Food Prices

[Samson]

The trend I am noticing is not only prices going up. But quietly they are reducing the amount you get in the packages as well.

EXACTLY!
I don't know about quietly though. I did my grocery shopping this weekend and I commented a number of times on how small packaging has gotten for several of the items I used to buy! It's disgusting!

First Make the "Regular size" 30% smaller.

Second : put the old bag in a box that is twice the size of the old box

Third: Advertise the Boxed product: 30% MORE THAN THE REGULAR PACKAGE.

Forth: Increase the price so the profit margin rises 10%

The result is that simply changing package size raises profits 10%

 

[masquerade]

The trend I am noticing is not only prices going up. But quietly they are reducing the amount you get in the packages as well.

EXACTLY!
I don't know about quietly though. I did my grocery shopping this weekend and I commented a number of times on how small packaging has gotten for several of the items I used to buy! It's disgusting!

First Make the "Regular size" 30% smaller.

Second : put the old bag in a box that is twice the size of the old box

Third: Advertise the Boxed product: 30% MORE THAN THE REGULAR PACKAGE.

Forth: Increase the price so the profit margin rises 10%

The result is that simply changing package size raises profits 10%

A big bag of Chex Mix. $2.50
Now, the bag is at least 1/3 smaller and yet my grocery store continues to charge $2.50. I say bullshit! I ain't buying any! And I refuse to buy the grocery store's version, cause that's what they want me to do!

 

[Samson]

EXACTLY!
I don't know about quietly though. I did my grocery shopping this weekend and I commented a number of times on how small packaging has gotten for several of the items I used to buy! It's disgusting!

First Make the "Regular size" 30% smaller.

Second : put the old bag in a box that is twice the size of the old box

Third: Advertise the Boxed product: 30% MORE THAN THE REGULAR PACKAGE.

Forth: Increase the price so the profit margin rises 10%

The result is that simply changing package size raises profits 10%

A big bag of Chex Mix. $2.50
Now, the bag is at least 1/3 smaller and yet my grocery store continues to charge $2.50. I say bullshit! I ain't buying any! And I refuse to buy the grocery store's version, cause that's what they want me to do!

Yeah!!

I'm gonna start growing my OWN GODDAMN Chex Mix!!!

I put some in the ground in June, but so far, it hasn't come up.

Maybe I haven't been watering enough?

 

[masquerade]

First Make the "Regular size" 30% smaller.

Second : put the old bag in a box that is twice the size of the old box

Third: Advertise the Boxed product: 30% MORE THAN THE REGULAR PACKAGE.

Forth: Increase the price so the profit margin rises 10%

The result is that simply changing package size raises profits 10%

A big bag of Chex Mix. $2.50
Now, the bag is at least 1/3 smaller and yet my grocery store continues to charge $2.50. I say bullshit! I ain't buying any! And I refuse to buy the grocery store's version, cause that's what they want me to do!

Yeah!!

I'm gonna start growing my OWN GODDAMN Chex Mix!!!

I put some in the ground in June, but so far, it hasn't come up.

Maybe I haven't been watering enough?

Maybe you need to fertilize.


Growing your own food is a great idea. Been there, done that. If I could grow Chex Mix, I would!

 

[Big Fitz]

Noticed it fast food about a year and a half ago.

Mcdonalds and Burger King patties are about a quarter inch thinner. Don't ask how thin White Castles patties are but I've seen thicker deli ham.

Arby's and Wendy's has gone to an inch diameter smaller bun and portion.

Taco Bell has actually SHORTENED it's burrito lengths! How nuts is that? But at least the price went up.

Yes, I've eaten a fair amount of fast food in my day because I've had to if I wanted to eat.

The Biggest thing that these places have noticed is that the 'dollar/value' menu is exceedingly profitable, because people are willing to pay less to get a little less but they still tend to buy the same amount of food. So instead of buying that double whopper, they'll buy 3 junior whoppers for 45 cents less. THose value menus also are the one thing helping keep some of these chains solidly in the back, otherwise, the downturn in the economy would have definitely have hurt business to severe levels.

 

[Madeline]

Big Fitz is 100% correct. Also notice how all these places suddenly started to offer more substantial sandwiches, but at VERY high prices? McDonald's has a bigger-than-ever hamburger (forget the name) that sells for over $5. That's just bizarre. For those prices, you can sit in a diner and get a meal....but parents are harried and forget this. Chicken places have been especially bad about raising prices, IMO.

 

[Samson]

Yes, I've eaten a fair amount of fast food in my day because I've had to if I wanted to eat.

Oh, Bullshit.

 

[loosecannon]

That's untrue. Hamburger and steak are in seperate categories and are not substitutable.

no actually it is true. Steak was switched with hamburger during the meat shortage of the late 70s, i dunno if you are old enough to remember that.

 

[zzzz]

Big Fitz is 100% correct. Also notice how all these places suddenly started to offer more substantial sandwiches, but at VERY high prices? McDonald's has a bigger-than-ever hamburger (forget the name) that sells for over $5. That's just bizarre. For those prices, you can sit in a diner and get a meal....but parents are harried and forget this. Chicken places have been especially bad about raising prices, IMO.

But they staff these places with minimum wage jobs and the Federal minimum wage is now $7.25 so to make up for the labor cost the companies need to either reduce the size of the product for the same price or increase prices. To the average consumer they would notice the price increase instantly but the size differential hardly at all. One good thing about it is that you eat less and we all need that, right?

 

[Big Fitz]

A big bag of Chex Mix. $2.50
Now, the bag is at least 1/3 smaller and yet my grocery store continues to charge $2.50. I say bullshit! I ain't buying any! And I refuse to buy the grocery store's version, cause that's what they want me to do!

Yeah!!

I'm gonna start growing my OWN GODDAMN Chex Mix!!!

I put some in the ground in June, but so far, it hasn't come up.

Maybe I haven't been watering enough?

Maybe you need to fertilize.


Growing your own food is a great idea. Been there, done that. If I could grow Chex Mix, I would!

Well in that vein I look to my parents who didn't manage to get some of the domestic skills to stick, and I wish they had. My dad makes his own granola in bulk from grains bought feedstore style and it's far better than what we could have gotten from the store. And then canning, even if you buy from a farmer's market, can still be cheaper when thinking of canned beans, corn, tomatoes and on and on and on.

And of course, one thing that DID stick from my mother is to shop the sales and buy extra and stock up. And **** the name brand. Get to a minimum 'pantry level' and then maintain it. You eat a lot of canned soup? Fine, watch for a Progresso 3 for 2 bucks sale and get 20 bucks of it. Then whenever you get down to about 10 cans left, you look for more. My parents have what all our friends nicknamed lovingly as the 'nuclear stockpile'. They have a pantry they have maintained religiously and never once have been worried of not having food AND had the cushion to not buy something and wait for sales. If a namebrand turns up cheap get it then.

Some people swear by coupon clipping, I'm not so big on that because they're always on premium items I wouldn't buy anyway, and the quality is usually not that much better. (The exception being some Campbells Soup for some reason) I also try to shop wednesdays and sundays when the deli and meat depts are clearing out the remaining meat for new shipments and fresh stuff. You can sometimes get 10lbs of ground beef or even (rarely) ground chuck for 10-13 bucks.

You know, I never thought I'd say this, but maybe there needs to be a new required addition to the curriculum in schools: Home Economics. I had to take one 'trimester' of it in Junior High. Nowadays, I wish i would have been an entire year. Save it for Senior Year and then teach all those seniors how to do the domestic things their parents most likely never taught them. I wish I could remember how to sew, or some cooing techniques. Add into it things like canning, making a budget, shopping and the like, you'd teach so many kids how to friggen survive and do better instead of running home to mom and dad every weekend to have their laundry done or get fed real food.

Just a random addition to the mix. Thanks for the fun thread so far Maddie.

 

[Big Fitz]

Yes, I've eaten a fair amount of fast food in my day because I've had to if I wanted to eat.

Oh, Bullshit.

Cows do too, but they don't brag.

