This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
How Companies Mask Runaway Inflation
Do you feel like you’re running out of pepper more often these days?
Or maybe you recently realized that no, you are not in fact sweating more, the deodorant sticks you’ve been buying for years have simply gotten smaller lately.
Or worst of all, have you noticed that Slim Jims have gotten shorter?
If any of the above applies, rest assured it is not your imagination, it is simply a symptom of corporate America attempting to hide runaway inflation — you know, that runaway inflation which the Fed has certainly not created by running the printing presses at full tilt for five years.
Known as “weight out” in the corporate world and “slack fill” in litigation, it’s a simple strategy that’s been readily apparent in bags of potato chips for years and although it can, in some instances, get companies sued, that’s nonetheless preferable to eating the cost of higher input prices.
WSJ has more:
When spice maker McCormick & Co. started shipping 25% less pepper earlier this year in the same packaging at about the same price, it was engaging in an age-old means of getting frugal consumers to pay more for less.
Consumer-products makers have used similar tactics as a way of pushing through effective price increases for everything from laundry detergent and tissues to yogurt and candy bars. In the food industry, it’s called “weight-out,” or putting less cereal or potato chips into a package. In toilet paper, the term is “de-sheeting,” when the number of tissues in a box or sheets on a toilet-paper roll are reduced.
The regulatory term of art for putting less in a package than meets the eye is “nonfunctional slack fill.” That probably isn’t the term that came to mind for anyone who’s ever opened a bag of chips to find barely a handful inside. But with companies squeezed between thrifty shoppers and—in some cases—rising costs, it’s one that could become more familiar.
Earlier this year, McCormick reduced the amount of pepper in its signature red-and-white aluminum tins. What once had eight ounces of pepper now has six. A medium container with four ounces has only three, and a two-ounce tin contains 1.5 ounces. The revised volumes were marked in the “net quantity of contents” label as mandated by federal regulation on the front of the tins.
Chief Executive Alan Wilson said in January that pepper costs had risen sharply over the past five years and that the company had little room to raise prices any further..
But too much extra room can get a manufacturer into trouble.
ConAgra Foods Inc.’s Slim Jim was the target of a purported class-action suit filed in February for violating slack-fill rules. Procter & Gamble Co.’s Old Spice and UnileverPLC’s Axe deodorants faced similar complaints in suits filed in September.
(How much deodorant is actually in that stick? Image courtesy of WSJ and Predator)
Companies have wide leeway to add more empty space in packaging. Some states, like California, allow for even more “safe harbors” that manufacturers can use to justify bigger packaging, according to Angel Garganta, an attorney at Venable LLP that specializes in false advertising and consumer-protection law.
One way companies deflect blame (if not criticism) is by simply disclosing the actual new weight of the product on the side of containers.
One common-sense safeguard to deflect accusations of deception is to print the correct amount of product on the outside, legal experts say. “Consumers are mistaken, but the critical thing is that they in fact told the truth, said Thomas J. Maronick, a marketing professor at Towson University and former Federal Trade Commission official.
Of course nobody reads the side of their pepper tins, and unless anyone believes consumers are able to feel the difference between eight ounces of ground pepper and six ounces of ground pepper, these types of "weight out" strategies can be executed with very little in the way of pushback from consumers and even if, as is the case for McCormick, competitors decide to litigate, the gains that accrue from employing "slack fill" could easily outstrip the penalties:
Slack-fill violations can result in penalties. Last year, CVS Health Corp. agreed to pay a $225,000 fine in California for excessive packaging of nearly a dozen products under its own brand like Accelerated Wrinkle Repair Moisturizer and Frizz-Defy Hair Serum.
We'll close with what we said earlier today as it seems particularly appropriate here:
While the Fed may continue to claim inflation is non-existent, except for those "few" Americans who can't afford a house and thus have to rent (incidentally, in New York the average rent just hit a record), inflation is all too present for those other Americans who still enjoy occasionally eating beef as opposed to its sawdust-inspired substitute found in various fast-food venues across the US.
