Why Food Is Taking Over Your Life

Starbucks Corp. peddles pink unicorn frappucinos. Ikea’s food operations go from a fun way to keep up shoppers’ stamina to a fast growing division offering much more than meatballs. Amazon.com Inc. enters the hyper-competitive meal-kit market. Losing customers to supermarkets, Whole Foods Market Inc. faces pressure from activist investor Jana Partners, which hires food writer Mark Bittman as a consultant. Malls replace anchor stores with food halls. American teenagers start to spend more on food than apparel.

All these stories are part of the same phenomenon. As my colleague Tyler Cowen recently wrote, food -- and, I would add, the business of food -- has become central to contemporary culture. Filling a primal physical need turns out to be a perfect match for the digital age. The question is why. Cowen emphasizes snob appeal -- economists love stories of status signalling -- but there are other reasons as well. If status signals were all people wanted, they could stick to fashion.