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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.
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It looks bigger doesn't it. There's also a brand of orange juice that sells a "1/2 gallon" carton of O.J., yet it only has 59 ounces of juice...59 OUNCES! Now TalkToLind went to public, government schools but even I know that 1/2 gallon is supposed to equal 64 ounces!
The same thing is happening with U.S. automobiles. Do you remember the old truck-based sports utility vehicles that could go off-road and tow stuff? They are all slowly being replaced with smaller, less capable yet more expensive crossover vehicles -- a crossover is basically a car that looks like an SUV. This is an example of less spice/deodorant in the package on steroids. Yeah, I know: "it's for the environment", "it's for the children", you heard that on TEEVEE, didn't you?
If you think that's bad, have you been inside of an actual TRUCK these days?
Rented a brand new GMC the other day from U-Haul....what a piece of shit that thing is.
1) It's so damn huge in size that it makes my 87 Chevy feel like an S-10. I'm 5'8" tall (average sized) and feel like a midget in that big fucking thing. It seems the average driver/passenger of this truck is expected to be at least 6'5" and 350 lbs.
2) The windows are apparently not supposed to be rolled down, EVER, at speeds over 25 MPH. The aerodynamics are so fucked that at anything over 30-35 MPH, even cracking the window slightly introduces intolerable amounts of wind and noise into the cabin. Apparently driving around with the windows rolled up and A/C blowing is the only manufacturer-approved way to drive this vehicle.
3) The cheap ass LCD screen in the instrument cluster, which seems to have been arbitrarily put there. It looks cheap now and will be extremely tacky in 10 years time.
4) The fucking thing feels like a great big oversized car. It DOES NOT ride and handle like a truck is supposed to. With the car-like braking, steering, gear ratios, etc, combined with the sheer size of this thing, trying to maneuver it into parking lots (or around your yard) without scraping something is far more of a hassle than it should be.
5) Whichever clueless asshat thought a PLASTIC bedliner was a good idea, needs to be kicked in the nuts repeatedly, until everyone is SURE this fucker can never have kids again. If you put ANYTHING back there without tying it down, every time you touch the gas or brakes the son of a bitch flies across the bed and slams into the other side.
The fuckwits can't even design ANYTHING properly anymore.....and these God damned imbeciles imagine themselves to be the smartest and best people on Earth. LMFAO!
Fuck this country in the asshole with a sword.
ALL Gubmint Motors products should be BOYCOTTED- on EVERY LEVEL.
I REFUSE to buy, rent, lease, or ever ride as a passenger in ANY GM vehicle, EVER.
May GM die the death they were meant to before the bailout, SOMEDAY VERY SOON.
Yeah, I should have mentioned having driven a new Ford truck lately too (also rented from U-Haul, with 500 miles on it) and that was a MUCH nicer truck than the GMC. Some of the same complaints still apply, but overall, that's a truck I wouldn't mind owning or using. The only good thing about the GMC whatsoever was the 5.3 engine. But the new Ford engine is even better IMO.
Ford is the only American-badged nameplate left of the big three that still builds a quality product.
I have owned Ford Pickups- solid quality vehicles.
Henry Ford would be proud of the legacy of the company he founded, and disgusted by the country he founded it in.
Just be mindful of this
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/f150_fires.htm
Our ford 250 burst into flames while my husband and daughter were in it. Fully engulfed in just a minute and they barely escaped. Some have burned in the middle of the night while garaged, burning homes as well.
Our insurance paid out and we bought a dodge cummins diesel and couldn't be happier. I'm assuming the newer models have been fixed but I'm a bit soured on Ford.
Miffed
Yikes!
I wasn't aware of that problem.
Yeah, there's not a brand that hasn't had issues/recalls.
I'm a Honda/Toyota guy these days- which have airbag recalls.
