New York SBDC Research Network

Trendwatching.com's April issue is on what it's calling " Status Stories " which is interesting. It is looking at the things we buy for bragging rights and where that is going. So maybe it's the not the high-cost, prestigious brands but also the eco-friendly or personalized items; a celebration of self, so to speak. What I thought was a promising trend is identifying products that are local since that is what many of us are trying to do as consumers and how many of our clients are trying to market themselves. On of the items in the story was a focus on a supermarket in Britain who are drawing attention to where products are from, in the example, it's milk. Local and Authenticity Still Rule Local farms paired with supermarket giant marketing and consumer preference spells success. Visit LocalChoice by Tesco to see how they are doing it.

Tom Morley (from the Westchester SBDC) recently forwarded me an email that began like this: "Whole Foods Market, a national grocery chain with seven stores in New York, recently started a new program to provide low-interest, long-term loans to small producers around the country. We would very much like to let small producers of food products in New York know about the program." Part of this company's mission is that their produce be as fresh as possible, and make these loans available to farmers of "locally grown" produce (for reasons best explained here ). Of Whole Foods Market's seven locations in New York State , none are farther north than White Plains. However, they define "locally grown" as "produce that has traveled less than a day (7 or fewer hours) from the farm to our facility." Eligible products include agricultural crops, value-added food products, and other all-natural grocery items. This definition, then, makes most of the...