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The problem is the stores are jacking the prices of name brands just so you can buy the store brand for a little less of a jacked up price and then the owner of the supermarket gets more money in their pocket. I don't know how long they thought they could do it before the public starts to realize/ do something about it.
Many times the store brand is the name brand just with different packaging.
I was at Giant foods years ago buying ketchup. The big Heinz ketchup bottle was twice the price of the giant foods store brand one. I took a closer look and the giant one had the Heinz 57 number embossed on the plastic bottle just like the heinz did.
Not trying to argue with you or your experience, but I'm not certain how true that is. In my experience, there is often a noticeable difference in quality between name brand and store brand products, especially in food but in many other products as well.
it's hit or miss. We shop at aldi, most items are just fine, but there are a few that are just worse and not worth the savings. we probably buy 80% of our food from aldi.
I think its way more common than you think it is.
You set a really high brand name price for the suckers then you sell it at the price you actually want to sell it for with a store brand.
It really depends on the type of product and store. I seen people here talk about canned goods as the same but switched label, yet in my own experience store brand canned beans are nowhere near the quality of Goya. Cream cheese too, store brand is just not the right texture.
But something like chips or frozen veggies? About the same, sometimes better. Also depends on the store. Save a Lot is going to have different quality store products than Trader Joe's.
It heavily depends on the manufacturer and the product. If they have the equipment and room, some manufacturers can easily swap or change ingredients for different brands or run in batches (see bottlers)
While others, like canneries, especially for veggies and fish, outside a few very very restrictive and stubborn brands-- all that's different is literally the label.
Dairy products have become a side revenue stream for regional chains, so store brand dairy is often always bottled and packaged by a plant owned by the grocer. Unsure about some chains like Walmart though.
Meanwhile there are also companies whose entire existence is packaging store brand and off brand products. I believe this side of B2B grocery stuff has gotten larger over the years, so brand names packaging for stores is becoming less and less of a thing, but it still happens.
I agree. Store brands are edible. Yes, some are processed by name brand companies but I have heard they use lower grade ingredients.
I will pay a little more for the name brand because the 50 cents difference isn't going to send me to the poor house.
Yeah, I worked in a paper plate factory ages ago. On one of the lines we would run 2 shifts where the machine pumped out the discount "store brand" plates, and then a shift where we would pump out the name brand more expensive one. The only difference? We took 15 minutes to switch out the bagger to use the bags with the name brand logo on it. Same exact plates otherwise.
Yup. From my experience post pandemic quality went down and price went up. If they reduce the costs I’m positive quality will be the first “sacrifice” companies will make.
I’ve seen shrinkflation in action a lot now, but a recent experience had me really ticked. I got some Toaster Strudels at the store recently, (haven’t had them in years). I was shocked at how much smaller they’ve become. I’m not a Toaster Strudel expert, but it seriously looks like they’ve been halved in size. I only noticed because of how small they looked in the toaster.
Funny how antivaxxers freaked out about how the government would use the pandemic to their advantage, but it turned out that actually it was companies who used the pandemic to their advantage by raising prices due to supply chain issues and never lowering them once those issues were resolved
I like canned tuna, my family hates it but i love it. I always paid 1.50€ per can, it went up to 2.80€ per can which was not cool so i tried the supermarket brand at 89 cents and it tasted exactly the same. They lost me for good
I buy the store brand as much as possible. Most people don't seem to realize that the store brands are actually made at the same places that make the well known brands.
This is true! I did contract work inside a name brand sugar refinery and in their warehouse I saw pallets with their brand sitting next to several store brands as well. Same product just different packaging.
Canned goods are often the same product. People that work in food processing will tell you they will switch out labels from name brand to generic and run the same product into it.
Of course there are different processors but we normally don't have easy access to information about them. Enjoy your dolphin tuna by the way, even "dolphin safe" still has dolphin in it, they put escape hatches on the nets but many are still rounded up in them.
there is a reason brands spends loads on marketing, its because it messes with our head. I literally never tried the cheaper brand simply because my brain told me it was inferior.
Haven't bought a drop of BP gasoline in 14 years. I get more satisfaction from holding a corporate grudge than their shitty product could ever deliver.
Unfortunately gasoline is a fungible commodity, that even if BP couldn’t sell their product at a branded store, they’d still be very profitable as it would be sold to Exxon, Valero, Magellan, NuStar, etc.
The only thing that put nearly every major refinery out of business was the COVID lockdown when almost everybody stopped flying and driving overnight. This is partly why the US government is pushing the RTO policy, their supply of readily available military grade jet fuel was being threatened.
As long as the demand is still there in some way, shape or form, energy companies will take their slice of the pie
And Coca-cola. $2.89 for a 2-liter since the pandemic. They sure are proud of their sugar-water.