Still, may GM die a quick death.
unfortunately Fords are now junk as well- they are making them aout of aluminum bodies so the undersized ecoturd engines ( 2.6 liter v6 in a full sized half ton pickup? yeah right) can actually move the damn beer can on wheels around.they also cost a LOT more to fix if there is body damage- special repair techniques are required to fix aluminum panels vs steel. the bodies arent even welded together anymore- they are glued together and then riveted.
The ad campaign for the aluminum F-150 is hilarious to me- "military grade aluminum alloy" guess somebody forgot to tell them that the Bradley fighting vehicle that they are refering to was well known to troops as a rolling death trap due to its aluminum armor.
it still gets good gas mileage though as long as you dont tow anything with it or put anything in the bed...
Don't be a luddite bro. Look, I'm just as inclined to be conservative about such things, but the aluminum frame on that new truck is the real deal. That truck rode soooo well, a thousand times better than that piece of shit GMC, which clearly had some frame flex issues. It too felt like a big car, but in a good way....which tells me the engineers have really done their homework on that frame. I could have sworn the thing had an IRS suspension under it, or something, with how smooth it was.
As far as welding is concerned, "specialized repair techniques"? No way bro. It's a trade like any other. There are dudes who repair aluminum aircraft skins all day long. It's simply a matter of what you learned, or might have to unlearn. Aluminum is not difficult to repair; it's actually a bit easier in some respects. I do agree with the overall thinness and shittiness of body panels these days, however.
I don't expect the frame of this truck to have to stop any bullets, so any comparison to a Bradley armor doesn't really say anything to me. What matters is its stiffness, and longevity. The stiffness is locked down solid, I can assure you. We'll see how the longevity goes. In the mean time, a person can feel pretty good about getting over 17-19 MPG in a big truck, even with a powerful 6.2L engine under the hood. There's no reason to think towing will be a problem either.
Like the other guy said....Ford is the shit, especially these days when everything else is just plain shit.
I've been noticing a lot of new trucks, of all brands, with plastic bumpers. Who in their right mind pays new truck prices for a jacked up car? People are getting dumber by the minute.
I don't use much pepper but if you replace that with toilet paper I can relate...and I ain't shittin' you.
Gatorade is doing it.
Noticed a couple weeks ago when the new bottle shape felt skinnier in my hand, sure enough, instead of 32 oz, it's now 29.
Been that way for more than a year.
Go to Sam's and buy the big can of Gaotrade pwoer and make your own for about half price.
My wife is always harping on products that have ''New Improved ' on the label. She says ''You mean I have been buying crap all these years''?
Some friends have a cabin in the woods, and still store, on an upper shelf a big old cardboard box of odds and ends. we have a laugh over the printed side of the box.
It happens to be a Crisco Lard box for the 1950s; I love the part where it states "New! -Its digestible!"
It happens to be a Crisco Lard box for the 1950s; I love the part where it states "New! -Its digestible!"
---
that's sounds hilarious, but the frightening thing is that lard from back in the day was positively healthy compared to what they sell now. it was simply 100% pork fat from pigs that were given no hormones and no GMO feed. recently, i saw a package of crisco's hydrogenated, calorie-free, cooking paste... i'm pretty sure that's just repackaged synthetic motor oil, with the most acutely toxic ingredients removed. it will definitely cause cancer or some other chronic health problems.
the sad thing is that some people believe their ad campaigns promoting that stuff thinking as a "healthy" alternative to "high-calorie" cooking oil... as if deep-frying your food in synthetic motor oil is healthy?
Big weekend special at Walmart!!!!!!!!!!
Toilet paper half price* 100 roll minimum purchase
Beat the rush and don't get crushed.
*only one side used
Tell all your half ass friends
Purchasing toilet paper is so pre-Lehman.
Now I just steal it from the office
At Macdonalds they have the big rolls of TP.
If you're eating Mc Donalds you'll be needing lots of TP.
