I did my usual 7:00 am trek to Wal-Mart & Giant on Sunday morning to pick up the weekly food and various other daily living essentials. I go at 7:00 am to avoid the People of Wal-Mart, but I am still stuck with the Workers of Wal-Mart. I keep a bag of almonds in my drawer at work as a lunch time snack. Every couple weeks I purchase a new bag at Wal-Mart. They are pretty expensive from my viewpoint, but are relatively healthy as snacks go.
A bag cost $6.98. It had been this price for as long as I can remember. This week I saw the price was $6.58 and thought to myself, Wal-Mart really does lower prices. Then I picked up the bag. It was different. It seemed smaller, but I couldn’t tell for sure. I brought the new bag to work this morning and compared it to the old bag. The new bag was only 12 ounces, while the old bag was 16 ounces.
The reduction in price I thought I was getting actually was a 26% price increase. This is the underhanded, dastardly way corporations increase prices, without increasing the actual price on the shelf. They count on the fact that most Americans are clueless noobs who couldn’t calculate their way out of wet paper bag. This method of price increase is rampant across the country as the ounces in detergent are reduced, the ounces in potato chip bags are reduced, and the ounces of everything are reduced. This doesn’t even take into consideration the use of lower quality materials in food, clothing, electronics, appliances, etc.
When the BLS declares inflation is running below 2%, you know it’s a lie. They aren’t capturing these deceptive corporate practices in their little computer models. The screwing will continue until morale improves.
Shortsizing has been a common practice for years. It is nothing but covert, unethical business.
But honestly, it’s a wonder the brazen corporations don’t also announce “New!” on the packaging because the pack itself is new, while the product remains the same, though a much reduced total.
Ummm, yeah. Remember not that long ago when a half gallon of ice cream was just that? And then, around 8 years ago, all those two-quart containers became 1.75 quarts, then 1.5 quarts? They were designed to look the same and feel almost the same, but the capacity shrank. Just one of many examples. Lately I’m seeing soda in 1.5L bottles, priced at the prices that 2L bottles sold for just 2-3 years ago. Forms of this are everywhere. Stealth inflation…
Incidentally, Walmart has been doing this longer and more skillfully than most. Many personal care products (soap, shampoo, etc.) sold at Walmart are sold in slightly different sized – usually smaller – containers than the same product sold at other retailers. The price looks better, because it’s less for the container, but you may be getting 10-30% less product if you read labels. Of course most of their customer base doesn’t. I also noticed that the local Walmart sells the largest packages of candy at a higher price per ounce than the medium sized packages of candy. You’d assume that a larger package would be a better value, and you would be WRONG.
Stop bitching, jim. The price went down. The rest is just semantics. Can’t you ever be happy, even when something goes your way? All that savings, and you’re still crying foul. You’re in the money, baby, $6.58!!! Breathe out.
Dear gawd!
I pay $13-$15 a pound for Costco branded almonds. They freeze great and I don’t have to shop every couple weeks for them. Bonus, my nuts and seeds (and honey and ramen) is all great in a go bag if we gotta bug out.
I would shoot myself if I had to shop every couple weeks. My parents shopped EVERY night, nearly, way overspent and were continuously broke.
I went 180 the other way. I shop every 6 weeks, buy in bulk, support a charity and buy in bulk for paper products, then buy the majority of our fresh stuff from a couple different small local guys.
I guess actually working in retail for a number of times has me adverse to it. Well, that and higher quality items for near, or lower, costs.
But don’t get me started on the non-existent inflation. I was paying $9 for 3 pounds of almonds in 2013. Last time it was nearly $14. My coconut oil went from $24 for 108 ounces, to $27 – in three months. No shrinkage though. At least for now.
I sometimes use canned pumpkin or cherries to make pies. Used to be 16 oz cans – now down to 14 oz. Soon I’ll have to buy to cans to make a decent pie.
Take a look at the OJ – no longer 64 oz. They have also made the toilet paper narrower. I have seen 18 packs of beer. Bastards.
