Is KFC Bowing to Market Pressures?
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KFC has announced that it will transition to using "trans fat free" oils in most circumstances:
So the question remains: Why exactly is KFC making the switch in its chicken but not its biscuits?
If the answer is "to meet evolving customer demands," then that would of course be fine if not wonderful. Contrary to capitalism's more vocal (and more stupid) critics, "greedy capitalists" simply cannot put the factory on auto-pilot and "force" its product on anyone (in the absence of a government-imposed monopoly, that is).
But is that what's really going on with KFC — a victory for the free market?
So, to review, KFC is changing for one or more of the following reasons:
1. A voluntary desire to adapt to changing customer tastes, preferences and expectations in a free-market environment.
2. Coercion by agents inside the government.
3. Coercion by agents outside the government.
It is really so difficult to see that one of these three is not like the other?
KFC President Gregg Dedrick said he was confident the switch, which followed two years of secret taste tests, won't prompt complaints about taste.The "most circumstances" disclaimer is required because the switch was indeed noticed in KFC's biscuits, which will continue to be made with trans fat.
"There is no compromise," he said at a Manhattan news conference an hour before the hearing. "Nothing is more important to us than the quality of our food and preserving the terrific taste of our product."
So the question remains: Why exactly is KFC making the switch in its chicken but not its biscuits?
If the answer is "to meet evolving customer demands," then that would of course be fine if not wonderful. Contrary to capitalism's more vocal (and more stupid) critics, "greedy capitalists" simply cannot put the factory on auto-pilot and "force" its product on anyone (in the absence of a government-imposed monopoly, that is).
But is that what's really going on with KFC — a victory for the free market?
[U]nless the company finds a substitute for the shortening, the biscuits could be outlawed in New York City — just one casualty of the city's proposal to ban trans fats.So perhaps the company is responding, not to customers, but to hack bureaucrats and the hack politicians who piggy-back off them.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, which sued KFC last spring over the trans fat content of its food, announced Monday that it was withdrawing from the lawsuit.Or perhaps the company is responding, not to customers, but to activist nanny-staters.
So, to review, KFC is changing for one or more of the following reasons:
1. A voluntary desire to adapt to changing customer tastes, preferences and expectations in a free-market environment.
2. Coercion by agents inside the government.
3. Coercion by agents outside the government.
It is really so difficult to see that one of these three is not like the other?
Related Posts (on one page):
- New York Times Curses and Damns the Free Market in the Same Editorial
- From the Archives: When Will "Trans Farce" Be Banned?
- Is KFC Bowing to Market Pressures?
- Restaurants Cook Up a Contradiction
- Bloomberg: Eating Trans Fat = Speeding
- When Will "Trans-Farce" Be Banned?
- Like Food for a Starving Authoritarian
- Paternalism May Be Hazardous to Your Health
Posted by Kip on
31 October 2006
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