In my house, I start the grocery list on Wednesdays.
A lot of shoppers, myself included, are looking for tasty, nutritious food that fits our budgets and also doesn’t take forever to make.
But there have been a few products that ticked all those boxes and still didn’t end up hitting a home run in the market, like the product line known as Gerber Singles.
If you think of the name Gerber, you probably think baby food.
For decades Gerber has been a big name, maybe the big name, in that sector, with jars and jars and jars of pureed fruits and veggies for very young eaters, usually with the iconic Gerber Baby on the label.
In 1974, a time when people were having fewer babies, the company decided to branch out with a new line of Gerber Singles.
These were glass jars of ready to eat foods for adults, with flavors like Beef Burgundy, Mediterranean Vegetables and Sweet-and-Sour Pork.
The marketing campaign focused on youngish adults, people who were maybe living on their own for the first time and either didn’t yet know how to cook or didn’t have time to spend in the kitchen.
Eating alone and in the mood for dessert? Just mix a jar of Gerber Singles Chocolate Custard Pudding with vanilla ice cream and you’re all set.
Gerber Singles went to market with the slogan: “We were good for you then, we’re good for you now.”
Which may have been true, but it was also kind of the problem.
Even if these were affordable, easy to use and tasty, the message a lot of consumers heard was: attention all you failure to thrive twentysomethings out there, why not just eat jars of adult baby food, that’s probably all you could handle anyway.
And since most people don’t want to feel like a loser, regardless of the evidence, Gerber Singles never took off.
They came off the market after just about three months, less time than it takes a baby to move from baby food to the regular kind.
That said, it occurs to me that today’s adults love purees, as long as they’re called smoothies, and we have all kinds of meal replacement products for people who are too busy for traditional food.
So maybe it’s time for Gerber Singles 2.0?
Starting this Friday in Pennsylvania, it’s the Bowers Chile Pepper Festival.
Lots and lots of music on the schedule, plus a chile pepper eating contest with a $100 cash prize for the winner.
I may need to stick with Gerber Singles, myself.
Baby food for adults was just as sad as it sounds (The Hustle)
Back our show on Patreon for less than a jar of Gerber Singles a month
Image via Wikicommons