Admin,
Go to Trader Joe’s, 16 oz smoked almonds still about $6.00. Although I got back from Cancun last night and got 2, 1 liter bottles of Jose Guervo for bout $25.00. When and if my liver detoxifies I will try to send you what I saw on what little if the Yucatan peninsula I was able to explore. Not all Americans are suffering and not all foreigners are skinny. I know I speak for the minority, because a week of drinking in the Caribbean, but life was good for at least one week.
Bob.
Persnickety, the cat food I buy at walmart, name escapes me, kaboodle maybe?, same thing, higher price per pound for the bigger bags. Unlike jim, I know a deal when I see one, and get the bigger bags, cuz I’m getting more, right?????
Startfcker,
Why you would buy pet food from Walmart is beyond me, after all of the pets the poisoned with their Chinese imported crap, I would never trust them, even with not having pets. The running joke my wife and I had shopping in Mexico was asking, “Was this made in China?” I was surprised how defensive some of the Mexicans got explaining to us how what we were looking at was actually made in Mexico . They seemed to have missed the joke that “made in Mexico” was actually an insult not many years ago. They seemed like decent folks just trying to make a living..
Bob.
@BostonBob. Walmart sold me the food that shut down my dog’s kidneys and killed him. My heart still hurts for the part I played in it, to save a freaking dollar.
Then, the melamine/baby formula/milk thing happened. So I looked into what I was buying and feeding my family.
Dear gawd. Nearly ALL of Walmarts branded canned food comes from China.
And then I found nearly 70% of ALL processed, convenience type, food comes from China.
The USDA has increased their presence HERE, while our food production was moved from here to Mexico and China, whom is now outsourcing to an even shittier producer country. We can’t seem to find the cash to increase inspection there. Strange, no?
That was the day, I was done. I thought I was smart, I thought I could tell when the quality was sub-par and not buy it there, but I was wrong.
Our food supply grows worse by the day as the federal oversight increases and smashes the “non-compliant.”
Our fat asses help to prove the lack of nutrition in our “food supply,” which increasingly is NOT food.
Few have the balls to seek the truth, turn their back on “accepted” science, and get healthy. I’ll pray for them but I have to accept there is nothing I can do to stop their continued declining health, as they worship at the alter of big pharm, big med, big agra and big government. Probably throw banks in there too
Almost all the pet food is made at one plant in canada. Every major brand. That was one thing that came out of the melamine scandal. Simple choice for me. Same food, 40% higher at publix. I have a couple of dozen cats at my farms. They have to eat, publix is no noble corporate citizen these days. I hope for the best, it would bum me out if the food were to kill them
Starfcker,
I certainly cannot condemn you, I am sure the canned cat food I fed my barn cats in the 1970’s probably came from less than appetizing sources. Fortunately they ate very little of it, mostly in the winter, as they killed and ate anything and everything that moved. The one thing I hate about the Chinese is they do it on and with purpose, solely for a few bucks, assuming they will not get caught. I can only imagine how many people and pets have been only a “little bit” poisoned by their practices.
TE, I do as little as possible shopping at Walmart, once or twice a year. I never buy processed food their, even national brand names I am highly suspect of now as very little of it has the source country, often only where it was packaged.
Bob.
True story. Wife and I were shopping a few years back and she picks up a box of instant hot chocolate mix, marked half the calories of regular. So I compared a box of the low cal and the regular stuff. The difference? The low cal had half the product that the regular product had in in, so of course half the product, half the calories.
Yeah, but now you’ve almonds and a story – so there’s value in that, you just have to look harder. I know I’m bitching 26% more these days.
Yep,
My favorite Greek Yogart. From 32 then 28 to now 24 ozs.
Wanna know what is more insidious than food manufacturers who make smaller packages and charge the same or a little less (read the fucking bag moron America) – those in higher education who charge $50,000+ for business degrees from elitist institutions who have unleashed the degree holders into society to rape and pillage. Rat bastards
Robmu1
The biggest threat to America are foreign bread cartels. I’m going to get some of our most evil MBA Wall Street alumni to LBO your firm and clean house, getting rid of all the highly paid, white, middle aged managers.
