Don't Be So British

The good folks in the UK, it seems, like to buy their food in stores, and spend twice as much at specialty shops--like the muffin man's shop on Drury Lane--as they do on online groceries. Freshness is paramount, and it's worth noting that a lot of Europeans visit markets or grocery stores daily, while Americans make a weekly sojourn to the supermarket to restock the refrigerator.

That's not the sort of thing I want to read in the morning, because it leaves me feeling that I could put the word "fresh" in giant botalic text all over every product page and none of these Bretons would care. We don't sell to England, so it's not my problem, but should I really take comfort in the notion that Americans are less concerned with the freshness of their food?

We seem to be more concerned about what's in our food than how new it is. Organic foods are gaining shelf space at Target, and grocers nationwide are watching sales disappear to specialty retailers who offer organic products.

We're also less afraid to try new things now, which will make Mom happy.

For what it's worth, I think we take freshness for granted. Walk into any supermarket and take a look at the produce aisle. Here's a row of open refrigerator cases in stuffed like a Roman baccanalia with fruits and vegetables in a carnival midway of colors chosen just as much for their mouthwatering appearance as their food value.

No need to ask if it's fresh, because it looks fresh. Once the consumer stops worrying about whether vegetable X is good, they're free to ask if it's good for them. This flies in the face of our brave new world of genetically modified and cloned superfoods, and I'll be amazed if the introduction of said superfoods doesn't drive organic food sales even higher.

There's no preservatives in our Croissants, by the way. They're probably not good for you in the same way as, say, a fresh garden salad, but I'm going to go eat some anyway.