Spam is on the rise. Yes, your email box is full. Yes, Rethug trolls and Hillarybots keep flooding blogs with lies about Obama.
But that's not what I'm talkin' about.
I'm talking Spam. With a capital S.
Read more if your stomach can stand it.
No, folks, we're talking about registered trademark Spam. Spam in a can. This Spam:
Yes according to the Indianapolis Star, in Spam shoulders rise in Hormel profit (Great headline!), Spam sales are booming.
Why?
Food prices are increasing faster than they have risen since 1990, at a 4 percent rate in the U.S. last year, according to the Agriculture Department. Many staples are rising even faster, with white bread up 13 percent last year, bacon up 7 percent and peanut butter up 9 percent.
There's no sign of a slowdown. Food inflation is running at an annualized rate of 6.1 percent as of April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
I mean, crap, if white bread, bacon, and peanut butter are up, what am I to do? Those are my three basic food groups! Well, what else? Turn to Spam.
Spam's maker, Hormel Foods Corp., reported last week that it saw strong sales of the pork meat in the second quarter, helping push up its profits 14 percent.
According to sales information coming from Hormel, provided by The Nielsen Co., Spam sales were up 10.6 percent in the 12-week period ending May 3, compared with last year. In the last 24 weeks, sales were up nearly 9 percent.
And what's more, it's apparently
everybody who loves Spam.
Spam sales are reaching across all spectrums, young and old and rich and poor, said Swen Neufeldt, a Hormel group product manager. Many of the eaters are new to Spam, which was created in 1937 and gained fame as the meat that fed Allied troops during World War II.
"We have significantly increased our household penetration," he said. "I think it's a lot of folks that are coming into the brand perhaps for the first time and coming back to the brand."
See, folks,
Bush/McCain economic policy is working for some people!
Herbert Hoover may have promised
"a chicken in every pot," but, hey, times were good then. It was only
the Great Depression.
Thanks to nearly eight years of Republican bungling, Bush/McCain can now promise,
"a can of Spam in every cupboard."
And remember, kids, "Spam--it's not just for breakfast anymore!"
Haven't tried it with a latte yet . . .