Food Price Battles...

I'm in Greenville, South Carolina today for a SmartCode OnSite work session, but prior to starting, I found this article to be very interesting on the growing price battle between food makers and food providers:

Food makers who raised prices repeatedly to fight soaring commodity costs in recent years are now battling with retailers to hold onto those increases as the global economy grinds to a standstill.

Many are touting the relative value of their products versus eating out, promoting their products together with retailers' own brands and holding extensive conversations to let retailers know that in some cases their costs remain high even though many commodity prices have fallen, industry executives and analysts said.

"We're all trying to deal with a difficult economic reality where consumers are getting more demanding and competition is increasing to meet the needs of consumers, so it's just more pressurized," Campbell Soup Co (CPB.N) Chief Executive Douglas Conant said in an interview.