Timing is everything & Kraft's may be bad

With 20 new products, my alma mater in consumer goods Kraft is betting the folks will continue to eat at home in 2010.  Bad bet, I say.

After this The Horror sort of year, there's plenty of pent-up demand to get out the house and have a waitress serve us flounder stuffed with crab at Red Lobster or pasta at Olive Garden.  It's an affordable pleasure and with a little hope in our pockets we'll take it.

In addition, the craze for 2010 is going to be dieting via fast-food restaurants.  That means eating out, only on the run and not with a waitress.  KFC got the ball rolling on that one with its under-400-calories combo plate.  Given the success of the Subway gimmick on this approach to weight loss, I anticipate obese Americans will make their way out to fast-food alley.

Me?  Personally I will use any excuse in 2010 not to eat at home.  I put in 2000 as the Year of Austerity.  Now I want to be a Woman About Town again.