Supermarket stuff

I walk around a supermarket and my marketing sixth sense takes over. "Why is this here?" "Who buys this stuff?" or simply "Huh?" Today I was in the bread aisle, and let me say that I find the whole concept of a bread aisle mystifying. Why we need six different brands of soft whole wheat bread and over 40 kinds of bread in all (and this does not include the bakery section of the store where there's another couple of dozen) is beyond me. That's a lot of water, flour and yeast.

Anyway, today I was drawn to a brand of soft whole wheat bread called "Hearth Farms." I've always like the "hearth" thing on bread. "Hearth-baked." Yeah, well a hearth is an oven and I'm not sure where you'd be baking that bread if not in an oven. Not quite as good as "fresh-picked." Of course it was fresh when it was picked, but I'm interested in what it's like NOW. Anyway, companies like to put "hearth" and "farm" on their labels, because they have a good wholesome feel about them. But what in the world is a hearth farm? Is it a pastoral field full of ovens? And it sounds like there's more than one. I need to find out.