»
- 87583 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Dilluting the milk again I see. They only learned it from the Fed and M3 - wiat, they don't report that any more? Nevermind...
I find rat milk to be just as nutritious.
I didn't know bankers produced milk.
Only after they go tits-up.
Lets talk toasters and coffee pots for a minute, not just food. The junk you get from Walmart now in our "throw away" society.....lasts for shorter and shorter time periods. Even if the price stays the same, if the toaster craps out on you in one year instead of two, you just paid twice as much for it. And if it lasts for one year instead of TEN, then you paid 10X as much!! But the sheep see the price stayed the same so they have no clue they just got fleeced.
This revolution started in the late 70's when we American's decided....hey, I can buy two cheepo staplers for the same price of a single infamous grey Swingline 1/2 stapler 1/2 hammer. But WE did it. WE fell for it. I don't blame the Chinese. WE bought the crap...and we are doing it now more than ever. American's facade of wealth will one day last about as long as that piece of crap toaster. The sad thing is you can pay $7,000 for nice new A/C units on a large house, and if you have a vintage A/C guy he will tell you, these units don't last anything like the units they had on the homes in the 60's and early 70's.....it's very sad
It started in 1971 with Nixon, . Kissinger, McNamara,(the set up man) and, Freidman
Yeah so? Yeah so? Yeah so?
https://youtu.be/8l_YrPvP7YA
Anthropogenic Heuristic Value Modifications
(and you poor fuckers thought it couldn't get any worse)
I wish I could make my package smaller. All the bitchez always complain ' Oh, that hurts!'. It's HURTS! Bitchez!
My cow only had one nipple on it's udder and it kept getting bigger when I tried to milk her.
Our deoderant last time weighed 3.25 oz. This time, it weighed 3.0 oz. Did they lower the price? Does the Pope shit in the woods?
I remember when user orly used to brag about buying frozen chicken breast for $1 / pound.
I find rat milk to be just as nutritious.
How do find their tits? And once found, is it difficult to milk?
It is much easier than milking an almond.
Pam Byrnes: I had no idea you could milk a cat!
Greg Focker: Oh, you can milk just about anything with nipples.
Jack Byrnes: I have nipples, Greg, could you milk me?
My brand of bathroom tissue offers more sheets per roll than they did a year or so ago at the same price.
Oh wait.. the old rolls used to rub up against the edges of the holder and now there is a half inch of open space on each side of the spring spindle.
Well, at least there are more sheets.
Technically 99 cents but it was funny to read akak and Orly exchanges over the matter. I always wondered if Orly starved to death.
Miffed;-)
Wow, Orly's food bargains. I remember those. Irradiated spices from Mexico from the Dollar Store; what a deal. She was really mad when I suggested that they might not be healthful. She claimed that that $1/lb. chicken was "natural."
Actually, he does.
Edit: I hearby acknowledge that it is kind of messed up that I knew that and even more messed up that I posted it.
@TeamDepends:
"Our deoderant last time weighed 3.25 oz. This time, it weighed 3.0 oz. Did they lower the price? Does the Pope shit in the woods?"
IS A BEAR CATHOLIC?
Aluminum Clorohydrate is running low on supply. They are using it to fill the skies with their 'Over-The Horizon' RADAR shit. The air smells SO GOOD... if you leave your nose tucked under your armpits...
The price of RITZ CRACKERS, though is noticable. I'm scraping to buy some processed pasteurized cheeze-food aersolized product and some 'hot dog' slices to keep the guests entertained before I whip out some barbequed GMO-fed S.A. 30% 'fat and whatever' hambugers (with seedless tomato stock Monsanto Kerry-Heinz ketchup from Viet Nam).
Popes and Bears all share ONE COMMON TRAIT: They come to your house HUNGRY.
Plus you need to acquire a taste for her milk.