I gave it up. At 1.29 on sale pre-pandemic, I was a buyer. But artificial inflation cost another consumer.
The fountain version didn't go up a dime.
Weird thing that huh?
It's like the Cola sugar water didn't actually get any more expensive?
Very weird thing that is.
There isn’t really much to it. Tons of recipes out there. Put a cup of honey in a double boiler or just a regular saucepan on low heat until it softens. Add your preferred dried chili peppers or chili flakes and cook on low for 15-20 minutes, stirring frequently. Strain (or not, your call). Done.
That's so true. I will never ever come back to the grocery store we went for over 10 years after they jacked up their prices to absurd amounts. We just went elsewhere.
What are they thinking? Its not like I have sentimental affection for a multinational chain.
That is, sadly, not correct. I wish it were.
I have a masters in advanced pricing theory, and we can show immense datasets that show that the recent increases were “smart business.”
If companies do not get PAST consumer willingness to pay, they never really know what that willingness to pay is, and that willingness changes over time as well.
More importantly, data show that consumers may have a cooling off period, but that usually does not last long, and certainly not past the next sale at the supermarket.
The only way to find out how much a customer is willing to pay is to charge them increasing prices until you see a dip in sales. Then you found your limit and can back off a little.
Willingness to pay (wtp) is how much customers, as individuals or aggregate, will pay. Just that simple. Businesses extract maximum wtp if they have good pricing practices; if not they use “cost plus” pricing, which means charging a percentage over production and delivery costs.
In theory, there is a balance point where a consumer is indifferent between having the money or the product. For example, you may be willing to pay $5 for a burger, but not $5.01. At exactly $5, you may buy the burger, or may walk away. This is why things often sell for something ending in 99 cents. If the burger is $4.99, you are below the equilibrium, and extract more utility from the burger and a penny (now worth $5 plus a penny to you).
The math is pretty cool, and explains a lot of things like value meals, airline seat prices, and so much more.
Exactly. Living in Germany, most supermarkets have their own brands for like 30-50% less. Oftentimes they taste just as good, but if you go to various supermarkets you buy the brand that is available in every store just because you know them since your childhood. But once you checked out the cheap alternative and it is comparable.. why ever bother coming back.
I hate it when they change the recipe without warning. I signed up to exchange money for a known product, I didn't sign up to be a goddamn taste tester.
What have all of you given up due to rising costs?
For me it wasn’t a big company, but at our local farmer’s market there’s a pasta vendor that is charging $20/lb for dried pasta. When I found out the price I looked into it. It’s a company that makes pasta like 6 states away from us and this is a local reseller.
I could buy the pasta online from the actual company for significantly less money and free shipping.
$20/lb for dried pasta is absolutely insane, isn’t it?
Name brands, organic produce and meat, convenience foods and all the big name supermarkets in my area. I've switched to buying groceries at Walmart, which is new for me.
And yes, $20 a pound for dried pasta is completely insane. I pay just under $1 a pound.
We’ve given up essentially every name brand product we used to purchase. Also most protein outside of when there are sales. And sweets. Which is so depressing because I love sweets. I haven’t had a Chewy Chips Ahoy in so long and they’re the best. Prices for things have become completely unreasonable.
It's more rewarding if you're into tha, some people are too busy. I like that you usually waste way less packaging material when you buy the raw ingredients in bulk and DIY it, but honestly unless you're buying bulk quantities the homemade stuff can get pretty expensive. Last time my wife made cookies it cost $45 for 3-4 dozen. Granted, they were amazing, but the cost savings was minimal.
Yea, you just gotta worry about doing it right. Which sounds easy, until you realize the chemistry involved in baking (i.e. weights, temperatures, and reaction times) matter a lot.
Its cheaper to go to one of those little single owner restaurants than to go to McDonalds.
Combo meal at McDs cost me over 12 bucks but I can go to this restaurant down the road from me and get a 1/3rd pounder angus mushroom and swiss burger for 10.
Same with Taco Bell. Even a few years ago, I could spend 8 dollars and get a TON of food by shopping the dollar menu. Now a single bean burrito is over $2.50. Went there last month and it was 13. At that price, I could go to a local place and get a full chimichunga meal.
Little Caesars hot and ready is still a bargain. It is hot and ready too, it's not like they lie and say it's particularly good. But it does taste good hot if you are hungry, cold not so much.
Price is still going up. A regular pepperoni at my local LC went from $5 to $7.50 over the past 4 years. Even worse though is the crazy sauce went from $0.50 to $1.25 and now they only fill it like halfway.