Bread companies are scourge of our nation.
Thanks Admin. I want out of here and will take the package with glee. I will then be able to post all day on TBP while you drive back and forth into the cesspool city. On the bright side, I will have time to scout out the location of our Italian villa. Hopefully we both live long enough to get there.
Robmu1
Odds are we’ll both die of massive heart attacks days after retiring. Our wives will each collect $1 million of life insurance money and retire to a life of leisure in Sea Isle City. Our graves will be unrecognizable within months as weeds grow three feet high around them.
Costco might be the king of downsizing their products, they are starting from a bigger place with their packaging than other places but we catch them all the time. Price is the same, packages smaller, oldest trick in the book.
Holy shit!
Almonds are $15 a pound??
We planted, on a whim, 4 almond trees on the backside of the orchard…
Just wondering what kind of a yield I’m gonna get when those start cranking out almonds… I’m not an almond fanatic – meaning: I like them plenty, but almost never buy any. But at $15 a pound??
I’m thinking I need to plant more almond trees…
To the ice cream complaint by Persnickety: They – meaning: ice cream companies – blow air into the ice cream.. I forget what it’s called. Overrun is the term – I just looked it up. Since the components of ice cream – cream, sugar, chocolate, fruit, etc, – are all relatively expensive and air is relatively cheap, blowing more air into the mix results in lighter, fluffier ice cream.
Which means they can sell a “gallon” of ice cream for “X”. Yes, it’s actually in a “gallon” container, but how much of that is “Overrun” and how much is actually ice cream.
Then we have guys who capitalize on ice cream going the other way – Häagen Dazs. The name, by the way, means nothing – whoever came up with “Häagen Dazs” ice cream just invented that shit out of thin air because he thought it sounded “European”… it’s made in fucking BROOKLYN
They blow less air (overrun) into their ice cream, which makes it more dense, harder to scoop, etc, but bill it as “premium” ice cream… simply by NOT blowing as much air into their product as the next guy… Plus, they got in on the downsizing act a couple years ago by dropping their full-sized containers and going with smaller containers, but keeping the same price…
What a fuckin’ rip off. But then, the guy who thought it up – Reuben Mattus – was a Polish Jew, so go figure…
My advice:
You want ice cream? Buy one of these:
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Get the mixin’s and a bag of rock salt and have your kids crank away….
WAY better than some ripoff shit you get at Nigmart or Ben & Jerry’s…
Interesting, food inflation in New Zealand too but seems not so bad after reading the above. And, from a U.S. perspective, even cheaper if you convert out of NZ dollars to US!!
– 1 Kg (about 2.2 pounds) high quality raw almonds = less than $15.00
– 500 grams top quality butter (grass feed cattle) $2.99 to $4.50, depending on if it is on sale or not
– 1 Kg blocks of extremely good aged cheddar ($10 – $12), other less aged styles (Colby, for example) are less.
– Soda is made with real cane sugar, not high fructose corn syrup and is relatively expensive but I have noticed it is getting cheaper in the last fe years. A 1.5 liter coke (cane sugar coke) is $2 or less. I buy soda only a couple times per year in the last few years.
– Top quality Spanish extra virgin olive oil is $27 for four liters.
Fresh high quality non GMO fruit and veggies are cheap at the farmer’s market: Massive broccoli, cauliflower, gargantuan lettuce (all varieties), celery that actually has a strong celery taste and is big and robust, all $1 to $2 each unless out of season. Good tomatoes $2 to $2.50 per Kg (sometimes as low as 99 cts per Kg) in season.
– Meat is more expensive but maybe not since the beef prices are at record highs in the U.S. Grass feed, hormone and prophylactic antibiotic free free range Black Angus: $15 Kg for ground, $32 Kg for sirloin, $40 Kg for filet mignon. Non Black Angus but still hormone and antibiotic free beef is less.
Sprawlmart was screwing people by replacing the 16 oz. jars of unsalted dry roasted peanuts with 12 oz. (visually identical) jars of peanuts.