Mr. Yellen might have big titties, but there's no milk there. Instead, all there is is the taste of ashes and FRNs. Sucking a cotton quilt, and a strip of RFID metal, I find the taste to be, well, 'metallic', and unpalatable.
RATS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51ybp_YFo7I
Keep working the room, Tarabel.
Anthropogenic Heuristic Value Modifications
I'm not afraid of anything I cannot say three times, fast.
I slit a sheet, a sheet I slit, upon a slitted sheet I sit.
I slit a sheet, a sheet I slit, upon a slitted sheet I sit.
I slit a sheet, a sleet I slit, upon a sitted sleet I shit.
Dammit!!!
Hold the tip of your tongue with your forefinger and thumb, while looking down your shirt and trying to enunciate the letters in the word 'ATTIC'.
My new 2016 Humbari Motors X3-Z5 is worth MORE, because it comes equipped with TWO more cup-holders for the back passengers, and an I-pod jack!
HEURESTICS? NO! 'HEDONISTIC ANALYSES'!
(A slight tweaking of the overall GDP numbers might soon apply. Don't be concerned. You will soon feel a total euphoria, and general sense of well-being. This is NATURAL, and don't be afraid to invest in the 'rising numbers' that we publish for general consumtion. This message brought to you by your 'Central Bankers' in YOUR quadrant of the world, because 'IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH'!)
Can you send a tow truck to my geo-location? My new Humbari Motors X-3 Z-5 seems to have stalled in traffic. Oh, shit, my battery in the I-pod seems to be going dea...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw_Lf-JhdSU
Antifaschisteische , I can explain the HVAC ... it's the EPA ... they mandated higher efficiency which means thinner metals for quicker heat and cooling transfer... and they banned R-22 in favor of the new 410a refrigerant.. the new refrigerant runs at DOUBLE the pressure as the old stuff... of course the new systems fail quicker..
Planned obsolesence.
I'm 'grandfathered' in; as of 1993.
I can buy any 'refrigerant' I want to.
The Kyoto Protocols were lost on MOST of the world.
Try buying R-12 for your car, for example.
OH, the POOR OZONE layer!
(Thanks, ALGORE.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6RUg-NkjY4
They USED to call it the 'Mobile Air Conditioning Society', back when I passed the test.
I just got my refrigerant license this year, i can legally buy any type of freon i want to run in a car including that evil R-12 stuff that works better than anytihng else on the market today. but holy hell that stuff is expensive- $60-$80 a POUND if you can find it. Now there is some new stuff out there called 1234yf that is replacing R-134a in new cars as it is more enviromentally freindly. that stuff is even more expensive than R-12- $130 a POUND. also guess what? none of the 134A service equipment can be used on the 1234yf cars- you have to drop about $8000-$10,000 on the equipment. oh and its not done yet- they are already planning on switching over to R744- aka CO2 which again requires special equipemnt to service that is not backwards compatible with anything.
seems like every plan to do stuff thats better for the enviroment revolves around pulling as much money as possible out of people's wallets. call me crazy but if you wanted to get everybody on board with doing things that are better for the enviroment shouldnt they be less expensive than what they are already doing instead of getting way more expensive as they go along?
Have you thought of just rolling the window down?
bought a Millar Welder a few years ago. 180 amp. would weld up to 1/4 inch stainless. OK
It started getting weaker. Asked Millar what the problem was. The transformer was wound using playwood and the plywood broke down over time. The result was exponential decay.
How much for a transformer wound using phenolic core? They could not sell them so their business strategy to sell more, more often. All welders are made in China to Amercian specs and all the welding companies owned by the same masters.
HaHa
On the other hand the new A/C unit uses 1/3 the power to run as the vintage 60's unit, so there's that.
Guess that means it's an improved and therefore more valuable product?