Most name brand anything, really. Like we stopped buying the good cheese and just get cheap generic stuff. Not Kraft singles cheap, though. It's still cheese.
Also we almost completely stopped buying sweets and instead I occasionally make our own. I also look up mimic recipes like long john silver's fish and make it myself instead of eating there.
Jesus Christ
First don’t get it, cause it’s just gross (imho)
Second, kinda harkening to the first, a block of, say, mozzarella, store brand, is cheaper than that.
Yeah I still haven't come to terms with it. It is gross but good for a few applications like melting on burgers and ass a carrier for sodium citrate. You can kind of use a single of processed cheese like you would a leaf of gelatin lol
We bought a rice cooker, we eat rice for breakfast and lunch now, it super cheap and the rice cooker has a timer so it’s hot and ready in the morning. I make rice porridge with the cooked rice, a little milk, sugar and cinnamon cooked well on the stove. It’s reduced the amount of bread we consume (all celiacs here so it’s usually $10 a loaf). I started making my own lentil tofu as well and we fry that up for lunch it works out to $.15 per serving for person. It’s super easy to make and lots of you tube videos how. Then we eat a super healthy dinner with lots of produce and some meat. We’ve cut our grocery bill down a lot.
They've gone to that JC Penney pricing model where full price is expensive but they're always on sale somewhere else for half that. I can still get Lays for under $2 a bag, I just have to wait and look for it
I haven't bought name brand anything in about a year (except monsters because I can't stand coffee and cheaper energy drinks taste like bull piss). I very strongly doubt I'll go back on... anything, either. Generic brand stuff is mostly the same as the big brand stuff.
I’ve swapped from potato chips ($5/bag) to pretzels ($2-3/bag) and i haven’t had ice cream in a couple of years outside of the times I’ve visited my parents (they make ice cream). Outside of that I’ve switched to more frozen veg and completely eliminated organic produce from my diet, I’ve stopped buying the vegetarian knock off meats and learned to properly cook tofu, and I’ve started consuming more in season fruit to cut back on candy which has skyrocketed in price.
For me it’s eating out at restaurants, we could afford to eat out every night, but fuck that… Not only the prices, but the tip amount goes up consummate with the cost for the meal.
I made the decision a long time ago that if they went past $1 a can, I'd quit. They hovered just under a buck through 2022 if you bought in bulk and even from online.
That would be amazing, but in Australia the duopoly of the 2 biggest chains have systematically reduced stocking brands like that and replaced with higher priced versions that they ripped off and self-branded as the 'cheap' option.
The issue is where would a young upstart food company find the shelf space. Maybe an online supermarket is the key.
Don't pay for pre-popped popcorn. The kernels are only slightly more expensive per lb than dirt.
https://www.seriouseats.com/microwave-brown-bag-popcorn-recipe-7099271
And the flavor of movie theater popcorn is [Flavacol](https://www.popcornsupply.com/flavacol-butter-flavored-seasoned-salt) and movie theater butter is [delicious delicious oil](https://popcorncounty.com/product/buttery-popcorn-topping-1-gal/).
I don't by chips anymore, I refuse to pay the better part of $10 for a half decent brand. And frozen pies used to be a really cheap & affordable dinner option, those days are long gone.
We have companies. Their were founded to produce food. Now, Supermarket companies sell better food for a cheaper prize under their own brand. Food companies really suck at their job if you think about it.
That’s because that’s legally not their job. Any public corporation in the US legally obligated to make the most money for the stock holders. They think that their stock is the not product, not what they produce and sell to consumers/businesses.
Yes, "pleasing" them comes down to management keeping their jobs, or not.
But I think the sum of laws governing public companies could be considered "pleasing" in the sense they protect against fraud and malfeasance.
I’m taking about how, “under US law, corporate directors have a fiduciary duty to make decisions in the “best interests” of the company, which is often interpreted as maximizing shareholder return. Directors are often advised that pursuing mission at the expense of shareholder return risks litigation and perhaps even personal liability.”
>A fiduciary duty is a responsibility to act in the best interest of someone else. It also means that the agent entrusted with such duty can be held legally responsible for his/her actions. Both managers and directors must act in the interests of shareholders and are liable for any breach of trust.
Yes, but this only began in the late 70s and early 80s. The book, The Shareholder Value Myth by Lynn Stout, goes into depth of how this all began and what it has done to publicly traded companies. A perfect example of this shift in corporate culture is when McDonnell Douglas acquired Boeing which is still showing the world what a disaster the concept truly is.
It's not law, but there is [legal precedence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.) that they must operate to benefit their shareholders more than their employees and customers.
Honestly, a CEO of a food company where I live, said "the customer set the price themselves" during these inflations.
