You know you’re a real blogger when even as a tiny company, you can get a reaction from a huge company. In this case, Ben & Jerry has decided to pay for the google.ie search “ice cream ireland” so that their site will come up above mine (see above) as a “sponsored link.” I’m not sure whether to be flattered or frustrated by the possible confusion this might cause among readers.
What’s ironic about their move is that Ben & Jerry built their brand by taking on the food giant Pillsbury, and their “What’s the doughboy afraid of” campaign. Now they are owned by food giant Unilver, so maybe the question should be, “What are the Vermont boys afraid of?”
Given that google charges per click, maybe I should start a campaign to get people to click on the link as much as possible! Still, I hardly think a company their size would feel the pinch much…
Since I’ve come back from Tokyo, I’ve been digesting what I experienced and thinking a lot about the huge range of premium food products on offer there. It was actually quite a shock in that for all of the wealth generated during the Celtic Tiger, we really don’t have super-premium-priced food here, outside of a few restaurants. Perhaps that is because we obsessed about prices non-stop during the good times, talking about “Rip-off Ireland,” and fuming if things weren’t cheap (except houses and salaries). Food seemed to bear the brunt of this, which is ironic, since Ireland simply can’t produce cheap food products – at least not compared to Poland, Germany, Argentina, etc., where the economies of scale are much larger and the costs much lower.
Although you can buy chocolate in a convenience store for similar prices to here, you also have 
