Skip to main content

Cereal Sales Down 10% Over the Last Three Years

CNBC laments the decline of cereal for breakfast. (Click here for video.)

Cereal killers at the breakfast table

Thu 22 Aug 13 | 11:56 AM ET

The following transcript has not been checked for accuracy.
cuckoo for cocoa puffs anymore. how are cereal companies handling a decline? the good news, fewer people are skipping breakfast. the bad news, more of skipping cereal. where is mikey when you need it. he will try it. he eats everything. he likes it sm. in the game of life cereal, tastes change. consumers are swimming to yogurt or foods you can eat on the go. so-called cold cereal unit sales have cold 10% in the last three years. they'reinnovating, coming up with protein shakes, breakfast bars, however cereal remains the number one choice for breakfast in america. but not all consumer choose a bowl of cereal and milk. it's also impacting milk sales. also declining as people switch to other beverages. dean food says it's going to be a tough quarter. there's another problem translating this overseas. cold cereal is really only popular in the u.s., and so they've adjusted their cereal offerings internationally to appeal to that consumer that maybe wants to dunk a cereal bar in coffee or in yogurt. but look at the stocks. not that soggy until this summer. general mills and post have been outperforming the s&p and credit suisse says valuations in the sector getting a little high. also then to solve what may be a serial cereal problem, markets are targeting adults, not kids. gluten freechex. more adults eating lucky charms. at strike force hit says he has cher cheerios with soy milk because i'm that age. a box of cereal can cost $7 in some markets. it's ridiculous. i know we have to leave it there. and there's less in here. exactly.
URL:http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000193095

I hope this means that people are finding out that carton of eggs or a slab of bacon is better for their health and wallet than a $7 box of cereal. A coworker remarked that one of her grandsons can eat a whole box of cereal at one sitting, and wondered if cereal companies will try to make something healthier. But what healthy food are they going to make out of flour and sugar?

Comments

daveizmir said…
not to be egotistical, however when everyone and their brother were doing lo carb in 04 and meat prices went way up.
Lori Miller said…
The price of meat and eggs will probably go up again if there's more demand for them. But for many people, poor diet has its costs, too: medications, more sick days, bigger and bigger clothes, and less energy. There's a cost to the environment from cereal monocrops and people eating more food than they might on LC. But raising animals for food, when it's done right, is good for the environment.

I actually save money by doing LC:
http://relievemypain.blogspot.com/2010/06/is-low-carb-expensive-diet.html
daveizmir said…
I cannot believe how much better I feel after replacing corn fed steaks with local Island grass fed hamburger meat. I always figured the tradeoff was minor. Also no bloating like after eating corn fed burger
The humble egg will do you far more good at breakfast than a bowl of cereal. I do think more people are beginning to realise this. A low carb, high fat lifestyle does not have to be expensive, if you shop wisely.

All the best Jan
Lori Miller said…
Interesting. I wonder if this is a reason that some people feel better when they cut back on red meat. From an evolutionary standpoint, we should be very well adapted to it--but aurochs and cave bears weren't eating much grain.
Lori Miller said…
Seven dollars for a box of cereal blows me away. If you don't insist on pasture-raised, you can get a couple of cartons of eggs for that.

Did you ever hear Bill Cosby's bit about chocolate cake for breakfast? Ain't much difference between that and a bowl of cereal.

Popular posts from this blog

Fly with Reuteri

If you're planning to travel by plane and you want to keep enjoying the benefits of l. reuteri yogurt, you might have gotten sticker shock from the price of l. reuteri probiotics. MyReuteri * costs $46 to $83 for 30 capsules, depending on the CFUs (colony-forming units, or the number of viable microorganisms). If you're thinking about economizing by putting some yogurt in a sturdy container and taking it with you, you can do that. I'll break down the pros and cons and look at some alternatives.  Photo from Unsplash . Cost Yogurt might be less expensive than probiotics, but it isn't free. A half-cup serving costs about 70¢ to make if you start with a previous batch. It contains about 90 billion CFUs if fermented for 36 hours.  This is a lot less than $5.56 for two capsules of 50 billion CFU MyReuteri, but for a one-week vacation, you'd only save $34 by eating yogurt instead. (You can freeze any unused capsules for later.)  Furthermore, the yogurt would have to go in ...

30-second Fix for a Cracked Stick Blender

Use Mighty Fixit (if you still have some from 2012) or Rescue Tape (which looks like a similar product) to fix a cracked stick blender. After I fixed the attachment, I washed it in the sink and the tape held up. I also wrapped a knife handle several years ago, and it's been through thousands of washings.

Thanksgiving recipes for Pumpkin Pie & Cranberries--printable!

If you'd rather read a printed recipe than watch a video, here are my recent recipes for Better than Grandma's Pumpkin Pie and Probiotic Cranberry-Apple Relish.  Hat tip to Dana Carpender, whose pumpkin pie recipe inspired this one. The cranberry-apple ferment is entirely my own creation.  Pumpkin Pie--no grains, sugar or emulsifiers Crust 2 cups shelled raw pecans 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon monk fruit powder* (or 3 tablespoons sugar substitute) 4 tablespoons butter, melted 2 tablespoons water Pumpkin Pie Filling 1 pie pumpkin 1-1/2 cups half and half (with no thickeners) 3 eggs 3-4 teaspoons monk fruit powder* (or 3/4 cup sugar substitute) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice Preheat the oven to 350F. Stab the top of the pumpkin all the way through the flesh in a few places at the top. Place the pumpkin on a cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour. Let cool. While the pumpkin is baking, put the pecans in a food processor with the S blade and run until they are finely...

Holiday Dinner Tip from Restaurant Pros: Limit the Menu

After watching some people online getting freaked out about trying to put on holiday dinners and getting overwhelmed to the point that they're thinking about canceling the whole thing, I thought I'd put out a restaurant tip that will help people put on a dinner with less aggravation. A big complaint among the frustrated home cooks I've seen is that family members are not contributing to the dinner. But a bigger problem I see is that their menu is just too big. One lady's family is having her make 12 dishes all by herself, and some of these dishes look pretty complicated. Watch the video here or read on. The reason this is aggravating is that more dishes mean more shopping, more prep, and more cleanup. It's hard to make several dishes that will all be ready at the same time. Even though I used to be a prep cook at a restaurant, I've put on Thanksgiving dinners myself, and I cook from scratch almost every day, there's no way I'd try to make a 12-course di...

Results of my Carrageenan-Free Diet

Certain things should be left in the aquarium. Readers may recall my ordeal last Saturday with a migraine headache and a trip by ambulance back to my parents' house. Thanks to one of the paramedics jogging my memory, I researched the almond milk I'd started drinking around the time I quit dairy. One of the ingredients was carrageenan, a substance used to induce inflammation, sensitivity to pain and other problems in laboratory animals. Supposedly, the "undegraded" form is safe for human consumption, but undegraded carrageenan has been found to be contaminated with degraded carrageenan, and there are ways that the digestive system could degrade carrageenan itself. For the past few months, I've felt a little bloated, and was starting to have some mild pain in my lower stomach. I thought it might have been the effects of the antibiotics, oral steroids or decongestant (which gave me an allergic reaction) from back in February. I didn't connect it to the sev...