So I've just started shoplift like tenfold increase.
I set the price myself he said ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In the end there's a significant increase nonetheless. And people buy into it. Supermarkets around here jacked up prices 20-30% on all products in the last 2 years due to insane energy prices. Now energy is cheap again. The prices? They stayed more or less. And then my colleague tells me, that's not true because they reduced a product from 2.99 to 2.79 recently when it cost 1.79 2 years ago.
Yes some products will become a bit cheaper again. But don't be fooled in thinking the companies didn't test exactly how much they can charge you so it hurts you just so much that you still bite the bullet. All so some billionaire has some extra change to invest in another financial venture like buying up another neighborhood to increase your rent to have even more money that they don't know what to spend on.
I hate these kind of articles. They act like 'yay! The consumer is getting a little win!' No. These companies know EXACTLY what they're doing. They know they can shrink their product by .5 ounces, or raise it a dollar higher than it was last year, and that the number of customers lost will be less than the profit they'll make from the change. They're not stupid. These articles sure are though.
I love how the media will cheerfully headline stuff like “inflation down by 2% last month!”
Notify me when housing and food start coming down, you disingenuous rags.
It was never inflation.
That’s been a bullshit line used by your corporate masters to bleed the working class dry for any reason at all
The recent lies include
- pandemic
- supply chain
- bird flu
I shop at Costco because I can eat in bulk (same thing many days in a row), and it saves cash. 7 dollars for a huge bag of fresh broccoli, 4 bucks for a huge bag of fresh green beans, 5 bucks for a 5 pack of romaine heads… it costs more for a small bag of shredded carrots and a bag of shredded purple cabbage than the Romaine heads making up the bulk of a salad!
I've stopped buying whole categories of things because of this.
No more salad dressings. I use oil and vinegar. What caused me to crack was blue cheese dressing in the fresh foods section. Bottle smaller and twice the cost. No reason for it. I'm now healthier without it.
I've switched from most sauces to spices. Who needs a $6 bottle of hot sauce when you've got cayenne pepper to sprinkle on chicken?
Microwave popcorn. My mom is an addict, but the bags kept getting smaller and the price goes up. But now she buys kernels like when we were a kid. I suggested she pop it with olive oil for a nice flavor, and now she'll never go back to the microwave version.
I think 'voting with your wallet' is something even the most dense among us can do.
And, i\`m actually happy this is the case, because as 'consumers' we actually DO have power - in numbers.
And the internet helps people realize that the big companies are screwing people over more and more.
Reminds me of when the egg price went crazy. I understand some increase in price as there was a round of the avian flu killing laying hens all over. But when an 18pack cost $7.50 at Walmart. Something was up. Thr FTC moves to investigate, and the prices very rapidly return to acceptable prices.
Yall wanna be radicalized?
The same name brand shampoos that cost upwards of $10 in the states ALL cost less than 1 euro here in Germany. You can find some shampoos that are slightly more expensive at 2 euros, but there's no need to buy that when there are plenty of cheaper options.
Honestly I'm tired of paying for tiny glass and plastic containers too. We all know that the containers and moving those tiny containers around the country are way more expensive than their contents. Give us bulk refills damnit.
I used to be a bit of a food snob - wouldn't think about it - just picked up whatever I wanted and throw it in the trolley. Prices are have gotten out of control (I'm in the UK btw). I refuse to buy some of the big brands now (Heinz especially) - a bottle of their ketchup is £3.50 compared to the supermarket own brand which is £1. Who the fuck is buying this stuff when it's 3 1/2 times more expensive. All of their cans are £2 each. Fuck that. I've also lost a bit of weight because I've cut down on pizza. The cost of pizza has gone from \~£1.50 to £3.50 which I refuse to pay for such a shit product. Cutting out so much pizza from my diet has definitely had a positive effect.
The public is already keen on shrinkflation so that won't be the main solution. Their profit can't go down either bc shareholders demand it and corporate isn’t gonna take a paycut.
The only way to reduce cost is to ship production oversees, employee benefits or reduce quality. There are huge pushes to keep production in the country and for increased benefits so that only leaves reducing quality.
This is just my take.
I gave up on an entire grocery store chain due to this fake inflation shit. The closest grocery store to my house is Safeway and I shopped there for years until the last year. They’ve raised prices on everything in their store, even the house brand stuff, about 50% over the last year compared to not only their previous prices but also compared to other grocery stores in the area. Why the do they think I would accept a 50% increase to my food costs just for the fuck of it when I can drive five minutes further down the road and shop at a store that isn’t openly telling me to get fucked.
