The General and Me
Bienvenido loyal reader! Please join Bruce and Mary as they traverse the food aisles at local grocery marts exploring  General Mills (son Joe’s employer) connection with Mexico. As usual for those of you email subscribers who prefer to view these posts from the blog-site, please click here.
 We start our search at Pacsadeli, a cool restaurante supply (and retail) store on Calle 56, 37 y 35, Centro.
Pacsadeli has lots of things hard to find elsewhere but not much for GMI products except for Bisquick.
 Our next stop is Superama out on Tecnologico.
 Here’s a cooler full of Haagen Dazs, GMI’s entry in the premium ice cream market.
 And the next stop is “our” Walmart, on Paseo and Av Aleman. This is where we do our weekly grocery shopping. As I have mentioned elsewhere, we were not Walmart shoppers in our previous lives, but down here the Walmart social contract is much more civilized.
 In the mood for Cheerios? Lots of choices here. As you can see the branding is Nestle. Back in 1990 GMI and Nestle formed a 50/50 venture called Cereal Partners World-Wide which has grown into the number 2 cereal producer in the world (behind #1 Kellogg Company) marketing into 130 countries. And CPW has been here a long time, entering the Mexican market in 1992. But I have a question for my GMI readers, and don’t be shy, now. Since this is a 50/50 venture why is 100% of the branding going to Nestle S.A. ?
 If you want to have fun with prices, here is the factor, today: .079, so 33P is $2.61USD.
 If you look closely you can see the CPW branding on the side of the box, at the bottom.
Trix has had some staying power, eh?
 I did not know that Nature Valley is a GMI brand.
 And who does not know that the General now commands controlling interest in Yoplait, the number 2 Yogurt brand in the world (yes the evil Dannon is still number 1)
 And now for something completely different. I have this image here only so that meat eaters can see some prices in a Mexican Walmart. Remember, .079 is the factor. Keep in mind these prices are por kilo.
 And another brand with staying power. We boomers grew up with Chex Mix, now it comes ready-made.
Ok, ok…. I gotta come clean. The main reason, really, for this post (not that I don’t enjoy a shout-out for GMI people) is to congratulate Joe (and brag about nuestro hijo) on his recent promotion to Territory Manager for the Bakery Ingredients Group, East Region. The General will be moving Joe and his lovely bride Meryah to the Philly area shortly. FYI: We have already reserved the caretakers’ cottage on the future Kelley compound. You go, Joe!!
Thanks for visiting, gentle reader. As usual Bruce loves comentarios and is expecting several enlightening ones from GMI followers, who according to Joe, comprise about 90% of Bruce and Mary’s blog fans. Hasta proxima Domingo!Â
Related Posts
February 5, 2012
· 
Bruce · 
8 Comments
Posted in: Life in Merida
8 Responses
Great post pa! Glad that The General Mexicano got its’ day in the sun. And you are always welcome in the caretaker’s cottage, even if that will only consist of a futon in the office for a few years to come.
As for the CPW question, I believe they went with the Nestle branding as it is a more recognizable brand world-wide than General Mills is…at least for now. If anybody knows the actual answer rather than my SWAG please let us know.
Haha, Joe, I think bigger things than futons are in your future. And I knew I could count on you for the branding question. Other GMIers, can you top Joe’s SWAG?
Cheers!
Bruce,
It was fun to see your post this week. Congrats to Joe! We are going to miss him here in Minnesota. It seems your whole family is spreading their wings. Hopefully Joe will only be an instant message away but keep us posted with life changes. Keep living the dream!
Jane Kaine
Hola Jane,
Yeah we never thought it would play out this way, the oldest in NH, the youngest soon to be in the Philly area, and the middle one still in uptown. I think we’ll be getting some frequent flyer miles in coming years.
Thanks for reading!
Cheers!!
Hola Bruce- Thanks for the post-as always it is interesting and informative. My wife and I enjoy learning more about Merida thru your blog and look forward to our visit next month. Congrats to your son on his recent promotion- you should be proud!
Regards,
Hola Phil,
Thanks for your kind words. And thanks for reading!
Safe travels to you two.
Cheers!!
I know several times you have defended shopping at Walmart in Merida, saying it has better policies in Mexico than in the U.S. So, living in the same ‘hood and also car-less, I felt reassured settling for this convenient market.
Now Saturday’s 4/21/12 New York Times published a scathing indictment of Walmart bribery practices in Mexico – (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-mexico-a-bribe-inquiry-silenced.html?_r=1) and I find I must re-think my shopping practices! (Well, at the moment I’m in the U.S., so the shopping is not an immediate issue. However, Walmart proposes to build a new store immediately across the street from us in Watertown, MA, so we have even bigger fish to fry!)
Always interested in your take on such breaking topics.
Yes, Allison, it appears that Walmart is still rotten at the top. The mitigating factor, for us down here, is that we understand the employees are treated far better than their American counterparts. But I must say, with the social devolving of nearly all of corporate America perhaps Walmart doesn’t stick out like it used to.
Cheers!
Leave a Reply