yep, egg noodles, I like the thin ones for soup.
Posted on 12/06/2008 8:17:23 PM PST by Coleus
Judging by Dayna Neumann's pantry, the latest U.S. recession may become a boon for the Campbell Soup Co., just as the last two economic contractions did. Neumann's family, in Louisville, Ky., is bracing "for a rough road ahead," says the 32-year-old working mother. After her 30-year-old husband, Nick, substituted $1.75 Campbell Chunky soup for restaurant lunches in September, she started buying as many as 15 cans at a time.
The appeal of a cheap meal may be good news for sales at the world's largest soup maker, which says it sells to 85 percent of U.S. households. Its shares have already become an outlier in these hard times, outperforming the other 11 companies in the Standard & Poor's Packaged Foods Index in the past three months. The recession will make 2009 "the year of condensed soup, driven by the backdrop of severe economic pressure on the consumer," wrote Mitchell Pinheiro, a Philadelphia-based analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC. In its 139-year existence, Campbell Soup has survived 28 recessions, two world wars and the Great Depression. The Camden-based food giant may outdistance General Mills Inc., maker of Progresso soup, in shipments in 2009, says Terry Bivens, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst in New York.
Campbell Soup is "acknowledged as a way to weather a recession," says Edgar Roesch, a Soleil Securities Corp. analyst in New York who rates the shares "buy." Campbell's U.S. soup sales accelerated by 6 percent in the fiscal 12 months ended July 2001, a period that included part a recession running from March through November of that year, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass. Soup sales rose 7 percent in the year ended July 1990 and 5 percent in the next 12 months, overlapping the contraction from July 1990 through March 1991.
As the economy becomes more sluggish in 2008, the company's soup sales in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have climbed 12 percent to 14 percent since late August, according to Alton Stump, an analyst at Longbow Research in Independence, Ohio, who polled managers at 50 locations. He has a "neutral" rating on Campbell's stock. "There will not be a recession in eating," said Harry Balzer, who has studied U.S. eating habits for more than 30 years for NPD Group, a market research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y. "There will only be winners and losers."
Fifty-seven percent of households are serving leftovers for dinner, according to Balzer, versus a historic mean of 55 percent. U.S. workers took an average of 42 homemade meals to work in the 12 months through February, the most since 1995, he said. Campbell controls about 70 percent of the $5 billion-a-year U.S. soup market and is offering two-cans-for-$1 deals to maintain the lead.
Sales of the iconic red-and-white cans of condensed soup, which must be mixed with water, advanced 6 percent in the quarter ended Aug. 3, the company said. Ready-to-serve varieties increased 5 percent as Americans ate at home more, it said. Measured by shipments to retailers, Campbell's volume will increase an estimated 3.5 percent this year and 3.9 percent in 2009, said JPMorgan's Bivens. He projects decelerating shipments for General Mills, cereal maker Kellogg Co. and Sara Lee Corp., which sells Jimmy Dean sausages and frozen desserts.
Over the past five years, Campbell has lost ground to Progresso in sales of soup that's ready to eat from the can. To reverse that trend, Campbell Chief Executive Officer Douglas Conant spent $115 million on research and development in the last fiscal year, up 12 percent from the previous two. His increased investment led to the introduction of pop-top lids, microwavable soups and, more recently, varieties with less salt and fewer chemical additives. He declined to comment. The company has also recently published newspaper ads that say Progresso chicken noodle contains flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate while Campbell's Select Harvest doesn't.
"They've gone on the offensive in the ready-to-serve segment," said Roesch, the Soleil Securities analyst. "They've been waiting until they had a product that in some ways is superior." Jo-Lynne Shane in Philadelphia serves Campbell's Chicken & Stars soup to her three children and makes casseroles with Cream of Mushroom. The 36-year-old homemaker, who contributes to the Silicon Valley Moms blog that offers how-to-spend-less advice, stopped making chicken Marsala and other costly dishes after her husband, Paul, urged her to spend less on groceries. "My husband was bugging me to cut back," Shane said. "He said he could even stand tuna casserole once a month."
Well, eat what ya got before you make more. I’m not even sure if I have room in my freezer, because I usually leave one in the fridge I can eat off of and freeze the rest.
I’ll buy a shank end ham, just for making soup! Just kidding. But when I find it on sale I buy it and cut it up. I take off as much as I can for ham “steaks,” cube the rest and use the meaty bone for broth for all kinds of bean soups -— except split pea or lentil. They both turn me off, and the funny thing is those were the only kind of homemade soups I ever even knew about when I was a kid.
In my parents’ house soup meant a can of Campbell’s chicken noodle or tomato. Cream of mushroom was used for cooking not eating.
My husband doesn’t particularly care for Campbell soups, he prefers Progresso, but he knows that if I’m sick and say I want chicken soup he better be giving me Campbell’s if we don’t have any of mine (or he doesn’t feel like defrosting some)
Progresso’s ok, but I still usually have Campbells.