Here is an interesting article on it as well, there are may articles about it. Here in the EssU we also have it, We have become accustomed to it already. Where you got 8 slices of ham, you now get 7, and so on.
https://usahitman.com/hidden-inflation-food-packaging/
In my line of work I'm finding the paint companies pulling pigment out of their formulas. Premium paint that had covered a certain amount of pieces for 20+ years no longer covers. Now instead of a pint I have to order a quart. At $1000+ a gallon, that adds up.
THERE IS NO INFLATION! JANET SAYS SO!
:)
I purchased some ground pepper at the $store a couple of weeks ago. [1.41oz for 99cents.]
I was curious how it would taste for BB-Q. It tasted great on my burgers.
Might be brake dust off a Chinese people mover, but it tastes great. ;-)
i used to do a Walmart run once a month, but the stores are all running the same prices, and Walmart isnt worth the gasoline.
Try Aldi.
Bring cash.
Use empty boxes.
Mine has high quality and takes debit cards, too. My biggest complaint is the welfare recipients with huge cartloads clogging up the check outs. If they'd consider a fast lane for non-welfare payers, I'd go back.
Shouldn't buy ground pepper anyway. It oxidizes and looses flavor. (As does coffee, etc.)
Use peppercorns. There is a hack to refill the glass grinders (YouTube), or get a real one.
I buy the peppercorns in glass grinder jars at Albert Heijn here in Netherlands.
The 'hack'' is simply unscrewing the grinder top off and refilling. although it takes some muscle. Most people just throw the jar away.
I ordered some Hershey's Hot Fudge sauce from an American website that delivers some American things here to Europe.
I paid 5 euros for a little jar that used to be twice as big.
Then I went on YouTube and typed in ''Make your own hot fudge sauce'' and came up with about 6 videos.
Tried a few and the sauce I made myself is BETTER than the Hersheys.
Try Sanders for the real deal
Same goes for cake icing. I was telling a neighbor I made my own and he asked why don't you just buy it in the plastic tub? I said, "if you ever made your own, you'd know why." It's cheaper and far better, at the same time.
that used to be made with sugar and butter and had a wonderful taste; Now its HFCS and Lard or whatever.....
Meanwhile HERSHEY *STILL* makes syrup with HFCS-3 years ago when eveyone was 'losing' the HFCS-i wrote them telling then it is not approriate to poison our childreds favorite drink--chocolate milk or ice cream
THey are still "thinking" about it and may come forward in 2017
THAT IS NOT PRICE INFLATION !
Make your own favourite restaurant food at home
Top Secret recipes links HERE
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l3ooznc4miffk72/Top%20Secret%20Recipes%20Unloc...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f4o4vn8ytkml2bg/Top%20Secret%20Restaurant%20Re...
Soon breakfast cereals will be sold in large envelopes. Yep, it's not inflation...Bruce J. is on the front of the package; it's Breakfast Entertainment, bitchez!
Despite the reduction in food content/package, Americans are still getting fatter. So what are you all complaining about?
Its because they are too lazy to cook and instead eat fast food crap. and they do NOT exercise (generally speaking).
It's not all fast food's fault. If you eat protein and fat instead of carbs, at the FF place, you'll be OK. It has a lot to do with the fountain drinks. For years now, I've noticed that being at KFC, in the evening, is the equivalent of whale watching. Almost all the whales drink Pepsi or Mountain Dew.
HCFS . corn syrup.
This actually is called "Ninja Inflation". I penned it a while ago: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ninja%20Inflation
3 porkchops? Shit, that's a lot of pork!
I found a way to mitigate this affect.
I stocked up like a prepper. Greater initial up-front cost. Make it back on the intended inflation. Anything with storage life/non-perishable. Even those Mr. Clean Sweapers. I bought like ten replacement heads. Take that Bernays-planned-obsolescence!
Good job, Dr. Prepper
Shrink-Flation.
