Read an interesting book on a subject most of North America takes for granted. Over the course of a couple of days, many people will take something out of the freezer to eat. Back in the  1920’s and 1930’s when most people did not have a freezer, Clarence Birdseye was inventing how to freeze foods better. In an interesting book called Birdseye, The Adventures of a Curious Man by Mark Kurlansky, Doubleday, NY 2012, discusses his life and fast freezing. If something is frozen quickly the ice crystals are small and the food retains its flavours; if food is frozen slowly, the ice crystals are bigger and the food will be mushy. Prior to Mr. Birdseye’s invention frozen food was generally mushy and had a very low reputation for good food. Mr. Birdseye, eventually sold his company to what became General Foods, not only had to invent a better way to freeze, but after successfully doing it, the next big step was to find a method to distribute the food and convince people the quality expected would be delivered. With the backing of GF, grocers received freezers and eventually the public bought fridges with freezers, previously people used ice. The process and how that all came to place makes an interesting story.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the above story has been areas where dividend stocks try not to tread. Inventions are great, inventions which money can be made within a short time period are even better. In the case of freezing foods, now days  they are accepted and eaten on a very regular basis, but the cost of the infrastructure is a high hill to get over. Once it is in place and acceptance is in the marketplace, revenues and dividends can flow. From this perspective, as a general citizen you should encourage people to be curious and always be looking for better solutions. When it comes to your investment dollars try to stay with those companies whose revenues are already flowing.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.