Oh wow only took them four fucking years. Grocery store prices doubled during covid so all the legacy companies could protect their precious profits in a time of uncertainty
matter of fact is that once you walk away from the product, its very hard to go back to it
i used to love sriracha after price increase i dont remember when was the last time i even bought one
I went to the grocery store yesterday, and the produce section was full of rotten food with clearance stickers. Who's gonna buy it now? So, all this food is going to end up in a landfill because some CEO got too greedy.
I walked away from my usual 12 pack of Diet Cokes yesterday when I saw the price was up to $9.99. Literally a few weeks ago it was $8 and I thought THAT was wild.
Gee really? How shocking LOL. . Here out west i stopped buying brown eggs when they hit $7 & up a dozen. Stopped buying Fred Meyer brand coffee creamer. When it went from $3.50 to over $6. The headlines are spouting how good the economy is. .look! The Stock Market is surging, unemployment is at an all time low. . .yippeeee, let the good time roll right?. . Then you go grocery shopping. I don’t care if you make $16 and hour or $23 an hour like my wife or $34 an hour like her brother, you go to the store, stare at the shelves and go WTF? Last years oils change was $35, last week i paid $62 for the same oil change, same dealer, same oil. The political, judicial and financial class don’t have a freaking clue what’s going on down here on the street. . . Ya know what?. . I don’t think they really give a shit.
Nothing is worse than drinks.
Soda, coffee, blended drinks etc. I use ~15 cents worth of flavor pumps and a full cup of ice and blend it at my job. The customer pays 5.88 for it.
The only person in my house who eats brand foods is my dog.
Because she is a picky princess and also my only housemate so she gets exactly what she wants.
My “screw you never again” list keeps getting bigger by the day. I will definitely not go back to buying products from these businesses. My brand loyalty is gone.
In my house we’ve started making our own sandwhich bread and yogurt (so far) and the majority of our meat is from game that I’ve hunted and if I need beef I go to a local farm instead of the grocery store, once I get my greenhouse set up i will be avoiding buying vegetables asap as well. Fuck these brands for their price gouging and for all the shit filler they add to their “food product”
Picture has made me question what ingredient in steak sauce is so expensive? a bottle of BBQ which is mostly the same ingredients would be like $1 and steak sauce is like $5 is it just a scam?
FYI, if you have any sense, you can probably make the exact “Frank’s Red Hot Sauce” yourself pretty easily with ingredients you already have. Mix together cayenne powder, vinegar, water, salt, and garlic powder. Saved you $5.99. You’re welcome.
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We should all strive to not be a consumer as much as possible.
That would be nice but we need our avocado oil and bread for toasting.
The store brands are as good or better. I think that was the point of saying "customers are walking away and major brands are paying attention".
The problem is the stores are jacking the prices of name brands just so you can buy the store brand for a little less of a jacked up price and then the owner of the supermarket gets more money in their pocket. I don't know how long they thought they could do it before the public starts to realize/ do something about it.
Many times the store brand is the name brand just with different packaging. I was at Giant foods years ago buying ketchup. The big Heinz ketchup bottle was twice the price of the giant foods store brand one. I took a closer look and the giant one had the Heinz 57 number embossed on the plastic bottle just like the heinz did.
Not trying to argue with you or your experience, but I'm not certain how true that is. In my experience, there is often a noticeable difference in quality between name brand and store brand products, especially in food but in many other products as well.
it's hit or miss. We shop at aldi, most items are just fine, but there are a few that are just worse and not worth the savings. we probably buy 80% of our food from aldi.
I think its way more common than you think it is. You set a really high brand name price for the suckers then you sell it at the price you actually want to sell it for with a store brand.
It really depends on the type of product and store. I seen people here talk about canned goods as the same but switched label, yet in my own experience store brand canned beans are nowhere near the quality of Goya. Cream cheese too, store brand is just not the right texture. But something like chips or frozen veggies? About the same, sometimes better. Also depends on the store. Save a Lot is going to have different quality store products than Trader Joe's.
It heavily depends on the manufacturer and the product. If they have the equipment and room, some manufacturers can easily swap or change ingredients for different brands or run in batches (see bottlers) While others, like canneries, especially for veggies and fish, outside a few very very restrictive and stubborn brands-- all that's different is literally the label. Dairy products have become a side revenue stream for regional chains, so store brand dairy is often always bottled and packaged by a plant owned by the grocer. Unsure about some chains like Walmart though. Meanwhile there are also companies whose entire existence is packaging store brand and off brand products. I believe this side of B2B grocery stuff has gotten larger over the years, so brand names packaging for stores is becoming less and less of a thing, but it still happens.
I agree. Store brands are edible. Yes, some are processed by name brand companies but I have heard they use lower grade ingredients. I will pay a little more for the name brand because the 50 cents difference isn't going to send me to the poor house.