Here is a slightly different twist on the situtation and those of you who run small two-stroke engines have likely noticed this rip-off. Gas station pumps are always under my scrutiny. So they are saying they have three grades of gasoline but only one hose and pump handle? You can choose between paying three different prices. Everyone who knows anything about high performance two-stroke engines knows damn well that they do not like ethanol.(another rip-off in itself) So what are you getting when you buy "premium". Well, I have learned the hard way that what you are buying depending on volume is whatever was left in the hose and pump assembly which is usually corn-juice gas.
Since most people do not need more more than a gallon or two of gas at a time to make pre-mix you are getting fucked because even if there are three seperate fuels, the fuel line still have to purge itself and that is what you end up paying for. You paid for premium and got shit grade corn piss so now your chainsaw runs like shit. It has happened to me in the past but not anymore. I wonder if there even ARE three different pump and tanks and grades at those kinds of gas stations?
Then the StAte puts some sticker on the pump that says "This piece of shit pump that is out of order 50 times a year is gauranteed to be accurate and temperature and pressure for an entire year". Oh really? You are fucking me here. You just fucked me on what you sold me and now you are fucking me on volume too?
Then you have these stickers on all of the non-oxygenated pumps that say this:
"NONOXYGENATED GASOLINE. FOR USE IN COLLECTOR VEHICLES OR VEHICLES ELIGIBLE TO BE LICENSED AS COLLECTOR VEHICLES, OFF-ROAD VEHICLES, MOTORCYCLES, BOATS, SNOWMOBILES, OR SMALL ENGINES ONLY."
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=239.791
Yeah, well, fuck off. What are they going to do about it if I fill up? Is the young Ph.D with 100K in student loans working the convenience counter going to run out and tase me if I fill up my shitty commuter car with premium? I often do run premium because I get better gas mileage and the car runs better. The increased gas mileage actually works out as a wash on price per mile between corn juice and real gas but the car runs more efficiently and therefore there is less stress on the engine.
Here in Europe 95 octane is REGULAR or you can buy Premium Shell V-Power for the Ferraris and Lambos.
But our cars are not detuned like American cars. and ETHANOL is a total NO NO here.
i.e you can buy a 1.6 liter car that will do 120mph right off the show room floor.
I actually happen to have a 1.6 liter 2005 Hyundai Accent that might be able to do 120. I like my Hyundai's but they like premium. I have a platinum edition Sonata that can give a Covette run for it's money off the line. That is 3.3 liter but they tuned that engine to run on this bullshit gas. All that means is that is that it burns a lot of gas but that is a nice car and it is sneaky fast. It is not your regular Sonata and about 120 is about where it likes to cruise if you are not paying attention.
Another way we get fucked in the StAtEs is that the gas is pretty dirty. Fuel filters are a must and some of the shit that I have seen come out of them when changing them is downright spooky. I talking about changing fuel filter on cars with plastic tanks so the dirt is not coming from the fuel tank. People are lazy so maybe the gas comes clean and the gas station's tank is dirty? I don't know but I replace a lot of fuel filters and I do that myself so I know that the filter actually was replaced because mechanics are also lazy.
I mark my filters on changes to make sure it was changed if I have someone else do it. I used to change my own oil but it is actually cheaper to have a dealership do that. I have a dealership right across the street who does $9.88 for now oil and filter. With shop and tax it comes about $13.80. Their idea is that you will walk around looking at their and maybe buy a new or used piece of shit and hopefully finance it. I sent the Mrs's over one day to get the oil changed on her van and she called all worked up that she was going to die because they told her that the van no good and not safe and this and that and who knows. That's what they do to most people but not me. When I go there they know better than to even say one fucking word. They ask, "OK, what kind of vehicle THIS time."
Yes, I have been known to buy and sell vehicles but I try to be honest about it as best I can. I typically buy the low end shitmobiles with codes stored and then I read them and fix that and whatever else that does not cost too much. I market via Craigslist and I make a little money doing so. There really is a shortage of decent used cars out there thanks to cash for clunkers. It is my opinion that a lot of older model cars can still work just fine if you how the work on them. Most young Mericans do not know this and enter eternal debt on a car they didn't really need and can not afford and this is especially true for the younger generation. The kinds of cars I fix on and get decent again are the kinds of that they need. Forget the lambos and all of that kids because you need reliable transportation.