I use them to make peanut butter, because the pre-made stuff at the store is horrible, and presumably unfit for human consumption. Takes 3 lbs., or 48 oz. per batch – I was livid after making a batch, wondering why it was too small and had too much salt, and looked closely at the (now 12 oz. – not 16 oz.) container.
This was last year, and I’m still angry about it.
I’ve noticed the 12 oz vs 16 oz shell game in several items including bacon, lunch meat, and cheese. They make this move to keep the price below a certain price point, for example $2.99 for bacon and cheese, $3.99 lunch meat. I doubt many people notice since the OZ is in small print.
I’m really careful buying any food items from Walmart for obvious reasons and stick to national brands, avoiding the Walmart brands since you have no idea what kinda shit they included so as to provide the “savings” you expect. Only exception is Ibuprofen PM which I can’ find anywhere else.
Regarding pet food, I produced an infomercial for a pet food retailer years ago and in the process learned what really goes into brands of pet food you might expect you could trust. Not so much, they use nasty, nasty rendered product including dead animal meat. We have two cats and I won’t give them anything but Iams dry food, which is better by far. Keeps ’em healthy happy & purring.
Have on the tool bench an empty 48oz coffee can, as well as a 32 ouncer, and a 16. Noticed Maxill House on sale this week…now down to 30 oz. on their large “can”. The small one may be sold in an envelope soon.
Glad that a pound of bacon is still 12 ounces.
As a soldier we would say the reward for a good job is less punishment.
Geez, what is the problem?
Companies know that consumers are dumb as a bag of hammers. If they can sell less for more, and if consumers are too stupid to catch on, Caveat Emptor, bitchez!
Admin caught on. But how many folks could even make that fucking calculation? Maybe 10% of the population?
It really should be a non-event. People need to be responsible for making their own decisions. Admin will now make an appropriate decision re the almonds.
But most folks are too stupid to do that, to mentally lazy, too fucking brain dead.
Too bad for them. Hurray for the Admin, and folks like him.
Personal responsibility – I love it.
Westcoaster says that they use “dead animal meat” in pet food.
I should hope so. Using live animal meat would be sadistic.
My brother-in-law’s wife is Filipino, think she wanted to make a statement when she brought us peanut snacks that were half the size of what we get here, and the nuts were smaller too, about the size of pinon nuts.
Hey llpoh, so I did good buying the big bag?
Bostonbob says: They seemed to have missed the joke that “made in Mexico” was actually an insult not many years ago.
I shipped a care package to Cancun once, they impose a high tariff on Chinese goods. There is the crook’s lair in El Tepito outside the DF where you can buy just about anything otherwise prohibited.
Mexico lost a lot of work to China, that may be the reason they didn’t find it funny, an American might howl at the joke because “made in China” was actually an insult not many years ago.
Admin says “Our graves will be unrecognizable within months as weeds grow three feet high around them.”
That is only because so many TBPer Big Dogs will come around to water them for you!
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Hell, we will even fertilize them for you!
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You will be well tended to when you are gone!
TE
Did you notice that disease in in dogs and cats went up when pet food companies started putting grain in their food. People actually gave me grief when I would rant that dogs and cats don’t eat grains and vegetables, it will make them sick. Also, about the same time, big pharma started ramping the production of drugs for pets at the same or higher cost than human drugs. Hmmm, seems fishy to me and notice that Obamneycare included dogs to further line the pockets of big pharma. Why can’t people connect the dots on this stuff?
Those of you hating on corporations here are blaming the wrong folks while the real culprits get off scot-free.
Corporations operate in a marketplace. They do not force you to buy their products, nor do they control the value of your dollars.
Only the government — ostensibly empowered to print currency out of thin air — can devalue the currency. And boy howdy, do they ever. Debasing the currency is one of the many refuges of scoundrels.
Nothing will improve until people wake up and recognize the real source of the problem.
I just googled this price increase to see who else noticed. I was like “WTF, I like the cinnamon almonds, but up yours, I don’t need them that bad”.The walmart price tag still said 16oz. 25% decrease in product quantity, same price, overnight. Pfffffft.
Admin bought nuts & got kicked in them at the same time!