THE GROCERY SHAKE-UP TO COME 

For the past 50 years, as our grocery stores have strived for higher levels of sophistication, became better illuminated and developed advanced design, products basically, although packaged more expressively, remained the same. That is about to change. Shocks to come may be more than some can bear.

The multi-billion dollar market that is the North American food industry is not going unnoticed by Japan and other Asian countries. Up to now, Asians have mainly directed their export marketing energies to electronic consumer goods, high tech components, automobiles and other relatively high-priced articles. That was where the higher profit margins could be used to advantage. Now that many of these fields are "mature", Asians are about to move into such substantial markets as food, which they have been watching for years. And it will not be just food that will serve up the shocks. They will be tying in new technologies to accomplish things -- like stealing the market -- that have never hit North American grocers before. For years advanced research in the food industry has been going on in Japan. Many of their brewing companies and chemical corporations have been dealing with food for centuries. They learned long ago that by adding a little yeast here and more heat there, food can be changed. Now other technologies, like packaging food in plastic wrappers containing inert gases, can delay spoilage until the package is opened, days or weeks later. This and other techniques would allow food in vast quantities from China to be transported, in Boeing 747-400 series jumbo jet freighters via Japan or Hong Kong, to almost any place on the planet ... non-stop! Can North American or even South American food producers compete? Especially when prices may be 50 percent lower, or even more.

But will Canadians and Americans buy so much Chinese food and will they accept it when they think the food products may not be as "clean" as those produced here? That's where other technologies may move in to assist in marketing. Ultra-violet and gamma forms of radiation or ozone application could be utilized to in effect "warranty" such foods as biologically "pure".

Present satellites, which transmit those thousands of television commercials over North America, still have a few years of life left before they expire. Very few will be replaced before their lifespans end, because of the huge investment hanging up there over the equator at an altitude of 22,300 miles. Meanwhile, Japan has moved into the space field, almost unnoticed by the North American public who have been mesmerized over the years by the now-faltering U.S. space program. The Japanese are already broadcasting HDTV (High Definition TeleVision) from their satellites. Food, viewed on HDTV never looked so good. Once they position satellites to cover North America, a new game will be announced. Their's.

It is no secret that the Japanese have slowly acquired about 40 percent of American movie and television production facilities. They control thousands of programs which they already own and by merely throwing a switch could broadcast from a new satellite. Such satellites will be far more modern and powerful. The dish to receive such programs -- and I have seen prototypes in Japan -- will be about the size of a saucer. If you think this is an exaggeration, remember that only recently an American company announced a new satellite-receiving radio dish -- same size as a business card! Technology in the 1990s will effect the food you eat, where it comes from, how you buy it, how it's delivered to the home, how you cook it, and even how you dispose of the waste produce.

How many viewers will stick with the new but fast-fading American sitcoms when HDTV hits with an innovative overwhelming format, a vast array of programming, AND 200 channels for FREE! The Japanese will be able to do that because they will corral most of the Japanese (and other) advertisers. When shoppers see the low prices on new Japanese food products, containing such enticing properties as genetically-enhanced food values few consumers will continue to be swayed by "patriotism (fading like other "ism's") and will switch allegiances.

Dinosaurs, neanderthal man and the pony express all vanished quickly because they did not anticipate the startling changes that destroyed their superiority.

Only by changing as rapidly as a competitor can anything survive.

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