The global financial crisis has seen stock markets dip, economies slow down and many people lose their jobs and homes, but the food, drink and entertainment industries seem to have been the least affected so far.
Consumers’ appetites are still as large as ever and the providers are churning out more than enough to meet their needs. However, the divide still exists between the haves and the have-nots; obesity remains a major issue, particularly in the US, while the number of hungry people in the world has probably increased.
International industry giants like Cadbury (confectionery), SAB Miller (beer, liquor), Diageo (beer, wine, spirits), and General Mills (canned, frozen and packaged food) though reporting resilience last year were cautious about the future. According to Reuters, analysts had said last year that slower global growth will eventually hit these industries, and that this year was crucial as whatever fell off their heads would land on the shoulders of the consumers. These predictions were overly cautious as so far this year, all of these companies are either in line with last year’s figures or have reported slight growth.
While perhaps more people are going the brown-bag lunch route, during the past month one would have been hard pressed to find a decent restaurant in Times Square or downtown Toronto where there was not a 15-minute wait for a table at lunch or dinner time, or a fast-food joint like McDonald’s, KFC, Wendy’s, Popeye’s or one of the others where there was not a long line of people. Undoubtedly, many diners were visiting these cities, but there were still a lot of ‘suits’ sitting at tables and standing in line, that spelled financial district.
Meanwhile, manufacturers also launched new alcoholic beverages and new flavours of old ones.
Theatres on Broadway appeared to have their regular quotas and tourists thronged 7th Ave, Chinatown and other similar places just as they had in past years.
Musicians and record labels dropped new albums; in Hollywood, Bollywood, Nollywood and elsewhere studios churned out the average number of films; new television series and new seasons of old ones are set to be aired shortly and publishing houses have been printing new novels.
Slowdown or not, the fact was that Michael Jackson’s concert tickets had sold out the minute they went on sale. And following his death, his albums disappeared off the shelves of music stores as sales reached unprecedented highs.
Things were no different here in Guyana. The New Thriving finally closed its ramshackle entity at the corner of Camp Street and Brickdam and opened its long-awaited Main Street restaurant, buffet and take-out some months ago. It has not been empty one day since.
Oasis Café expanded with its kiosk inside the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, replacing the dreary Lotus, which has retained its outdoor restaurant at that location. However, none of the other established eateries seemed to have suffered as a result, though perhaps they might be in a better position to say if they had taken a hit.
And as far as entertainment goes, shows and plays at the National Cultural Centre have played to full houses over the past few months. For August alone, there were Pepe Moreno – Brazil’s Michael Jackson – the Jamzone pre-pageant three nights of concerts featuring chutney, reggae and soca music and the pageant itself; reportedly all sold-out events. And none of the regular party or hang-out spots appeared to have had to close for want of customers.
The evidence therefore suggests that do or die,
people will eat, drink and be merry.