[carlosjobim]

Averages and means are of no significance in this equation. What matters is which market has the most customers who can afford your product.

Luxury goods are sold worldwide even to hell hole countries, because there's people there who can afford them.

[cjs_ac]

We're talking about cheese. To American consumers, this is luxury, imported cheese, only available from specialist retailers. To Swiss consumers, it's everyday cheese sold in ordinary supermarkets.

[carlosjobim]

You missed my first sentence. If there are 9 million Swiss consumers who are potential customers and 40 million Americans who are, then it doesn't matter if the average Swiss is richer than the average American.

Average and means have no significance in this matter. There are more Americans who can afford cheese from Switzerland than there are Swiss people.

[cjs_ac]

Are there sufficiently many Americans shopping in any individual supermarket who are willing to pay for that cheese for it to be worth that supermarket stocking that cheese? Distribution to retailers is not a simple problem in the food industry.

[carlosjobim]

I would suppose so. Supermarkets in both Europe and America have made gigantic improvements in just the last 7 years in variety and quality of products they offer. Most people haven't noticed since it's a constant and accumulating process, but you find much more stuff today in the supermarket than what you used to. And the reason is partly from greatly improved logistics and distribution.

[crote]

In Switzerland, "Swiss cheese" is just cheese. It's only a luxury product in the US because it has to be shipped to a different continent.

So who can afford it? In Switzerland, everyone.

[carlosjobim]

There are more Americans who can afford Swiss cheese than there are Swiss people alive. If you are manufacturing food, then you have to calculate that each human only has one belly.