As far as Walmart goes, not always true--- I had a home recreational pastime where I would always need a couple of coffee grinders on hand. I needed them to work, when I needed them to work. I burned through half a dozen before discovering that the cheapest ones last forever... so yeah, everything is upside down at Walmart
You have a coffee fetish...that does not include most people who do not have the same fetish. If you are trying to eat or trying to poop or anything in between, you are currently screwed by inflation. The entire world of toilet paper manufacturers agreed on a bigger roll size and one company even figured out you don't even need a cardboard roll... but just much less tp and sheep will be amazed at the savings and the smaller footprint on the ecosystem. Sheep are gonna sheep until they can't. That is what the elite fear most but the system was built for that (by them) and it is coming, pretty soon.
In Malaysia they have a brand of double layer TP that holds together and scrapes well. The brand name is "Compact". I don't know why that's the name, but maybe it implies "compacted" or a-lot-in-a-small-space, because the roll is d-e-n-s-e. Just picking up a 4-pak is a tip-off; it's heavy. Planning to use it as luggage empty space filler on the trip back. Such a contrast to what's found in the oh-so-smart USless.
Here you are: the mother of all toasters. Should last you the next 40 years:
(as recommended by Popular Mechanics, June, 2015)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Toastmaster-Automatic-Pop-Up-2-Slice-Toaster-1B14-Chrome-Bakelite-/121671130558?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c542a1dbe
I have a '69 Procter Silex that's still going strong. In 1969, people had common sense to shop for quality. OTOH, they did not have credit cards that allowed them to buy useless garbage. We have clearly reached peak garbage.
And the shit was made overseas using $.25/hour labor. There's another thing that's inflating, the profits of these fuckers who sent our manufacturing jobs away and substituted cheap crap at the same price.
Oh, you can milk just about anything with nipples.
I tired to milk myself. It is not working.
My cat hates it when I try to milk her.
Make sure it's a "she"!
Kingpin!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mUtSazFb5qM
Hey saints, rest up and try again..
Oh my. Like my MGySgt always said: "Nothing gets better after midnight"
At the light's early dawn, the 'triple-bag' maneouver will become more important that your Gunnery Sargent's advice (that is; if you didn't take it).
I hope that the 'Wolf' protocol will not be needed in your case, knukles.
There might be a 'mark' put on your 'permanent record', and shit like that...
Personally, I find that scoring between the hours of 00:15 and 00:30 seems to be the most advantageous.
LOL, Will do buddy.
I tried to milk my GF's tit's....all I got was silicon...
Wait a minute...are you that mystery guy Caitlyn is all excited about??
Speaking of milking things.
Just push the federal min wage to $15 / hr and that will solve the nations problems.
Bruce Gender..?
Well that seals it!
KAITLYN!
Damn it, I'm KAITLYN!
(Brushes blonde wig back dramatically, and checks lipstick)
Anything with breasts can produce milk!
not so sure..
https://youtu.be/dCups7lRl3k
Coconuts have breasts?
they ARE (hairy) breasts.
I treated my son to a rare bag of lays barbecue potato chips at $1.49 there were only 15 chips in there
Wanted to get Lays & ended up getting screwed
Package of M&Ms are now smaller by abut 25%.
It has long been against federal regulation to use packaging that from the outside gives a misleading impression of what's inside. Or at least that's what women keep telling me.
Take the potato out of your pants then!
Dove soap used to sell diff. sized bars in the same boxes sold at diff. stores. The dollar stores' boxes would have smaller bars in them. That's when(about 15 yrs ago) I quit buying Dove soap.
Last bag I had they were called V&Vs, cutting back on printing costs.
I bought a bag of Combos in the gas station the other day. At some point they're going to get down to one in a bag, and then it'll just be "Combo"
They're really creative with the ice cream packaging.
I buy peppercorns in bulk in a see through plastic container.
I'm waiting for the "Lower Cholesterol Doctor's Dozen" of eggs, 10 eggs in a trianglular package.
Coffee is notorious for shrinking product, filling with air and then coloring the package to hide the revised lower product weight.
