ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an examination of the role of the retail store in shaping the American diet and of advertising in the food and kindred products industry. The food-supply system has played a crucial role in the rapid broadening of the basic American diet. The food-distribution system—getting the food from farm to processor to table—plays an important role in shaping the price and quality of what Americans consume. The fluidity of both the distribution and retail system has allowed the increasingly complex marketplace to create new demands and meet them comparatively quickly. The creation of an extensive system of wage labor with the Industrial Revolution brought increasing numbers of consumers to retail food outlets with cash to purchase their groceries. Consumer awareness increased the potential of new products to be successful in the marketplace, the potential power of brand identity, and the variety of foods that were purchased on impulse.
