. School...
Excess sugar is public health enemy #1 and as your customers seem to want to have their cake and eat it too, manufacturers are busily innovating to supply alternative sweeteners. Part of the heightened awareness is caused by growing government pressure. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has adapted...