Actually, with coffee they mix lower grade shit coffee and grinded bugs in as filler.
This bullshit is happening everywhere. For a while I couldn't tighten a screw from Home Depot without breaking the head off. That was until they cheapened the fuck out of the screwdrivers so they would break before the screws do.
China-- the land of stuff that looks exactly like the real stuff, but isn't.
Yet I see more and more of their simulated products disappearing off the shelves every day, so all is not yet lost here in the USA. We aren't even their #1 trading partner anymore, Europe is.
Seriously, don't blame china for this shit. I live in China and yes, there's a whole lot of lowend crap, but if you are willing to pay you can get really nice stuff. the problem is not the factory that makes it. The problem is the customer who orders it. in short, you get what you pay for. the importers in the us decided they wanted to pay shit, so shit is what they got in return. if they were willing to give up an extra few cents of profit per unit, you would be seeing high-end quality and never bitch about chinese products again.
For a colon cleansing moment, go to a bulk bin and look what an average quality coffee is going for per lb. Stellar runs $16 to 20 now. Mr must subsidize in more way than one if he really wants a treat.
I never by coffee in a can. Too easy to grind in a few unmentionables as filler. After counting ketchup fly parts in college to calculate their concentration did not exceed federal standards, I'm a bit cynical.
Miffed;-)
Buy green coffee and roast it yourself... http://www.costco.com/Rainforest-Alliance-Green-Unroasted-Arabica-Coffee...
Oh for fuck's sake! Next, somebody is going to tell us to grow it ourselves.
I love coffee but frankly, after 4 cups, they all taste the same.
The cardboard rolls inside toilet paper are larger diameter.
Coffee cans have less and less coffee for years now.
Stackers notice because when you set the newly acquired product next to the one you bought last month, you notice the net weight has changed etc.
This has been going on for my entire life. I have what the old timers referrred to as '3 lb coffee cans' from the 70's (thanks for the bolt/nut collection grandpa) and they contained 48oz of coffee.
Try to find a 3 lb coffee can with 3 lbs of coffe in it?
48? How about 27.9. Before than 31.5. Before that 33. Before that 34.5. Before that (say 2006) 39 oz. I wasn't prepping before about 2004 so I don't have data on the shrinkage.
However, Maxwell house cans make excellent feed scoops, so I have a bunch. I have at least one with every weight I listed for feed scoops. Even the containers themselves are made with lighter and thinner plastic.
You wouldn't notice unless you had on older one to compare. Hence the reason preppers are oftentimes first to notice this scam.
Nothing new under the sun.
its all good...
ive been diluting my debt coupon dollars and replacing them with Silver now for 8 years running...thats what i call getting rid of LESS for MORE...
my Golden State Mint Morgan designs arrived today nice and shiny...
death to the MoneyChangers.
Clearly you are a terrorist and in need of a vacation at Hilary's new Adult Summer Camps
Same here, and also collecting nickels and copper pennies. But the most important prep is having a skilled trade that will be in demand. People will always be smoking weed and cigarettes and drinking beer.
QEternity + Peak Cheap Energy = Higher Inflation and everyone but the Fascist Kleptocrat class being poorer.
Simple solution. Learn to do with less. Buy NOTHING name brand. Make your own and / or grow your own when and where you can.
But rule #1....Learn....to....do...with....less.
Capitalism, bitchez!
Crony capitalism. Its what ails America.
No... it's just Cronieism. Capitalism has nothing to do with it.
Of course capitalism has something to do with it. Capitalism was invented by humans. All humans are corrupt. Ergo....capitalism was bound to be corrupted from the start and with the addition of time, gets corrupted more and more year over year.
It's inevitable. The only difference between Capitalism, Socialism, Communism and Fascism is time. In other words....the time it takes for the "ism" to be fully corrupted and then to collapse.
And collapse back to the norm of humanity.......Fuedalism.
they only ism I'm aware of is banksterism........
