Expo West 2009 The winner is Green!
Expo West! The biggest natural food show in North America just had it’s biggest attendance ever!
Can we say that when the stock market collapses and all the virtual wealth vanishes into thin air, we humans tend to stick to reassuring, concrete, solid, and tangible things like foooood? You bet!
I am not sure this was the year for big novelty though… I searched the web for live comments, people queried were all pretty vague about what was “hot” now. Nothing especially new in sight, but things like vitamin water and other useless and crowded categories are on their way out…
People are looking for reassuring yet progressive products.
Because the show is hosted in California – lets not forget it’s the birth place of everything “new and cool” for the last 40 years- there is quite a progressive mindset.
I noticed the increasing presence of green/ eco-responsible/low carbon footprint/recyclable reusable new products.
Food wise, organic is a bit passé if it commands highs prices…
Natural yes, that’s a growing market.
In a nutshell? America wants to hit route 66 in a hybrid pick-up!
As for us, Maison Le Grand had a great show! We had a steady stream of curious “clients” intrigued by our daring packaging. Once they tasted the reaction was positive, of course people had their preferences, but as a whole it was a very successful endeavor! Buyers, brokers, distributors, store owners, media, whole families all stopped by our kiosk in 3 day constant procession. Tatiana lost her voice, but not her spirit!
It was one gigantic fair, now we let the dust settle and begin gold-digging through piles of business cards…
