"Carey Sublette" wrote:


"Derek Lyons" wrote in message
...
"Carey Sublette" wrote:
There is a very substantial, and growing, frozen gourmet food industry. A
little googling, or a trip to a high-end supermarket, easily turns up an
vast range of products.

It turns up what seems to be a vast range. In reality, you find it's
a fairly narrow range with a bunch of different producers for each
article.

Check out:
http://www.hvk.org/hvk/articles/0403/235.html

This is a New York Times account of the frozen foods available from just one
company for one particular (small) segment of the frozen food market -
ethnic Indian cuisine in the U.S..

Oddly enough, the article focuses most of it's attention on the snack
foods.

The frozen foods available for this one market segment runs at least into the
hundreds of products (go to nice store in an Indian community in the U.S. to check
it out).

It's like the Asian, Hispanic, etc.. markets I've been in, the
situation is just like that down at my local Safeway; the range of
products is actually fairly narrow. The sheer bulk looks impressive
until you realize there are 12 different manufacturers of Lasagna, 14
different for Salisbury Steaks, etc.

Similar articles can easily be run about other ethnic markets - Latino/Hispanic,
Chinese and other East Asian (actually several separate markets), etc.; as well
as other vegetarian foods, etc.

And these ethnic market segments aren't narrow? In every single
ethnic market I've ever visited (dozens, including a couple of higher
end Oriental markets), the amount of fresh product outweighs the
frozen by at least 2-1.

Having someone argue that the available high quality frozen food products is
a "fairly narrow range" is a bit like encountering someone who asserts that
the automobile has yet to really seriously challenge the horse and carriage.

No, it's like encountering someone who can see the forest for the
trees.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL