It's not Breakfastables An outfit called East Side Entrees has fired what might be a preemptive strike against the possibility of a morning version of Oscar Mayer Lunchables. It's BreakfastBreaks, in several varieties. Mr. Tidbit selected the one that contains an ounce of Honey Nut Cheerios, a Fruit & Grain bar, a Minute Maid juice box, a plastic spoon, a paper napkin and a moist towelette. The Cheerios are already in a plastic bowl, but though they are shown on the BreakfastBreaks box splashing into milk, no milk is supplied. To be fair, the box does say "Easy, nutritious ... Just add milk." But where would having this collection of single-serving items make any kind of "convenience" sense (in the car? on the bus?) -- where there would also be a supply of milk?
And of course (sigh), there's this: At one discount supermarket, the box costs $2.49. At the same store, an ounce of Honey Nut Cheerios (from the smallest box, the most expensive per ounce) is 29 cents; the cereal bar, from a box of eight, averages 34 cents and the juice box, from a 10-pack, is 35 cents; total 98 cents. Throw in a very generous 20 cents for the spoon, napkin and towelette and you've still spent less than half the price of the BreakfastBreaks. If you're still thinking "great idea," they're on the breakfast-bar shelves.
Cheap at half the price Ragu and Bertolli have almost simultaneously launched pasta sauce in 13.5-ounce microwavable (nonrecyclable) pouches, both trumpeting that they are ready in 90 seconds, never mind that you still have to cook the pasta. Each is sold for roughly the same price as that brand's sauce in a 26-or-so-ounce glass jar. So each comes to you for about double the cost-per-ounce, with absolutely no advantage except that if you're serving only two or three folks, you won't have half a jar of leftover pasta sauce to put into the refrigerator.
AL SICHERMAN
