Need milk... J. M. Smucker dropped 8%, making it the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 yesterday. The 4-generation, 122-year-old company is grumpy about 1 product: peanut butter.
"Choosy moms choose Jif"... Now they choose humanely-raised alt-nut options. Sales of peanut butter and Smucker's other headline jam/jelly/butter foods fell 6% last quarter — the company is blaming grocery stores, which are cutting PB prices. But those retailers are discounting for 2 reasons:
- Gotta compete: With Amazon pushing harder into food and Walmart already America's biggest grocer, grocery stores are slashing prices to keep win customers.
- The rise of the anti-peanut butters: Almond. Macadamia. Cashew with a little cinnamon swirl. More expensive fancy butters are encroaching on peanut butter's bread real estate.
We need to redefine food “staples”... A staple = “Eaten routinely and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet.” Peanut butter has always been one. And Jif was the staple food's staple brand. But as consumers upgrade their spreads and retailers downgrade prices, old school "staples" like Jif are losing their staple "status."