Those cheap oil changes may haunt you someday. They'll put in the thin recycled shit. I've quit buying a few brands(Valvoline was the last) because they have gotten way too thin. The bottle will say 30 weight and it still runs through a motor in no time. Thin oil will eventually ruin your motor. The labels are almost useless anymore. The feel between my fingers is the only real gauge I have. I usually add thickeners, like STP, in the summer months.
You are correct but I know that they are using cheap oil. I use cheap oil too on some applications and the expensive stuff on others. The key to using cheaper oils is that you have to change the oil more often. I have used some great synthetics in the past and there is a difference. However DaveO, I flip cars so I am not going to start running synthetics in a car that has never used them before.
As for your thickeners, I urge caution because those are typically used for quieting down noisy rocker arms. They cause more stress on the oil pump on cold starts. Why not just use 20w-50 if you can find it?
Except for younger gearheads, most youfs today did not grow up working on cars, bikes and mowers as us older guys.
Let's have a race.
I'll put $10 of crummy Yankee gas in my tank.
You put 10 Euros of wonderful European gas in your tank and let's see who can go farther.
Ceteris paribus, the euro-gas car will go further because 'pure' gasoline has ~110,000 BTU's per gallon; E85 has only ~80,000 BTU's per gallon.
No shit. When they started putting corn squeezin's back into gasoline they didn't label the pumps here. I immediately noticed my old carbureted car's gas mileage collapsed from 17 to 13-14 mpg's.
Tarabel, your are a true idiot. You think American standards are the best. LOL
Everything you idiots do is on the cheap including building hi speed roads.
You give contracts to the lowest bidder instead of the highest quality work.
i.e Compare European autobahns to interstate roads (depth of road beds, quality asphalt etc)
blah, blah, blah
Yeah, blah, blah, you clowns never want to learn anything. Always think you KNOW it all.
Hi, "Manipuflation!" Another joy of our gasoline + ethanol is the way it sucks moisture out of the air and destroys small-engine carburetors. When I was a kid, at the end of the summer we just shoved the lawnmower in the shed until Spring. Maybe we changed the oil and maybe we didn't. The mower would take a couple hard pulls in the Spring to start, but that was about it.
I moved to the city and didn't have any gas-powered implements for a long time; my yards and walks were small enough hand tools worked just fine But after 30 years I've gotten older and creakier. A couple years ago there was a two-foot snowfall in December; it deflated the Metrodome it was so wet and heavy. That broke my will. I went and bought a gas-powered snowblower. I forgot to siphon the gas out of it over the summer (like an idiot) and by autumn the carburetor was shot. It was a module, not parts, so it couldn't be fixed but rather replaced. The fuel was supposed to go through a perforated metal-mesh screen, but that had rusted shut over the summer.
That never used to happen, and I talked to the small-engine shop guy about it. He said I was right that never used to happen; when I was a kid we didn't have ethanol in the gas and that's the difference.
Awesome. Less power, you use more of it, it wrecks your equipment, distorts commodities markets; Kind of the perfect fuel, in Bizarro-World.
There used to be a station I knew of locally that sold non-oxygenated fuel as you describe, but that one closed and I don't know where others are. I should look. Certainly worth it not to wreck the snowblower again.
Hi back there "swmnguy". Yes it getting hard to find the good gas but there are stations that still sell it. This link might help and it works for all states but there are other sites as well. It is ridiculous that you have to search for something so basic like that. The good thing is that when you find real gas BUY IT because it lasts a lot longer than corn-poo gas does. Corny gas goes to hell in not much more than a month. I have used real gas that is over a year old and it still works great. It even smells different then this other crap.
