Chocolate Chip Cookies and Borderless Economies

8/13/06

As I walked down the aisles of Rustan’s Supermarket to shop for comfort food to last my whole midterm week, I saw to my dismay that the only Chips Ahoy! cookies available on the shelves are peanut-buttered and not chocolate-chipped. I am inclined to interpret this in either of two ways: one, that the chocolate chip cookies have been sold out to the Sunday madding crowd, or two, that Chips Ahoy! has lost its touch, and is thus losing out on supplies. Like you, I’d rather prove the first. However, my regular forays into the grocery have had me concluding otherwise. Not only has Chips Ahoy! been losing shelf space. It has also been replaced by Keeblers.

My childhood is punctuated with happy memories of Chips Ahoy! brought home as pasalubong by my parents or uncles and aunts returning from abroad. Obviously, it was not yet the age of WTO, GATT, and borderless economies. Back then, Hershey’s Kisses and Barbie Dolls meant they were imported – they had to travel from faraway just to be mine. That made them extra special to me. As a child, I cannot take them for granted, which I can now do as an adult. Today, I don’t need to wait for someone returning from abroad to bring me home a bar of Dove soap. All I had to do is make a trip to a nearby store.

With the influx of imported goods due to lowered tariff rates and global economies of scale, supply in the local market has increased. Supply has gone out of its way to reach the consumer. All I had to do is go to Rustan’s where, not only will Chips Ahoy! be waiting, but also a dozen other brands.

I met Keebler cookies as an adult. It has replaced Chips Ahoy! by simply being there on the shelves more often than Chips Ahoy! does.

I hope I’m wrong when I suspect that Keebler has weakened Chips Ahoy’s sales, and I hope I’m more wrong when I conclude that this is what borderless economies can do.