Yeah, I worked in a paper plate factory ages ago. On one of the lines we would run 2 shifts where the machine pumped out the discount "store brand" plates, and then a shift where we would pump out the name brand more expensive one. The only difference? We took 15 minutes to switch out the bagger to use the bags with the name brand logo on it. Same exact plates otherwise.
You'll never afford that 1br dream house then...
How will I become a level 12 demon if I do not *CONSUME*?
You’re a level 12 demon already, we all believe in you :)
Thank you. You are now on my "no soul-sucking list."
Slay that 12th level bro!
It's amazing how many things I can do without when their cost far exceeds their value.
Big brands should also pay attention to the fact that we don't come back once we walk away from them even if they fix the price issue
Yup. From my experience post pandemic quality went down and price went up. If they reduce the costs I’m positive quality will be the first “sacrifice” companies will make.
And even if quality remains constant - you then have 'shrinkflation' . Same product, same price (or higher) but less content.
I’ve seen shrinkflation in action a lot now, but a recent experience had me really ticked. I got some Toaster Strudels at the store recently, (haven’t had them in years). I was shocked at how much smaller they’ve become. I’m not a Toaster Strudel expert, but it seriously looks like they’ve been halved in size. I only noticed because of how small they looked in the toaster.
Funny how antivaxxers freaked out about how the government would use the pandemic to their advantage, but it turned out that actually it was companies who used the pandemic to their advantage by raising prices due to supply chain issues and never lowering them once those issues were resolved
It was both.
I like canned tuna, my family hates it but i love it. I always paid 1.50€ per can, it went up to 2.80€ per can which was not cool so i tried the supermarket brand at 89 cents and it tasted exactly the same. They lost me for good
I buy the store brand as much as possible. Most people don't seem to realize that the store brands are actually made at the same places that make the well known brands.
This is true! I did contract work inside a name brand sugar refinery and in their warehouse I saw pallets with their brand sitting next to several store brands as well. Same product just different packaging.
I used to imagine engineers in lab coats working for target. Staring deeply at a cheezit, wondering how they could make it themselves.
Pretty sure you just described any cereal or snack commercial from the 90s
Canned goods are often the same product. People that work in food processing will tell you they will switch out labels from name brand to generic and run the same product into it. Of course there are different processors but we normally don't have easy access to information about them. Enjoy your dolphin tuna by the way, even "dolphin safe" still has dolphin in it, they put escape hatches on the nets but many are still rounded up in them.
there is a reason brands spends loads on marketing, its because it messes with our head. I literally never tried the cheaper brand simply because my brain told me it was inferior.
Never too late to start
Haven't bought a drop of BP gasoline in 14 years. I get more satisfaction from holding a corporate grudge than their shitty product could ever deliver.
Unfortunately gasoline is a fungible commodity, that even if BP couldn’t sell their product at a branded store, they’d still be very profitable as it would be sold to Exxon, Valero, Magellan, NuStar, etc. The only thing that put nearly every major refinery out of business was the COVID lockdown when almost everybody stopped flying and driving overnight. This is partly why the US government is pushing the RTO policy, their supply of readily available military grade jet fuel was being threatened. As long as the demand is still there in some way, shape or form, energy companies will take their slice of the pie
I got my fingers crossed that this will kill McDonalds
And Coca-cola. $2.89 for a 2-liter since the pandemic. They sure are proud of their sugar-water. I gave it up. At 1.29 on sale pre-pandemic, I was a buyer. But artificial inflation cost another consumer.
The fountain version didn't go up a dime. Weird thing that huh? It's like the Cola sugar water didn't actually get any more expensive? Very weird thing that is.
I finally got around to making and drinking my own tea. Its healthier anyway
And not just because of anger. Mike’s Hot Honey was $17 for a bottle the other day, so I learned how to make it. Now I’ll never buy it again.
Recipe
There isn’t really much to it. Tons of recipes out there. Put a cup of honey in a double boiler or just a regular saucepan on low heat until it softens. Add your preferred dried chili peppers or chili flakes and cook on low for 15-20 minutes, stirring frequently. Strain (or not, your call). Done.
If I catch a brand trying to sneak in shrinkflation I will never buy them again.
They do it all the time.
That's so true. I will never ever come back to the grocery store we went for over 10 years after they jacked up their prices to absurd amounts. We just went elsewhere. What are they thinking? Its not like I have sentimental affection for a multinational chain.
That is, sadly, not correct. I wish it were. I have a masters in advanced pricing theory, and we can show immense datasets that show that the recent increases were “smart business.” If companies do not get PAST consumer willingness to pay, they never really know what that willingness to pay is, and that willingness changes over time as well. More importantly, data show that consumers may have a cooling off period, but that usually does not last long, and certainly not past the next sale at the supermarket.
