The headline read, "Coke’s $7 Billion Bet on Milk Hits Big, But Wall Street Wants More". Turns out all that expensive Fairlife brand milk in the dairy section belongs to Coca-Cola, Inc.
QUOTE: "Fairlife filters its milk to boost protein, reduce sugar by half and eliminate lactose, while also, according to fans, being creamier."
And this: "Despite being about three times the price of traditional milk, retail sales topped $1 billion in 2022." I was at Wegmans today and can confirm that. $2.42 for a half-gallon of whole milk, or $1.21 a quart, and the Fairlife on the shelf just above it was going for $3.30 a quart.
But here's what got me: "The US milk industry...has been facing declining demand for decades as kids aged out sooner and cereal’s popularity waned. US per capita milk consumption has sunk nearly 30% since 2010." Also during that time: "Since 2000, data analyzed by Beverage Digest, a trade publication, shows that the total amount of soft drinks consumed each year in the US has sunk by 37%."
Well, my weight and blood sugar levels have forced me to cut way back on soda, so that last part is understandable, but I've been a fan of whole milk ever since grade school, when it came in half-pint cardboard containers and cost 2 cents. Here it is, 60 years later, and I'm still drinking whole milk, putting it on my cereal and making homemade pudding with it. For all I know, 2 cents in 1965 dollars is worth 30 cents a half-pint today. (However, now the president wants to stop minting pennies, and I'm with him on that.)
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