One other thing to note about corn-gas is that on older smal engines, it deteriorates and dissolves the rubber inside of the carbs of whatever machine you are trying to salvage. Most of what I find that I think I can make run has dissolved fuel lines and rubber diaphragms in the carb(s). Let's face it, cleaning carbs is not that much fun much less finding parts. See, that is their deal. There are plenty of old engines out there that would still be serviceable but for they were ruined by ethanol. Sometimes you can bring an old engine back from the dead if you know what you are doing.
Don't get me going on the new mandated "safety" gas cans. They suck. Beyond stupid. And they cost five times more than a regular gas can should!
Thanks for the link, Man. It's Bookmarked. Hey, there's a place 11 blocks from my house! Duh...I should be more observant. Definitely filling the can there next snow season.
I am glad to be of assistance swmn. You have to keep your cylinders running. Go fill everything you have running as you need a fill at that station and notice the huge performance difference. You will love the results.
You can pull the the ethanol out of gas, in a pinch, rather than put it in your mower. Use a clear plastic bottle, add water and shake. It separates. Then just drain it.
"So they are saying they have three grades of gasoline but only one hose and pump handle? "
Most fuel stations only have two tanks in the ground, which means mid-grade is mixed at the pump. 100% gasoline is usually available at a fuel station thats near the harbor.
Thanks for that info AN but swmn and I are not near any harbors save for Duluth and we do not need vast amounts of this sort of fuel. We just want our small engines to run correctly. Interesting that you confirm that they do mix the gas. I was not guessing that this is happening.
I think, but I might be wrong, that most of our gasoline is coming from Canada, refined in Rosemount. I seem to recall that from a time when a couple refineries in the Chicago area closed down and our (Minnesota) gas got really expensive. Not because we were getting gas from Chicago, but because the Minnesota refineries were selling their inventory to Chicago at that time.
That is interesting about mixing at the pump. Makes sense, now that I think of it. My cars (small, newer Toyotas; I live in a city and don't need more than basic transportation from a vehicle) run pretty well on the gas we have. Better mileage in the summer than in the winter by about 5 mpg, which is consistent with the seasonal blends. Now, if I needed a heavy truck, or used construction equipment, or drove lots of miles, my needs would certainly be different.
But I will absolutely be getting some of the "off-road" non-oxygenated gas for my snowblower next winter.
I am not sure about the Rosemount operation or what it actually refines. I bought some more real gas yesterday and got a backpack blower running. I was given the backpack for free with it said that "This damned thing won;t run.". Really? It runs now and it is $100 obo on craigslist.:-) There is no stock or asset class that can perform better than that rate of return. I used about a cup of gas and a little 2-cycle oil. If I sell it for $50 I still made bank. I will give whatever I get out of it to the kids for ice cream money. To me it all about the challenge of actually getting something like that running. It is just not that hard to figure out most of the time.
A Big Mac is five dollars. I remember fifteen years ago when they would sell them on Mondays for one dollar. No thank you. They can pound that Big Mac right up their ass for all I care.
We jewed some folks.
I remember getting 2 cheese burgers, fries, and a coke with change from a dollar. Of course I also remember going to the movies, coke and popcorn, total bill, $0.35.
As I've gotten older I've noticed that the amount of jiz I produce has also been subject to slack fill. Sadly, women want more inflation.
Drink raw eggs, like Rocky.
Guaranteed iron dick.
Take L-Arginine. It's the main ingredient in "volumizers" and you can get the same effect for cheaper by buying just the amino-acid as a supplement.
Don't ask how I know this...
It's actually a worthwhile investment today to buy any non-perishable household item that you use regularly. You won't get more than .025 percent interest if you put that money in a bank -- but you can almost guarantee that anything you buy is going to shrink next year by a lot more than that!
I spend a 1000 to 1500 once a year, or two, making a trip to town (40 mi, one way) for paper towels, toilet paper, dish soap, shampoo, deoderant, body wash, and trash bags. I get anywhere from 1 to 3 years supply of these items at a wholesale store.
