The Use of Pineapple in Society

localism butcher brewer baker pineapple local knowledge

Art Carden for AdamSmithWorks

People voted for the Hawaiian pizza and voted against the Hula Burger. They didn’t do so in political referenda or by entering a polling booth on election day. Instead, they “voted” by buying Hawaiian pizzas and not buying Hula Burgers.
“What is the species of domestic industry which his capital can employ, and of which the produce is likely to be of the greatest value, every individual, it is evident, can, in his local situation, judge much better than any statesman or lawgiver can do for him.” Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter 2

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.” Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter 2

 In 1962, a Cincinnati McDonald’s franchisee named Lou Groen was trying to figure out what to do about the Fridays on which the people in his heavily Catholic neighborhood abstained from beef and chicken. The sandwich he created, the Filet-o-Fish, remains on McDonald’s menus worldwide. Ray Kroc, the milkshake machine salesman who turned McDonald’s from a roadside stand in southern California into a nationwide culinary sensation, suggested a “burger” with a slice of pineapple instead of a beef patty. He called it the Hula Burger. The market’s reaction was swift: the Hula Burger couldn’t find a market and did not last long as a menu item.
 The same year, a Greek immigrant in Chatham, Ontario, named Sam Panopoulos found himself with a lot of canned pineapple at his Satellite Restaurant. So he decided to pair the sweet pineapple with salty-and-savory ham on a pizza he called the Hawaiian Pizza. 
Today, Hawaiian pizza is a staple of just about any pizza joint worldwide and a source of irritation to purists and gourmands who don’t think pineapple belongs on a pizza. The Hula Burger, meanwhile, only lives on in listicles about failed McDonald’s menu items.
 Why? It’s pretty easy to figure out. People voted for the Hawaiian pizza and voted against the Hula Burger. They didn’t do so in political referenda or by entering a polling booth on election day. Instead, they “voted” by buying Hawaiian pizzas and not buying Hula Burgers. The votes they cast with their dollars came together to say “yes” to Hawaiian pizza and “no” to Hula Burgers.
 It’s important to note as well how Groen, his employees, and McDonald’s executives sought to feed themselves and their families. They didn’t do it by demanding or simply taking, as they might have in a more martial or aristocratic world. They appealed to their customers’ “regard to their own interest.” They made money by introducing a product devout Catholics would be willing to buy. No doubt, there are people around the world who don’t know the first thing about Catholic doctrine who are nonetheless able to help their Catholic customers fulfill their obligations because it is in their interest to do so.
 The customers basically did the same thing. Instead of walking into restaurants and demanding to be served meals that satisfied their doctrinal checklist, they just refrained from going to McDonald’s on Fridays. They got McDonald’s to accommodate them not by talking to them “of their advantages” in a language both parties spoke and that was easy to understand: money.
 Markets generate profits and losses, giving people crucial information about what people want and don’t want. For example, they tell entrepreneurs that it would be a mistake to make more Hula Burgers at the expense of Hawaiian pizza. Those signals are indispensable and only emerge coherently from a market process. If politicians made the call on the hula burger, New Coke, or the Ford Edsel, they might still be with us. Fortunately, they’re not. You can get a Filet-o-Fish at almost any McDonald’s or order a Hawaiian pizza from almost any pizza place, and those pizzas are cheaper because we’re not wasting pineapples making Hula Burgers. That’s the market process in action.
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