Navigate the Perils of the Supermarket!

https://www.pcog.org/articles/3782/navigate-the-perils-of-the-supermarket

A practical example of how to recognize and avoid ‘Satan’s devices’

By Joel Hilliker

Food is one specific battleground where Satan uses these three devices. God created the miracle of food as perfect, wholesome and good. But 6,000 years later, most of us are eating large amounts of foods that are not created by God. These foods have been processed by modern, industrial methods.

Looking at this one area shows how common these devices are and how easy it is to be ignorant of them and to fall prey to them. And this is an aspect of living that we engage in multiple times per day and that affects our energy, our appearance, our moods and our spiritual lives.

Let’s examine Satan’s use of these three tactics.

1) Pleasing the Self

Founded in 1886, Coca-Cola has worked hard to hook people to its product for 130 years. During World War ii, company’s ceo publicly declared that every soldier in uniform would get Coke for 5 cents a bottle, no matter where he was stationed, no matter what it cost the company to get it to him. This hooked an entire generation of men and women on this sugary, carbonated beverage.

This was not the only tactic this particular company deployed. Its executives devised countless ways of putting a Coke in people’s hands, especially when they’re kids. They tied Coke to places where people make happy memories, such as sports stadiums, movie theaters and amusement parks. They came up with fast-food combo meals: a burger, fries and Coke. They put coolers full of Coke next to supermarket cash registers. They developed all-you-can-drink beverage bars and soda fountains, Big Gulps and supersized beverages. For them, all this represents success. More guzzling means more sales means more money. One former executive summarized the strategy: “How can we drive more ounces into more bodies more often?”

Coca-Cola focused on two numbers: 1) market share (how to increase Coke’s proportion of world soda consumption); and 2) per capita consumption (how to increase the amount of Coke drunk by the average person). The health of the average Coke drinker simply does not fit into this calculus—in fact, it ruins it. Thus Coca-Cola seeks ways to increase the already stunning 54 gallons of soda a year drunk by the average American.