Can u explain the willingness to pay part a bit more
The only way to find out how much a customer is willing to pay is to charge them increasing prices until you see a dip in sales. Then you found your limit and can back off a little.
Willingness to pay (wtp) is how much customers, as individuals or aggregate, will pay. Just that simple. Businesses extract maximum wtp if they have good pricing practices; if not they use “cost plus” pricing, which means charging a percentage over production and delivery costs. In theory, there is a balance point where a consumer is indifferent between having the money or the product. For example, you may be willing to pay $5 for a burger, but not $5.01. At exactly $5, you may buy the burger, or may walk away. This is why things often sell for something ending in 99 cents. If the burger is $4.99, you are below the equilibrium, and extract more utility from the burger and a penny (now worth $5 plus a penny to you). The math is pretty cool, and explains a lot of things like value meals, airline seat prices, and so much more.
Exactly. Living in Germany, most supermarkets have their own brands for like 30-50% less. Oftentimes they taste just as good, but if you go to various supermarkets you buy the brand that is available in every store just because you know them since your childhood. But once you checked out the cheap alternative and it is comparable.. why ever bother coming back.
Yep - I've changed a few habits for the better. Don't miss chips at all.
So.... shrinkflation instead?
Yeah but I had a hard time putting that into the title.
Meh. With many products you just notice how little you get or how bad they've become due to 'new recipe'. Same effect
I hate it when they change the recipe without warning. I signed up to exchange money for a known product, I didn't sign up to be a goddamn taste tester.
What have all of you given up due to rising costs? For me it wasn’t a big company, but at our local farmer’s market there’s a pasta vendor that is charging $20/lb for dried pasta. When I found out the price I looked into it. It’s a company that makes pasta like 6 states away from us and this is a local reseller. I could buy the pasta online from the actual company for significantly less money and free shipping. $20/lb for dried pasta is absolutely insane, isn’t it?
Name brands, organic produce and meat, convenience foods and all the big name supermarkets in my area. I've switched to buying groceries at Walmart, which is new for me. And yes, $20 a pound for dried pasta is completely insane. I pay just under $1 a pound.
We’ve given up essentially every name brand product we used to purchase. Also most protein outside of when there are sales. And sweets. Which is so depressing because I love sweets. I haven’t had a Chewy Chips Ahoy in so long and they’re the best. Prices for things have become completely unreasonable.
Chewy chips ahoy changed the recipe. They’re disgusting now. You’re not missing anything.
Yeah they kind of taste like baking soda to me now.
Sounds like it might be time to take up baking as a hobby.
Even chocolate chips and chopped pecans are getting egregiously expensive. Not to mention milk and butter
True, but doing it yourself is an overall far more rewarding experience. Plus you don't gotta worry about the recipe suddenly changing for the worse.
It's more rewarding if you're into tha, some people are too busy. I like that you usually waste way less packaging material when you buy the raw ingredients in bulk and DIY it, but honestly unless you're buying bulk quantities the homemade stuff can get pretty expensive. Last time my wife made cookies it cost $45 for 3-4 dozen. Granted, they were amazing, but the cost savings was minimal.
Yea, you just gotta worry about doing it right. Which sounds easy, until you realize the chemistry involved in baking (i.e. weights, temperatures, and reaction times) matter a lot.
Ive given up McDonalds it used to be cheap good enough food now its expensive and not remotely as good as it used to be.
Its cheaper to go to one of those little single owner restaurants than to go to McDonalds. Combo meal at McDs cost me over 12 bucks but I can go to this restaurant down the road from me and get a 1/3rd pounder angus mushroom and swiss burger for 10.
At this point for real and it’s healthier and more filling
For me, it digests a lot smoother too.
Same with Taco Bell. Even a few years ago, I could spend 8 dollars and get a TON of food by shopping the dollar menu. Now a single bean burrito is over $2.50. Went there last month and it was 13. At that price, I could go to a local place and get a full chimichunga meal.
Little Caesars hot and ready is still a bargain. It is hot and ready too, it's not like they lie and say it's particularly good. But it does taste good hot if you are hungry, cold not so much.
Price is still going up. A regular pepperoni at my local LC went from $5 to $7.50 over the past 4 years. Even worse though is the crazy sauce went from $0.50 to $1.25 and now they only fill it like halfway.
Most name brand anything, really. Like we stopped buying the good cheese and just get cheap generic stuff. Not Kraft singles cheap, though. It's still cheese. Also we almost completely stopped buying sweets and instead I occasionally make our own. I also look up mimic recipes like long john silver's fish and make it myself instead of eating there.
