Who is fooled by the "bags of air" and the Incredible Shrinking Boxes

Dow1000 said: And the ridiculous bags of air they sell with a small sample of chips inside, well, thats a scam we've had for some time. 6 oz of chips in a bag big enough to hold 3 lbs.And if they put 6 oz of chips in a bag only big enough to hold 6 oz of chips, you would be here bitching about how your chips are nothing but crumbs when you open them. The "bags of air" do serve a purpose, you know. Not to mention the concept of "settling" after the bag is sealed.....

Dow1000 said: It's rampant.

Portion size shrinkage is an epidemic. Clearly all big vendors have conspired to size down nearly everything from cereals to seaweed.

And the ridiculous bags of air they sell with a small sample of chips inside, well, thats a scam we've had for some time. 6 oz of chips in a bag big enough to hold 3 lbs.

I think we should be writing letter of complaint to the FTC.

It's odd...I remember exactly this sort of thing happening in the 1970s as a kid--candy bars mysteriously diminishing in size, for example. For the last couple of decades, however, the game has been decidedly the other way--expand portion size from a trivial amount and expand price at a faster rate.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sa_steve/2601345865/

There's a lot of shrinkage in the pipeline to get back to what it was like!

Edit: Or this!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sa_steve/2687509647/in/set-72157606334289664/

To give a serious comment to this thread, its important to note that this is a common marketing strategy. Its well established in marketing that once a price point has been established in the consumers head for a product, its extremely difficult to raise that price point. Thats one reason so many people still steal MP3s online. There was no legal source for 5+ years and everyone was used to getting them free its hard to raise the price to even $1 per song.

So rather than raise the price of the food items to keep up with inflation and a weakening dollar, and increased fuel costs to transport the food, the companies reduce the content of the bags while maintaining the same price. If a bag of chips used to be 10 ounces and cost $1 but now costs twice as much money. Its more likely to sell a 5 ounce bag for $1 then it is to raise the price of the 10 ounce bag to $2.

I can see now how these crooks and scamsters are getting away with it. Apparently , there are many fools that like to be taken.

Someone I know just paid $3.29 for a lb of raisins . Bad enough, since they're worth a lot less than that. Oh, and the contents. 15 ounces, nice and tiny print.

Anyone that thinks packaging 15 oz in a box that for decades has contained a full lb, isn't THIEVERY, well, I gots a nice bridge to sell ya.

And we're supposed to be having DEFLATION, why are all the food vendors jacking up their prices?

It's the Dept. of Justice that needs to look at it.

It's coming, I'm just early.

I for one am fooled, and fooled deeply.

I really thought the caliber of poster here was higher. Looks like we have common sense deflation right here on FW.

I'm embarrassed 4 ya.

Yup, we've definitely run out of deals when threads like this appear in FWF instead of FWOT.

What I want to know is wtf is up with TP these days. Can't I just buy a single roll. I'm at the store and there's a double roll. And then a triple roll. 12 double rolls = 24 rolls. I guess I'm just gonna have to go back to doing it indian style with the left hand and all.

op, while i agree with you it is a marketing tactic and not an overly honest one at that (coke bottles in ny changed to 1 1/2 liter instead of 2, candy that used to be 1lb is less then that, tropicanas new bottles, squeeze bottles of mayo that hold less then the tradional ones...) but why are you getting up on a soapbox and yelling about it here? you can go post it on your twitter facebook or myspace page. There are millions of things that arent right that are more serious then the food industry repacking food to rip off the consumer. It sounds to me like an angry rant and I dont blame you, just not here....

Glitch99 said:

WHO THE HELL CARES if they raise the price 10% or reduce the contents/package size by 10%? Either way, the end result is still the same $/unit cost. A "box" isnt a standard of measure you can use to compare prices, either between packages or over time.....

Since it allows for higher pricing, the end result is not the same. They could start selling 1oz of raisins for 3.29 when they would never be able to get $53 for a lb. Most food companies are increasing profits even during a recession, which indicates that the 1oz of raisins removed from the OP's container is price gouging. Since the size reduction spreads across the industry almost instantaneously, affecting even store brands, there is a legitimate case to be made that food companies are colluding to fix prices.

squirrelproductions said: WalStMonky said: I bought a pound cake, and when I got it home I noticed the darn thing only weighed 10 ounces!I've seen the same thing recently actually. I was looking for "pound cake" but it was labeled "loaf cake". I didn't realize at the time that it was a weight distinction.
It's not a weight distinction, it's a stupidity distinction.

We're going to plop down to OT avenue.
/to the tune of link

If companies were increasing portion sizes, then people like OP would be calling for the government to step in because they're making Americans fat.

Stoned said: Just wait until the Dow goes to 1000 and see what happens!
Portion size will still be 30, so we're ok.

Dow1000 said: It's rampant.

Portion size shrinkage is an epidemic. Clearly all big vendors have conspired to size down nearly everything from cereals to seaweed.

And the ridiculous bags of air they sell with a small sample of chips inside, well, thats a scam we've had for some time. 6 oz of chips in a bag big enough to hold 3 lbs.

I think we should be writing letter of complaint to the FTC.

Maybe if the food wasn't wet there wouldn't be as much shrinkage

lampy2k4 said: Are you this guy?

Maybe it is Ben Popken, who is Ben Popken you ask? link

It figures this/that guy is from Alabama LMAO

tripleB said: To give a serious comment to this thread, its important to note that this is a common marketing strategy. Its well established in marketing that once a price point has been established in the consumers head for a product, its extremely difficult to raise that price point. Thats one reason so many people still steal MP3s online. There was no legal source for 5+ years and everyone was used to getting them free its hard to raise the price to even $1 per song.

So rather than raise the price of the food items to keep up with inflation and a weakening dollar, and increased fuel costs to transport the food, the companies reduce the content of the bags while maintaining the same price. If a bag of chips used to be 10 ounces and cost $1 but now costs twice as much money. Its more likely to sell a 5 ounce bag for $1 then it is to raise the price of the 10 ounce bag to $2.

If America got back to gardening and sourcing/creating their own food, it would be soon that so called $1 bag to produce and sell for $2 would be $1 again. We are not paying for production costs, we are paying for advertising and profit wishing. They may claim they have to raise prices to compensate for fuel/commodity costs, but the products vs the true cost is still way overpriced.

tada! problem solved.

Dow1000 said: .
.. size shrinkage is an epidemic. .THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!

about the OP.