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Comment by sliverstorm | Hacker News Reader

Have you ever tasted unsweetened yogurt? Try it and you'll understand- especially the Greek kind.

Really, I'm not kidding. It's a major acquired taste, that 99% of America has not acquired.

Even before Chobani, "plain yogurt" took up plenty of refrigerated shelf space in every supermarket I've ever been in. I doubt that was for 1% of America.

That plain yogurt is still sweetened in most American brands, just without the extra flavors like strawberry or key lime added.

You gotta remember that 1% of America is still 3 million people. If three million people want a certain kind of high quality unsweetened yoghurt, and you're the first vendor in line, then you may as well put your order in for that G650 because if you can execute you have it made.

I probably go through a 500g pot of natural yoghurt ever 3 days - say $2 worth (its actually a bit less, but there's nothing "premium" about it).

So I spend about $240 a year on yoghurt (ignoring the others in our family) - so your 3 million would give $720M a year revenue if 1% of the US population liked natural yoghurt as much as I do.

Seems like a pretty good market to be in to me.

I'm in that one percent, but I gave up and started making my own yogurt. I don't know if that cuts into market share, but I would be curious how much niche "artisan" grocery store food sales are affected by people who just make their own. Microbrews might be a good place to start looking as well.

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