You can use it as it comes, or jazz it up with whatever veggies you might have around. And I almost always have celery, carrots, spinach, etc.
Mmmmm! Good old tomato, use only 1/2 can of water, and a grilled cheese sandwich.
Campbell’s Tomato soup made with milk and pretzels thrown in the soup like you would crackers. Delicious full meal!
I was just kidding with you. Not about how much I make, but how much you make.
I just like to cook and if I’m going to go to all the time and effort of something like lasagne, or tamales, or soup, I might just as well make it worth all the time and effort so that I have it on hand when I don’t feel like going through all the time and effort.
If that wasn’t a run on sentence, I don’t know what one is. LOL!!!
And on that note I’m gonna go grab a PB&J and call it a night.
You all have a good one and I will check back in the morning!
Well the other one no ones mentioned is their Bean With Bacon soup.
Which is also pretty good if you just want something quick and filling! Coarse I usually add half a teaspoon of black pepper to it.
No veggie beef fans around here?
http://secretrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/03/campbells-vegetable-beef-soup-recipe.html
I think the gelatinous aspect of the shank bone gives a slightly ‘slimy’(?) texture to split pea soup. That’s what I love though. LOL
Most of our ham goes into scalloped ham and potatoes with a generous melt of brown and bubbly Velveeta on top. Yum! Comfort food extraordinaire!
I grew up eating Campbell soups. I can’t eat them now since they started using MSG in all the soups.
I’ve always made it a point to cook for cheap. Crockpots are great. Bread machines are great. Wild game is great. So is canning and preserving what you grow or pick at a farm. It’s often a topic of dinner conversation to figure out exactly how much my family of three is eating that night. Often, our entire meal comes out to less than $4. No way we could all eat out for $4. That’s the key—eat at home. Stock a pantry. Buy in bulk. If you’re a food snob, give instant mashed potatoes, ramen noodles, bulk rice & store brands a try. Bypass Whole Foods and drive to Aldi’s once in a while. Clip a coupon on occasion. Plan your meals each week. Make sure you don’t eat like a pig so you’ll have leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day. I think eating cheaply is a rather worthy & enjoyable challenge.
Msg can lead to many diseases of the nervous system. It artificially causes your synapses to “fire” repeatedly and wears out your “connections”. If interested go to truthinlabeling.org. It is highly educational and a real eye opener.
Americans are being sabotaged by way too much msg in their diets and are coming up on the short end of health because of it. There should be a constant outcry. Msg makes food taste better because it fools you into thinking you have that satisfied taste that protein gives you.
It also has the ability to draw people back to the food that has it in it. That is why it is being crammed into so many foods by marketers. The problem is if one marketer leaves it out and another puts lots of it in most people will automatically buy the one with it in so the first marketer finds it hard to compete. Msg should be outlawed because of its ability to make people over time very sick. Companies would have to go back to putting lots of honest to goodness flavor in food. Of course that would be more costly.
Yummy with Fritoz.
I have LOTS of Ramen Noodles. I mean LOTS!
Years ago, I got this itchy feeling I should start stockpiling food, so I did.
One week later, I KID YOU NOT, some planes crashed into the World Trade Center.
Top Ramen is a good indicator of inflation. I used to be able to buy them for 12-15 for a dollar. Now you are lucky if you see them 10 for two dollars.
Like I said above and you know, these are all just things to start get ya going. I love to cook, and am usually quite good at it.
I once had a dinner date and cooked a duck for this beautiful girl. It basically turned into some bones and a pile of grease!
But she gave me another chance, so I decided to try something like a Chicken L’orange, except I used Lemons instead of oranges and orange peels.
Turned out surprisingly good!
She must have liked it because she ended up marrying me...
regards,
djf
Campbell Soup bought Wolfgang Puck Soups not too long ago. Should start distributing them in January 2009 and hopefully getting them into Walmart. I eat them every week, delicious, and far better than Progresso or Campbell Chunky. Check out their Wolfgang’s Roast Chicken with Vegetable soup - yum!
http://www.wolfgangpucksoup.com/images/bowls/roastchicken.jpg
I prefer Progresso’s Italian Wedding soup to Campbell’s Italian Wedding soup, but that’s the only Progresso soup I’ve tried. Campbell’s New England clam chowder (non condensed) is good, as their condensed oyster stew, with a can of oysters and a pat of real butter added. Beyond that, most soups today seem to be mostly water and a few celery chunks-ugh.(BTW, the Progresso Italian wedding reduced sodium soup is better than the regular soup because you can add enough kosher salt to make it ‘un bland’...Kosher salt is so much better than table salt (which is the kind of salt removed from low sodium soup) so the end result is better than the canned soup that ISN’T reduced sodium. That would probably hold true for ALL reduced sodium soups-just add kosher salt till it tastes right.)But fat free or low fat soups? Bland in a can.
Nick is still eating high on the hog. Let's substitute 12¢ Ramen Noodle Soup for that $1.75 high priced Campbell Chunky, then come back and talk about low cost meals.
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