The ChiComs own 51% of the plants built there. The US Fedgov subsidizes the Corp's exportation of the jobs via the the budget deficit that is carried with Treasury paper that's sold to China, or Chinese front operations in Belgium. China is being built on the the backs of future US serfs.
Little known and [unde]reported fact to be sure.
Serfs had rights in relation to the master, slaves not so much.
Current discussions of rising food prices and fears of inflation are largely overstated. Rising food prices in developing nations can largely be attributed to the people within those nations seeking more sophisticated diets.
- Bernocchio, a few years ago.
Nature has a way of bringing arrogance, like Bennies, back down to earth. We'll see how this ends.
Yeah but Bennie will not be held accountable.
I didn't know that CatChow was a more "sophisticated" diet.
+1 "Bernocchio"
ZH comment threads have been a comedy goldmine (moreso than usual) the past couple of days.
Haha I agree, I had coffee gushing out of my nostrils today in the morning.
Not as much coming out as three years ago though!
ive heard that the government makes the petfood companies make the food safe for human consumption-after hearing stories of old folks being uable to afford anything else
"Yeah but Bennie will not be held accountable."
You sure about that bro?
Accountable? Like, he is going to pay everybody all back???
Does anyone have an explanation on the outperformance of the RUT? The most overvalued of all our POS indices. Hand of God, or did somebody write a shitload of June puts?
RUT has a beta greater than 1. Small cap growth stocks comprise the RUT. The moves to both the upside and downside will/should always be of greater magnitude. Use Wilshire 5000 returns if you want to calculate your own beta values..good representation of total market
in the month of June the Russell 2000 does reallocation of stocks closing price divergences I would use this as an opportunity to buy some puts
When you write puts.. You are betting the underlying asset price will rise...you fucking mook
Dont be a douche. That's why it's being furiously supported on a day it should be down 1.5%.
Displaying relative strength, if market turns to upside next week... You should look to the stocks and indexes that displayed relative strength..they should make the biggest moves and provide greater returns in general. Similarly, if market turns down you might not expect the RUT to go down as much. Over an extended move (medium to longer term), the RUT should provide returns in relation to its beta.
Too add..
Small cap stocks have no where near as much exposure to Greek calamity. Not as much risk taken off in small cap space over the weekend
Not sure about furious support.. 0 volume and tight daily range.
Sounds like companies are weaving that special little magic that turns two kilos into three ...
"but never get too greedy."
“nonfunctional slack fill.”
What's that- Bruce Jenner's dick?
Bitcoin $231 - no inflation
Off the chart inflation in '13
The good news is our chocolate rations will be increased from 30 grams to 20 grams. At least we have that going for us.
nice one, orwell 1984 is a new bible
See? There is no inlfation.
There is no spoon either.
6 years ago bag of dorito used be 16 oz and cost $1.99, or $0.99 when on sale ... now bag of dorito is 12oz and has regular price of $4.99 stamped on the bag ... well, fuck you pepsi and your bag of shit.
And now exclusively made from GMO corn!
I call it baseball inflation, cuz we used to tell the fat guy on our team "way to stretch that double into a single!"
I won't Dorito's after somebody showed me, how well they burn. You can light a Dorito's chip on fire and it will burn for a pretty long time! Nothing I want to put in my gut anymore, that's for sure. I want to experiment on a bag of chips next. Dorito Bomb?
STP: I won't Dorito's after somebody showed me, how well they burn.
..oldest (modern) camping trick in the book.. Always bring a big bag of Frito-Lay corn chips. I've started campfires in a driizle with those.
if you think it's bad with Doritos, you should see how olive oil burns... you may want to stop drinking alcohol, too...
goddamn but you're fucking stupid
If he's decided to stop eating Dorito's, I'd say that makes him uncommonly smart...
lol seriously, I get downvoted for pointing out that food burns... I suggest you fucking dimwits look up what the definition of a calorie is again...
