General Mills is having a good year. Net sales are up 14 percent, and sales of its Fiber One cereal bars have reached $100 million annually. “Food is recession-proof,” an NPD Group analyst notes—particularly food that doesn’t require its customers to do any cooking.

Lipstick remains an affordable, spirit-boosting luxury, an analyst says: “As long as women want to look beautiful, beauty will always do well.” Revlon stock is up, and one researcher calculates that its Renewist brand’s sales are up 68.5 percent, to $5.5 million, in the past year.

Ninety percent of videogame consumers are in the recession-resistant six-to-30-year-old demographic, says Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, who expects Epic Games’ highly anticipated shooter Gears of War 2 to be a top seller this year.

Campbell’s iconic, economical condensed tomato soup is championed in current marketing as an alternative to fast food: It’s on the “original dollar menu.” The company’s net earnings jumped 46 percent in the quarter ended August 3.

SABMiller, the world’s second-largest brewer, says value-conscious consumers trade down from wine and spirits—and that its “economy” (i.e., downscale) brand Keystone Light has enjoyed double-digit growth this year.