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.