In the case of Doritos less is more.
5 pounds of shit in a 10 pound bag?
That's a twist.
Ice cream has become "frozen dairy treat", probably due to the lack of milk to make it ice cream.
Because the lower fat content doesn't allow it to legally be called ice cream. Back in the 70's they relabeled it Ice Milk. It was good if you ate all shortly after opening. If it sat in the freezer for too long, the ice crystals would separate and harden on top. Now, they just put some rubberized fat substitute in there.
Diversion.
The way companies mask runaway inflation is by diverting our attention away from the printing press.
re: spice options in the grocery store.....shop the hispanic aisle for spices..the Barilla brand is significantly cheaper than the anglo brands esp the pretty packaged Spice Islands brand.
5lb bag of sugar is 4lbs; 1lb bag of coffed is 12 oz, sometimes 10! only buy anything when its buy one get one free.
Good idea. For spices, save empty containers and buy bulk to refill them.
For other items, get a sturdy set of shelves, a chest freezer, and plastic pails and bags. Go to Costco (I'm sure Sam's Club or whichever is fine too), with a retail grocer's ad and a calculator. Some things will be cheaper, some not, and some things you can't eat fast enough to avoid throwing things out. But if you know the per-ounce going price, you can find excellent deals and store or freeze things.
Costco is particularly good for coffee; a truly 3# can is $10.99. I have 6 cans on the shelf right now.
Basically, we're now back into what the 3rd World considers normal. You will be cheated at every turn, so you have to act accordingly.
Swmnguy: Good idea. For spices, save empty containers and buy bulk to refill them.
Absolutely, I just did that with Cumin. Pay like $4.00 for a little 3 oz bottle of it......or do what I did, for $16 get 2 lbs.
Now that's a shitload of cumin. I use cumin all the time, but 2# is a significant quantity, unless you run a Mexican restaurant. Do you?
I usually buy the 4 oz. plastic bag in the Mexican or bulk section of the grocery, or baggies at the local food co-op. For stuff like garlic and onion powder, black pepper, cinnamon, chili and curry powder (stuff I use a lot of) I get large plastic restaurant-supply-size bottles at a wholesaler, at the same price range you're talking about.
You can buy the seed pack for about $1.50 and have all you want forever.
I do that for basil, oregano, cilantro, rosemary, thyme, sage, etc. I hung a windowbox just outside my kitchen window, so while I'm cooking I just slide the screen up and trim some fresh herbs. When it starts to get cold I pull the whole plant out of the dirt and give it a good rinse, hang it upside down from the pot rack in the kitchen, and when it's dry, put the leaves in a jar to use until next Spring.
Oregano and sage are like a weed. They absolutely take over any place you plant them. I have to take a spade and cut out most of it each Spring because I can only use so much of that stuff and I want to grow other things. Thyme and Rosemary are also perennials, but seem to have a harder time with cold winters.
Can't people just read the Net Weight?
People can't read at all, and you want them to do math??? WTF?
Even if people read it and understand it, the official statistics continue to say "no inflation". Even if people read and understand, they learn to disragard the truth in favor of the magic voice that tells them so. Even if people read and understand, they know that it is too risky to speak the truth out loud to family, friends, or acquaintances except to simply compalin bitterly one to another about the lies. Complain, but do so quietly. Complain, but do not dare to act.
The unit pricing on shelf tags is intentionally confusing. Some are priced per ounce, others per pound, while still others are priced per item.
If everything were priced per pound (a unit most people can visualize) then people might actually realize the actual prices of what they are purchasing.
Same thing with nutritional labeling. If it was clear and understandable it might actually help people make better purchasing decisions.
Put a little spoon shaped graphic with the total number of teaspoons of added sugars on the front of the package? Nah, let put it in grams per serving on the back in small print.
There is a local convenience store near me that sells gas, milk and ice cream (United Dairy Farmers).
