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John Thomson  

John Thomson's I Didn't Know That!

Last week everything was going well on Monday and Tuesday and during the afternoon on Tuesday I couldn't do anymore so I decided to take a break from my writing. It was dinner time and I still had time Wednesday morning to finish everything up before my deadline Wednesday.

A little later we closed down for the night. The next day I was ready to finish, which I did, and then tried to send the column and everything went wrong. Brand new computer and nothing would work. I got in touch with the IT guy and it was all tied up until Saturday afternoon about 2 PM.

It’s working now!

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About two or three weeks ago I wrote about Amazon, the most successful on-line store in the world. The company was going ahead with their plans to deliver groceries in the Seattle area. Then boom - last week there was an announcement it would also be happening in Canada! It’s just a few months ago that Amazon committed to a new warehouse in Delta. If I remember correctly it was over 200,000 sq. ft. They already have a location in Ontario.

For five years, Amazon has been testing a grocery delivery service in Seattle, the city where it is headquartered.

AmazonFresh, as the service is called, delivers produce, meat and other grocery staples to people’s homes.

On Tuesday it was reported that Amazon will introduce grocery delivery to Los Angeles and San Francisco. The L.A. service could begin as early as this week.

If Amazon does well in these markets, it could begin grocery delivery in another 20 cities by next year.

It was only a few weeks ago at Amazon’s annual meeting that Bezos assured shareholders that the company was making progress on the e-grocery business model in Seattle.

AmazonFresh has been doing a lot of experiments and trying to get the right mixture of customer experience and economics. "I’m optimistic that the team is making good progress,” Bezos said during the meeting.

Amazon will now sell 15,000 food products in Canada at amazon.ca/grocery, including baby food and formula, snacks, baking goods, coffee and flowers.

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The world’s biggest food and drink company is pledging to speed up making hundreds of products with less salt to honour new U.N. dietary guidelines.

Swiss-based Nestle says further cuts in salt would be made in all its food brands worldwide in keeping with the World Health Organization’s new guideline earlier this year that adults should limit salt intake to no more than five grams per day.

The company’s statement Monday said hundreds of products would be affected, including soups, noodles, recipe mixes, frozen and chilled meals and pizzas in popular brands such as Maggi, Stouffer’s and DiGiorno.

Nestle says its previous efforts “to progressively and continuously reduce the salt in its foods” have already reduced the amount of salt used in its recipes by 14,043 tons compared to 2005.

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Lots of changes are being made at Kelowna City Hall. After a special report was prepared and accepted by council people have been moving up and down and sideways. Some have retired and other have quit to take positions elsewhere.

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The U.S. food chains are eyeing Canada, Fatburger and Famous Dave’s from Seattle.

Appleby’s America have a major franchise in Winnipeg and some stores are open in Edmonton and Saskatoon. I heard that someone was interested in the Kelowna franchise.

A company from Calgary, RAMP Hospitality Brands have purchased both the Pantry and Mr. Mike’s chains. They have spent a great deal of time putting together a chain of some twenty new franchises called Mr. Mike’s Steakhouse Casual.

It will get more crowded in Foodland.

 

Statements and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, John Thomson.  While we are sure that every care has been taken in the compilation of this information and every attempt made to present up-to-date and accurate information, we cannot guarantee that inaccuracies will not occur.

Castanet will not be held responsible for any claims, loss, damage or inconvenience caused as a result of any information within this article.



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About the Author

John Thomson is the Okanagan's pre-eminent business columnist writing his column, Rumours and Things, for over 24 years. Plugged in to the valley's who's who, John keeps his readers coming back for more with his straight talk and optimistic perspective on where we are headed next.

When John is not writing his column, he runs a sixteen year old think tank called the Executive Roundtable and holds his popular "Thomson Presents" quarterly business speaker seminars.

Have a comment, question, or tip for John? 

E-mail John at
[email protected]
or send him a fax at 250-764-8255.

 



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The views expressed are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Castanet. Castanet does not warrant the contents.

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