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America's Love Affair with Avocado

economist.com

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Re: America's Love Affair with Avocado

#111

Post by gambiting »

madeofpalk wrote: post #87
triggercut wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those following along in other countries should also know that, amongst younger people, an Avocado is a typical house warming gift to friends who have recently purchased a house. Which, when you stop and think about it makes even less sense that the original proposition.

> amongst younger people > recently purchased a house Doesn't match up.

You realize that a lot of people don't live in hyper-expensive cities and purchasing a house even in your early 20s is not a huge deal? Here in North East of UK you only need about 10k for a deposit for a new house, it's hardly impossible to save that much if you have a job. London, sure - it's almost impossible. But not everyone lives in London.

Re: America's Love Affair with Avocado

#112

Post by Fnoord »

gkgicccj wrote: post #77
cvsh wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on casual observation of what other customers are ordering from my frequent visits to Chipotle, it seems like queso has been a complete failure. I don't understand why they thought cheese would be something people would pay extra for. A) Cheese is not usually expensive, like avocado, and so not usually considered worth paying extra for 2) Cheese is known not to be healthy, and part of the appeal of Chipotle is…

Which cheese are you referring to and why do you think it's not healthy? Genuine q

Cheese, generally, contains a lot of fat and salt (as in natrium, I think in the USA it is called sodium). We're consuming too much natrium as it is.

There are other, cheaper methods of obtaining protein. Some of which are locally available. In Africa, for example, insects are used as local source of protein. They have a low Co2 footprint for a variety of reasons:

* Because a lack of transportation (locally available). Especially when compared to trademark protected cheeses such as Gorgonzola.

* Barely any land is used and it can be stacked, allowing more space for other land usage (generally that could be forests, or at least not adding to deforestation).

* No methane enters the air which directly affects Co2 emissions (which cows, generally the main animal used for cheese, do produce a lot).

Compare insects and cheese to avocados: for Europeans avocados are not locally grown, and the deforestation is a "far from my bed" show.

Re: America's Love Affair with Avocado

#113

Post by 0xJRS »

sciencesage wrote: post #28
philipodonnell wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raising prices for a chain like Chiptole is non-trivial. Think about all those menu boards listing the price of adding guacamole, every one of those has to be reprinted, distributed and posted. IT systems updated, etc. Not saying they don't do stuff like that all the time, there's just more of a lag between a commodity price rising and a chains ability to raise the price of the end product. These kinds of decisions a…

A lot of chains use TV sets to list item pricing now, so that would make it easier. But I agree that it's usually not in the chain's best interest to raise prices often

While I think they should, Chipotle does not use screens for their overhead menus

Re: America's Love Affair with Avocado

#114

Post by 0xJRS »

yinghang wrote: post #19
pmorici wrote: post #2

I don't understand how high avocado prices could cause Chipotle to loose money. Guacamole is an optional add on why wouldn't they just raise the price of the guacamole to reflect the market price of avocado or use avocado futures to hedge their price risk.

Qdoba, Chipotle's competitor, actually offers guac for free - which is super interesting to me!

There is also Moe's which offers guac for free, but the difference is that they give you 2 tbsp instead of the giant serving Chipotle does, which people might prefer to have and dont mind paying for.

Re: America's Love Affair with Avocado

#115

Post by zafka »

ben174 wrote: post #62

Not sure how this contributes to this thread, but I’m nearly 40 years old and have never once tasted an avocado. I was born and raised in California but for some reason I’ve always been repulsed by their appearance. I’ll realize this is ridiculous and will probably get over this at some point.

That's funny. I am 58 and pretty much felt the same way all my life. Then a year or so ago when I finally got serious about losing the weight that snuck onto my frame from 45 on, I started a low-no carb diet. Suddenly Avacados became my friend. I now eat them in salads multiple times a week. You are going to be surprised. They are quite tasty!!

Re: America's Love Affair with Avocado

#116

Post by madeofpalk »

gambiting wrote: post #111
madeofpalk wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> amongst younger people > recently purchased a house Doesn't match up.

You realize that a lot of people don't live in hyper-expensive cities and purchasing a house even in your early 20s is not a huge deal? Here in North East of UK you only need about 10k for a deposit for a new house, it's hardly impossible to save that much if you have a job. London, sure - it's almost impossible. But not everyone lives in London.

I was replying to a (tongue in cheek?) comment about young people, avocados culture, and Australian home ownership. The assumption was this was specifically referring to Sydney and Melbourne.

Re: America's Love Affair with Avocado

#117

Post by cableshaft »

cvsh wrote: post #23
drawkbox wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably a reason they are adding other high margin products like queso to offset shrinking margins on avocado. Guacamole is always expensive but worth it. Though simplicity and just doing the same thing well is really what Chipotle is or was, much like In-N-Out doesn't need gimmicks, just the same good food consistently with well paid employees so it is quality. Hopefully Chipotle doesn't add too many things.

Based on casual observation of what other customers are ordering from my frequent visits to Chipotle, it seems like queso has been a complete failure. I don't understand why they thought cheese would be something people would pay extra for. A) Cheese is not usually expensive, like avocado, and so not usually considered worth paying extra for 2) Cheese is known not to be healthy, and part of the appeal of Chipotle is…

Or

4) Their queso is not very good.

I use to get queso on my burritos at Qdoba every single time, when that was still around. But their queso was actually good. Chipotle's is not.

I'm not the only person that thinks that. There's articles and memes and all sorts of things about it: https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/09/18/everybody-hates-ch...

Re: America's Love Affair with Avocado

#118

Post by cableshaft »

ramses wrote: post #82
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #53

Avocados are delicious, and it seems that demand will continue to rise for the foreseeable future, especially as Latinos become a larger portion of the U.S population.

In addition to latinos and vegans, there is a likely explosion of ketogenic eaters to come very soon, thanks to all the research pilling up about the great benefits of being in ketosis. Avocados are usually part of an omnivorous ketogenic diet.

Yeah, it's one of the staple superfoods for people on keto, usually. Gives them lots of potassium and all sorts of other goodies that they're missing out on by not eating most fruits.

Re: America's Love Affair with Avocado

#119

Post by inuhj »

cvsh wrote: post #23
drawkbox wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably a reason they are adding other high margin products like queso to offset shrinking margins on avocado. Guacamole is always expensive but worth it. Though simplicity and just doing the same thing well is really what Chipotle is or was, much like In-N-Out doesn't need gimmicks, just the same good food consistently with well paid employees so it is quality. Hopefully Chipotle doesn't add too many things.

Based on casual observation of what other customers are ordering from my frequent visits to Chipotle, it seems like queso has been a complete failure. I don't understand why they thought cheese would be something people would pay extra for. A) Cheese is not usually expensive, like avocado, and so not usually considered worth paying extra for 2) Cheese is known not to be healthy, and part of the appeal of Chipotle is…

Queso is a staple of texmex. I have friends from the Midwest lament the lack of queso at local Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles. That said, queso is probably having regional success outside of CA.

Re: America's Love Affair with Avocado

#120

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

Fnoord wrote: post #112
gkgicccj wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which cheese are you referring to and why do you think it's not healthy? Genuine q

Cheese, generally, contains a lot of fat and salt (as in natrium, I think in the USA it is called sodium). We're consuming too much natrium as it is. There are other, cheaper methods of obtaining protein. Some of which are locally available. In Africa, for example, insects are used as local source of protein. They have a low Co2 footprint for a variety of reasons: * Because a lack of transportation (locally available…

Yeah, but "mac 'n' insects" doesn't quite have the same appeal!
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