Before Whole Foods. Before Erewhon. Before Bristol Farms had a location on every corner of a certain kind of neighborhood, granola only existed in one place: the health food store — the kind with bulk bins, hand-lettered signs, and a clientele that in 1973 America would have unapologetically been called hippies.
That year, General Mills — then the country’s number two cereal maker, chasing Kellogg’s for the top spot — decided to compete there. They launched Nature Valley Granola Cereal: pour it in a bowl, add milk, eat it with a spoon, just like every other cereal on the shelf.
It flopped. Or at least, it didn’t sell the way a company that size expected.
