In the Valley of the Jolly..Ho..Ho..Ho Green Giant
One of the biggest men in American business is being driven out of the country.' Nobody down in the valley does much laughing about labor costs. They're going up. And the Jolly Green Giant had to...
...Four years ago, for example 95% of Green Giant sales came from corn and peas...
...Some offers have been made...
...Finally, diversification or merger...
...And the Jolly Green Giant had to face the sad blue problem of meeting greater demand without pricing himself out of the market...
...It is a vicious vegetarian cycle...
...But so far, according to the chief executive giant, "neither the terms nor the price has been right...
...Now the Giant gets some 55% of his sales from such exotics as asparagus and broccoli...
...And that's just a taste of the way Forbes handles a story...
...Because its the way a busy businessman likes it -- pithy, pertinent and sound as a dollar...
...Fourth, the Green Giant thinks he has a way out: go to the underdeveloped countries, where labor costs are also underdeveloped...
...Third, the same prosperity that beefed up demand for these exotics also beefed up harvesting costs...
...The reen Giant has given it considerable thought...
...Second, asparagus, broccoli and the like are high labor vegetables...
...And plans are afoot to start little green valleys in South Korea, Mexico and ho ho ho only knows where else...
...It was a typical business problem, and Forbes Magazine covered it in its typical businesslike way...
...The above was quoted entirely from an advertisement for Forbes magazine in the New York Times, February 12, 1968, page 80...
...Oil and tobacco companies are anxious to get into food...
...The Giant already gets one-third or his mushrooms from Formosa...
...First, Forbes found that affluence is changing American palates...
Vol. 1 • January 1968 • No. 10