Anyone remember when you came to the hedge for something... more? We've devolved into consumer affairs now? Really?
Even while we ladies swap shopping tips, we are discussing phenomena that affect nearly 70% of GDP. And the manifold tricks for concealing inflation and preventing true price discovery, trends, and the true state of the larger economy is very much the focus of ZH. Feel free to read another article while we get our Pinterest on, but it's the everyday repercussions of much larger issues that I find interesting in the first place. I'm interested in Finance and Economics out of personal concerns, and as a window into human psychology. I don't have enough money to make immediate use of much of it, myself. But the things I learn tend to come in handy later, in seemingly unconnected ways.
That's all fine and well, but this is fightclub. It's not a fucking sewing circle.
Author forgot about serving size inflation, quality collapse inflation, component substitution inflation, choice narrowing inflation, package cost and quality inflation, air conditioning, freezing/heating power limitation inflation, shopping experience quality collapse inflation, and other manipulations to keep so called nominal price marginal increase of few percent only per year.
That will make real inflation total per exactly the same product about 25% a year on retail side alone, not to mention gigantic health care and insurance inflation, education inflation etc. This combined with collapse of wages/benefits/other incomes produces about 50% inflation/year.
That's why all retailers cheat about their sales because in response to such big inflation people drastically cut spending as only thing they can do. They go to store 50% less times and buy 50% less in dollars then before per trip.
All these are signs of hidden hyper inflation approaching through first almost halting transaction volumes and collapse of money circulation in 99% society . Believe me, in contrast to most Americans I lived through hyperinflation meaning when prices we doubling every month after years of attempts to hide the fact that currency has been debased.
All of it was not due to laws of economy but deliberate policies of government to give a chance for oligarchs to bail out before everybody finds out. When people found out, especially courtiers (government, corporate employees) of the system that there were screwed, all hell broke loose. FED printers will roar to shut security courtiers up in US. as well Therefore, they are careful not to mess up good thing going as long as they can.
They want to cook us slow so we won't jump out of pan so they can devour us while we still alive. Monsters feed off frog's hope that next frog will be eaten first and that they will be full before they get to me. Hope is mother of stupid and immoral.
An interesting take on manipulated "free" markets and inflation I found at:
https://contrarianopinion.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/invisible-hand-and-ot...
Excellent addendum, thank you.
Cheap living in the forest in Netherlands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxxPSswDJYk
The common people have to suffer to keep shareholders happy.
The corporate scum are very imaginative. But, not all of us really stupid. I noticed the other day that the old 12 inch Pringles can we used to buy for $1.00 for so long is now 7.5 inches and costs $1.49. You don't even have to go to the store, they are "popping up" on porn sites because men have employed them forever to show the size of their endowments using the trusty old Pringles can for a universal measuring stick. Suddenly everyone gets to be as big as a can of Pringles. :)
But really, yesterday in WallyWorld I noticed that Nabisco has taken our trusty old Saltine crackers and made them ROUND! Thus knocking off all the corners so they are about 25-30% smaller yet still will not bounce around in the same old boxes turning them to cracker dust. They show a picture on the outside promoting use as dipping vehicles like that will fool anyone. SO MANY EXAMPLES, tuna was 5 and 3/4 ounces for many years till last year when 5 ounce cans appeared, now you have to look closely because some are still 5 but many now are 4 ounce cans. Orange juice (Simply Orange) was always on sale somewhere 2 for $5 but recently stopped going on sale ever and the bottles have shrunk to 32 ounces. At $4.89 for 6 fewer ounces the actual inflation there is over 100%. Damn, when did Florida stop growing Oranges so that all juice is now imported from Pluto?
The Fed's balance sheet is still increasing. That's inflation.
But, wait uh Steve Liesman said we need more inflation cause that's a good thing, right?...
Wait til you are buying a "Galloon" of milk, and a "poond" of ground beef.
less quantity i can handle. what i hate is that the quality of everything is crap these days. no amount of "money" will buy the good shit anymore.