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Of Groupthink and Biscuits

It was yet another meeting in a 'star' hotel that prompted this post. The usual meetings punctuated by a tea break in the morning and a tea break in the evening with a lunch in between.

Leave the lunch and the meetings and the tea and the coffee and rooms aside.

What I have not been able to wrap my head around is why do hotels in this day and age of health consciousness offer 'cookies' that are just maida and sugar bombs? Why not offer healthier alternatives? Some carrot sticks and hummus? Or some wheat khakras? Or even just off the shelf crackers and biscuits that have no zero maida? There are quite a few healthier options available in the market, so what prevents them from trying out any of them? Peanuts?

Maybe, well, maybe, some customers insist that they will eat these maida biscuits, but surely, there are others who would perhaps, like a choice? But no. In the last 20 years, I have not seen a single hotel anywhere in the country buck this trend. Not the newer hotels named after colours, fruits, animals, vegetables. Not the older grand ones. Not the famous palatial ones. Not one single hotel has found it worth breaking this trend.Why?

Why is that so? Is it Groupthink? Or is it margins? Or is it because enough customers don't tell them that they hate these health hazards masquerading as cookies? Or because nobody really cares?


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