Asian Grocery

Phil: And talking about flavors, what, what I'm fascinated by is this other story, uh, that you found about out an Asian supermarket and how it's really changing, not only the way Asians, but also, um, you know, Anglos are looking at Asian food. 

Sally: Yes, this is really interesting to me because the, this is the fastest, um, uh, group, um, growing the, the fastest growing racial group in the us is the Asian population. And, um, and we've also, we've reported here on the limper report live, uh, a couple of months ago about how the Asian community was suffering from food insecurity for a variety of reasons because of, um, increased, um, uh, uh, uh, hate against, against Asians. And so they were afraid to leave their homes to go shopping at the supermarket. And then we also saw the restaurant community in some of these cities where, um, there were, you know, like San Francisco, where there, there are big, uh, populations of Asians with, uh, that are also in the food business, being afraid to are unable to open their businesses during the pandemic. Um, so this is really interesting to me because what we're finding out is that, you know, these foods have not really ever been that accessible to the Asian community. The, the ethnic aisle in our supermarkets is very, very limited. And so Larry Lou who moved from Shanghai to Sacramento, California, started, um, a platform called we, which is now becoming the biggest Asian online grocery out there where people can get these products without having to, um, drive hours and hours away to find them. 

Phil: And, and they're authentic and they're priced affordably. Um, he's raised over 400 million, um, since he started, uh, the company was valued by Bloomberg at 2.8 billion, and they have more than 4,000 Asian and Hispanic products, uh, Taiwan, cabbage, Koreans, pork belly, TA flavored Bobba lattes, and Laise cucumber flavored potato chips. Let's not forget those Laise potato chips , um, as part of it and talking about that, I am ranting right before we, right before we started today, I get this, um, email that, uh, there's new pebbles, shakeups, and marshmallow cocoa pebbles that are in stores. Now, this is this big announcement, uh, from pebbles, uh, breakfast cereal fans can watch their milk turn chocolatey with each bite of gluten free, crispy rice cereal packed full of cocoa marshmallows and delicious chocolate flavor, not chocolate, but chocolate flavor. Um, but we gotta get that word gluten free in there, of course. 

Phil: And, um, here's what the, here's what the package looks like. And, you know, I know it's hard to read, but one ounce to one ounce pouch has 13 grams of sugars. It is naturally an artificial flavored marshmallow bits. You know, what's interesting to me, when I look at the package, they've repeated naturally an artificial flavored twice. I guess they have to do that legally because it refers to the cocoa pebbles boulders and the chocolate honey comb that that's in there, cocoa explosion, cereal, snack mix, just what we don't need. I, um, for our, for our food supply or our kids to, uh, to be able to do that, nothing against pebbles, I don't think I've ever tasted pebbles in my life. Have you? 

Sally: I have a very, very long time ago when I was a kid, when my mother just, I begged her so much that she got it for me, but, um, but yeah, as a, as a mother of children that, you know, they look at the, at cartoon cereal, cartoon inspired cereals, and they want those. And, um, this is not something that I want them to eat.