 

[Big Fitz]

Big Fitz is 100% correct. Also notice how all these places suddenly started to offer more substantial sandwiches, but at VERY high prices? McDonald's has a bigger-than-ever hamburger (forget the name) that sells for over $5. That's just bizarre. For those prices, you can sit in a diner and get a meal....but parents are harried and forget this. Chicken places have been especially bad about raising prices, IMO.

But they staff these places with minimum wage jobs and the Federal minimum wage is now $7.25 so to make up for the labor cost the companies need to either reduce the size of the product for the same price or increase prices. To the average consumer they would notice the price increase instantly but the size differential hardly at all. One good thing about it is that you eat less and we all need that, right?

You make a valid point too. We do need to eat less, but when value menus are encouraging buying two or three for the price of one, you're actually eating a little more for cheaper... depending. But, if you are tight for cash, you have options to get a little and in that you are right. So it's a mixed bag.

And as for minimum wage.. it's an entry level job. nobody should be making a living wage working there save management. It should be staffed by those who need a small supplemental income, kids in school and the elderly looking for extra income. Right now, it's full of illegals and the downsized workers not too proud to take any job to make the bills, which squeezes out it's traditional employee base.

I don't like minimum wages. I just won't work for a shit wage anymore. I can't afford to, my skill set is too far above their job grade.

 

[Samson]

You know, I never thought I'd say this, but maybe there needs to be a new required addition to the curriculum in schools: Home Economics. I had to take one 'trimester' of it in Junior High. Nowadays, I wish i would have been an entire year. .....

Just a random addition to the mix. Thanks for the fun thread so far Maddie.

This is actually one heluva idea, but I'd have the little morons doing laundry and learning how to live on $5/day for all 4 years of high school.

After Obama is done simultaneously burning through the National Treasury and destroying the economy, they'll need to know how to make a tasty menue on a Federal alotment of beans and bacon.

 

[Samson]

Yes, I've eaten a fair amount of fast food in my day because I've had to if I wanted to eat.

Oh, Bullshit.

Cows do too, but they don't brag.

Listen here, Peewee Herman, I ride around in the ******* middle of no-where, and can find a gas station selling V-8 and jerky.

 

[zzzz]

Some people swear by coupon clipping, I'm not so big on that because they're always on premium items I wouldn't buy anyway, and the quality is usually not that much better.

I agree with you on this. Get a coupon and buy a product and your still paying more than the store brand for an equal quality product! And I usually buy all my groceries at the same store because I get credit for each dollar I spend towards a 10 cent per gallon discount on gas. Not much but I fill up every week and over a year it adds up.

 

[Big Fitz]

Oh, Bullshit.

Cows do too, but they don't brag.

Listen here, Peewee Herman, I ride around in the ******* middle of no-where, and can find a gas station selling V-8 and jerky.

Step off Squidworth or you're gonna get a crabby patty up the butt.






meanie.

 

[Samson]

Cows do too, but they don't brag.

Listen here, Peewee Herman, I ride around in the ******* middle of no-where, and can find a gas station selling V-8 and jerky.

Step off Squidworth or you're gonna get a crabby patty up the butt.
.

Don't try to flatter your way out of this.

 

[topspin]

food and fuel are still in the inflation numbers, but it's calculated without them also and called the core inflation. Theory is that food and fuel spike up and down to much based on weather etc.

supply and demand folks.

 

[Big Fitz]

Listen here, Peewee Herman, I ride around in the ******* middle of no-where, and can find a gas station selling V-8 and jerky.

Step off Squidworth or you're gonna get a crabby patty up the butt.
.

Don't try to flatter your way out of this.

You don't have high blood pressure do you? Keep drinking the V8 and Beef Jerky (ooh so tasty) and you will though.

 

[Samson]

Step off Squidworth or you're gonna get a crabby patty up the butt.
.

Don't try to flatter your way out of this.

You don't have high blood pressure do you? Keep drinking the V8 and Beef Jerky (ooh so tasty) and you will though.

Oh, diet advice from Mayor McCheese?.....