I’m not sure if it was the loss of Cuban Sugar or the pressure from the Corn Industry but High Fructose Corn Syrup does not belong in sodas.
I weep for the fact that it costs me a very well researched $1.00 a can to get Dr. Pepper shipped to me to get that old flavor back, but I can go to Costco and get a 18 pack of the HFCS version for under $0.20 a can.
I realize that this may sound touchy-feely but I miss dealing with humans that actually care. It’s hard enough just finding someone to help you in one of those giant Mega-Marts and when you do trap an employee in the Bolts-N-Nuts aisle, chances are that he’ll have no idea of either what you’re looking for or where to find it.
I like dealing with small businesses because the folks that work there actually seem to give rat’s ass.
Perhaps this example will clarify what I’m trying to get at:
This summer, I drove over the end of a plastic water pipe sticking up in the pasture.
(Don’t ask me why this pipe is located where it is-sometimes I suspect it’s part of a diabolical plot on my husband’s part.)
I drove to the small local hardware store and found a parking space right in front of the door.
The woman behind the counter wasn’t busy so she helped me gather the various widgets needed and took the time to see if she could locate a cheaper pipe cutter.
Whole encounter took less than 10 minutes and we chatted about the column she writes for our small town rag. She’s pretty funny too.
Was having a problem removing the broken pipe from the tap so the next stop was the feed store where owner gave me a hand with that operation.
Took less than 10 minutes again but this time we talked about his kids, my horses, and the weather.
It would have taken me at least 20 minutes just to find a parking space and reach
the first aisle at the Home Depot in Austin.
Oh, come on! Bread existed before Panera! I like Panera too, but I don’t like that I HAVE to go there, or one of the other specialty bakeries just to get a decent loaf of bread.
That’s what corporatism has ruined for me - food. The food industry realised long ago that they can make food more marketable by ignoring just plain quality and instead focusing on cosmetics, shelf life, and convenience buy pumping good stuff full of unnecessary emulsifyers, coloring, perservatives and other junk. Add to that economic shortcuts like growth hormones, industrial hamburger meat (rather than meat ground on the premises), and produce harvested too early (so that they survive shipment), or too late (like eggplants - they can charge more for bigger eggplants), and zig zagging with whatever fad the public happens to be into at the time (low-fat, low-carb, whatever). Now just plain, unadulterated food is a niche, gourmet market - I have to go all the way to Whole Foods just to get a pint of plain, whole milk yogurt, and cow products untreated with hormones. The corner bakery, killed by supermarkets, is now trademarked and made into a hip, urban throwback of the better days. You can’t look at a stick of butter to tell its quality by its color since adding anatto is the norm. I have to watch how much fish I eat in a week lest I give myself mercury poison (though that’s not really the food industry’s fault, it’s still corporate profits above public safety). Everyone’s so used to bad convenience food that nobody knows how to cook anymore. I guess most of this isn’t really the fault of corporations, just a lazy public that has allowed its standards for feeding itself drop bit by bit.
I know that! 
They were just different examples.