They have been without premium gas for over a month.
I called their CS dept to inquire.
They told me it was a tank issue.
I told them if they could figure out a way to reduce the volume of milk in a 1 gallon container (like what they did with ice cream about 2 years ago (64 oz to 48 oz)), they could pay for the tank repairs in no time.
The CS rep was silent.
I've been saying this for YEARS.
Half Gallon (64 oz) of Orange Juice is now in a 59 oz container.
Half Gallon (64 oz) ice cream is now 1-1/2 Qts (48 oz).
1 lb (16 oz) box of Cheese-its is now 13 oz.
1 lb of coffee is now sold in 12 oz or 13 oz packages.
Speedstick deodorant (see-through container) is half-filled with the deodorant.
Toilet paper isn't strunk by # of sheets so much as by increasing the diameter of the cardboard tube it's rolled on, and narrowing the width of the roll (this is noticed when rolls are placed in bathroom stalls where the roll feeder is of fixed-width and do not have the spindle to place the roll onto like you would have in your home).
I could go on and on about this. Been saying it FOR YEARS!
the "stick" of gum is now a little oblong shaped thingie.
the toilet paper is now narrower 3/4 of an inch . (I called P & G on this. they claimed they made improvements and "had" to recoup costs. of course the cost recoupment is "permanent".
the pretzel bag is only half full.
a Mounds bar is practically invisible its gotten so small.
a Carl Buddigs package of lunch meat - 99 cents - is now 2 bites of meat. just checked it yesterday.
and they still ship the jobs overseas.
CORPORATIONS ARE THE ENEMY. REALIZE IT. THINK IT. LIVE IT.
Buddigs is 2 bites of MEAT? I beg to differ
It's some version of SOYLENT... not sure which....
Got REAL lucky with Charmin toilet paper about six months ago. Was in a local grocery store and turned down the paper aisle for a change. Most paper products in regular grocery stores are way overpriced so I rarely go into this aisle. But 'Lo and Behold' they were running a clearance on their old stocks of Charmin. I grabbed a bunch of 4.25 inch wide Charmin at a good price and stacked it up in the garage. But that wasn't all. They also had a few packs of Charmin that was -- get this -- 4.5 inches wide! I grabbed all of that too! I can't ever remember 4.5 inch wide toilet paper!
Don't use that 4.5 inch Charmin!!!!! Save it and donate it to a museum in a few years for an exhibit!!!!
More landfill fodder. Less product in the same size packaging means higher product turn-over in the same sized packaging.
It's nice to see that corporate Amerika is doing so much to reduce by waste by printing nice little Greenisms on the recyclable labels of their Jr. Sized products.
And yet people are still buying the "there's no inflation" line. Someone sent me a motley fool article the other day about why we weren't seeing inflation after all the money printing. Yeah no inflation, except in food, housing, stawks, bonds, art, education, cars, and rent. Those don't count.
And 84 month financing for your Sub-prime Dream Machine.
Hyperinflation is inevitable.
Just as in today's education mills - less filling and more costly.
Obviously, this is good for the consumer.
Take every product, shave it down until it's just the veneer of the former product, offshore production to Asia, cash the check. Rinse, repeat, rebuy.
LOST MY JOB AT THE FACTORY, BETTER START SHOPPING AT WALMART.
Years ago ice cream was 2 quarts. A few fucktard companies like Dreyers and Breyers started up the 1.75 quart thing, a 12.5% reduction, with no price change. Now those same companies are at 1.5 quarts (14.3% reduction from the 1.75) and the prices have gone up, and I as a result fucking now have not bought them in years. There are local companies here in TX that sell me my 2 quarts, and fuck the national corporate assholes.
Local is the future. It cuts out the Jew York City middlemen.
duplicate double click - sorry.
Package Inflation is another way to hide it.
Take a look at the "new" package.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B51-74tGswAXR1hNbjA2cE5IeWc/view?usp=sh...