That explains a lot!
July 4 Barbecue Costs Climb to Record
- Thread starter Tsing Tao
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That explains a lot!
I remember when a half-gallon of ice cream started to slowly shrink... down to 1.5 qts now (price is up, too). Some companies proudly proclaim on their label... "Still A Half-Gallon", or "A Full Half-Gallon", but most have just slipped in a smaller unit product... I guess hoping oblivious consumers didn't notice.
The ones that proudly proclaim "Still a half gallon" etc, had to have raised price. If they didn't shrink size OR raise price, then they cheapened the ingredients. Certain brands have the power to raise price and still keep the same volume (or close to - everyone suffers volume atrophy on price moving up). Premium brands like Häagen-Dazs for instance.
What? You mean there really is "no free lunch"??
Most try to sneak a price increase past us without our noticing.
You have to understand how companies look at it. They have more room to take price if other brands in the category take price - but they can't all agree to price at once, because that is collusion. So they usually wait to see what the category captain (the highest share brand) does and then follow suit. If the lead tries to hide price with down sizing, etc, then they'll try to do something similar. It's very fluid.
Another request for Ricter to show a source for his claims fades into oblivion as he vacates the thread posthaste.
At some point, the product suffers. I've noticed it more in packaging than product amount, but see it in both now with nearly every purchase. A few instances: I use industrial size plastic for food storage. The latest box I bought, the plastic is now so thin I can barely unroll it without it tearing horizontally across the roll...same thing happened recently with a roll of painters tape. A plastic container that an ant bait comes in is now so thin that it barely pops back to form when squeezing out food for my little biting/stinging pals.
Spice jars now have the holes in the lid. They used to have a plastic inside cover with the holes in with a tamper proof cover under that. Those plastic pourers are mostly removed now, and last night I opened a jar of spice that no longer has the protective cover under the lid, but instead has thin plastic higher on the lid to prevent tampering. Most screw lids for jars of all makes have far fewer threads and are vertically much smaller than just a few years ago.
I could go on and on, but my point is, there is considerably much less material going into packaging (and no doubt product), and I find it frustrating because I'm not getting a lower price for this reduction in quality.
Never the less, if they must downsize their products, fine. I don't like it when they tell me on the package that it's new and improved when it's not necessarily so. They should just say new look. Some are actually honest in that sense. One producer recently changed their package from round to square, but indicated there was no less product. The weight on the package holds up on that. Others don't say anything at all. A detergent I use shrunk their bottle and reduced the amount of soap by about 1 1/2 oz, but didn't say a word. The price was actually higher when we noticed the change. I don't have a problem with corps trying to stay profitable, I just don't like the feeling of getting screwed after being loyal to a company (s) for decades. Much of my loyalty has been based on quality that is now disappearing. In many cases, I would rather pay more and retain the quality.
Your comments regarding CPG certainly make sense and add a new dimension to the discussion. Very interesting and informative post.
Everything you are saying here is absolutely accurate. CPG companies spend a lot of money on Quality Assurance and consumer focus groups when they introduce or change stuff to see if it will pass the muster or give important feedback. But I can tell you (because I see the financials) that it's not a greed thing. Margin compression is a very real threat to companies like ours (companies like Kraft, P+G, Kimberly Clarke, J&J, Nestle, etc). It's getting to the point where there's no place to go but packaging, ingredients, price and finally, people. Usually in that order.
How much is inflation driving this equation (or is it)?
A LOT!
The government's "official" inflation calculation is of course heavily biased. Inflation in the US is almost always WAAYYYY higher than the official number.
We've got food, energy, insurance, entertainment, et all costs up significantly over the years, but there is "no inflation" as per the government official number. The only inflation they consider relevant is "wage and price spiral"... hard to have that with outsourcing and tons of illiterate illegal immigrants flooding our borders.