Shareholders Abhor a Vacuum

The American Public is a fickle lot, and I say that because I picture them as being several hundred of me.

Over the past couple years two big trends have surfaced. One was the arrival of the Atkins and South Beach diets, which tore a hole in the consumption of carbohydrates, and the other has been the explosive growth in organic, natural foods.

Whether or not such foods are healthier or tastier isn't my point. What has happened is Whole Foods and similar markets are taking the marketplace by storm, and this has not gone unnoticed by Wall Street.

Somewhere, in some pitiable cubicle, many people are slaving away checking numbers, and they've discovered this stuff sells. Not only does it sell, but it sells almost exclusively to the higher class of consumers, the ones not very affected by the rising price of gas.

About a year ago, when gasoline prices first hit $3.00, the first markets to notice a slowdown were places like those dollar stores and WalMart. Nordstroms, Tiffany, Gelsons, Coach didn't notice a thing. People who can afford the higher-priced goods may very well complain about gas prices, but it doesn't much matter to their pocketbook. An extra twenty or thirty dollars a week for gas isn't much felt when you can drop $100 - $200 shoes on a whim.

When not  outfitting themselves with nice looking things, many of these people have caught onto better, pricier groceries. And, if they're willing to spend the money, one after another of the large corporations are more than happy to grab a slice of that pie.

There's nothing intrinsically wrong, I guess, with corporations making money, but it bothers me no end that that is all they do. While they're now going after the health-conscious consumer, they could just as easily have gone after those who developed a sudden fad for, say, purple foodstuffs. If that had been the case, the corporations and the market would have reacted precisely the same, with tons of purple goods all over the place and marketed up the whazoo.

What corporations are doing for food is the same as the auto manufacturers are doing with the hybrid car. Now, I love the Prius as an auto, both theoretically and in practice, but I don't understand its cult status. Toyota isn't making them because they're good for the environment, they're making them because there's a market for them. If Toyota made only hybrid cars I could honor the company,  but for them it's merely another cash line. They'd be as quick to jump on any other possible source of income and market the hell out of it, and they've done that in the past.

Same for Honda, GM, and the rest. They're not so much innovating and hoping to change the world as they are hoping to wrest every cent they can from what the public wants.

Or, can be convinced is desirable.