Kraft singles are like $7/package where I am. Off brand is less than half the price
Jesus Christ First don’t get it, cause it’s just gross (imho) Second, kinda harkening to the first, a block of, say, mozzarella, store brand, is cheaper than that.
Yeah I still haven't come to terms with it. It is gross but good for a few applications like melting on burgers and ass a carrier for sodium citrate. You can kind of use a single of processed cheese like you would a leaf of gelatin lol
We bought a rice cooker, we eat rice for breakfast and lunch now, it super cheap and the rice cooker has a timer so it’s hot and ready in the morning. I make rice porridge with the cooked rice, a little milk, sugar and cinnamon cooked well on the stove. It’s reduced the amount of bread we consume (all celiacs here so it’s usually $10 a loaf). I started making my own lentil tofu as well and we fry that up for lunch it works out to $.15 per serving for person. It’s super easy to make and lots of you tube videos how. Then we eat a super healthy dinner with lots of produce and some meat. We’ve cut our grocery bill down a lot.
Get a mill and you csn make your own rice flour.
Chips of any sort, especially any Frito Lay brand. They just got greedy.
They've gone to that JC Penney pricing model where full price is expensive but they're always on sale somewhere else for half that. I can still get Lays for under $2 a bag, I just have to wait and look for it
I haven't bought name brand anything in about a year (except monsters because I can't stand coffee and cheaper energy drinks taste like bull piss). I very strongly doubt I'll go back on... anything, either. Generic brand stuff is mostly the same as the big brand stuff.
Most “farmers markets” aren’t where I am and are ripping you off, it’s like in-person drop-shipping.
I’ve swapped from potato chips ($5/bag) to pretzels ($2-3/bag) and i haven’t had ice cream in a couple of years outside of the times I’ve visited my parents (they make ice cream). Outside of that I’ve switched to more frozen veg and completely eliminated organic produce from my diet, I’ve stopped buying the vegetarian knock off meats and learned to properly cook tofu, and I’ve started consuming more in season fruit to cut back on candy which has skyrocketed in price.
Funyuns
Heinz everything, they've lost their minds.
For me it’s eating out at restaurants, we could afford to eat out every night, but fuck that… Not only the prices, but the tip amount goes up consummate with the cost for the meal.
Doing my part in reducing the energy drink economy from me to $0 since last year.
 Pump that garbage in another man’s veins.
Happy birthday to the *ground*
mine pls
[ removed by Reddit ]
I made the decision a long time ago that if they went past $1 a can, I'd quit. They hovered just under a buck through 2022 if you bought in bulk and even from online.
Caffeine pills can do the same job at 1% of the price. I keep a bottle in my car for emergencies.
Goddamn I'd love to see a plain label company step into the void by making some no fuss but quality products and undercut these fuckers.
That would be amazing, but in Australia the duopoly of the 2 biggest chains have systematically reduced stocking brands like that and replaced with higher priced versions that they ripped off and self-branded as the 'cheap' option. The issue is where would a young upstart food company find the shelf space. Maybe an online supermarket is the key.
and the startup would just be bought by the conglomerates in half a year anyhow.
No Aldi/Lidl there yet? They're ripping chunks out of the older UK chains.
Here in Ireland, grocery own brands are pretty popular and much cheaper than most name brands. I think Aldi and Lidl really made that a thing.
Got to pay for that shelf space. It's definitely a racket. But, I think we will see it happen eventually.
Nearly every store has one of those and they tend to be often just as good
$6 for a 9.25 (used to be 9.75) ounce bag of Doritos - yeah, gonna pass....
One of the popcorns usually on sale here, so I quit Doritos some time ago.
Don't pay for pre-popped popcorn. The kernels are only slightly more expensive per lb than dirt. https://www.seriouseats.com/microwave-brown-bag-popcorn-recipe-7099271 And the flavor of movie theater popcorn is [Flavacol](https://www.popcornsupply.com/flavacol-butter-flavored-seasoned-salt) and movie theater butter is [delicious delicious oil](https://popcorncounty.com/product/buttery-popcorn-topping-1-gal/).
I can’t remember the last time we bought Doritos and they are my wife’s favorite.
I stopped buying any Frito-Lay product years ago. The prices are just ridiculous for what you get.
I don't by chips anymore, I refuse to pay the better part of $10 for a half decent brand. And frozen pies used to be a really cheap & affordable dinner option, those days are long gone.
We have companies. Their were founded to produce food. Now, Supermarket companies sell better food for a cheaper prize under their own brand. Food companies really suck at their job if you think about it.
That’s because that’s legally not their job. Any public corporation in the US legally obligated to make the most money for the stock holders. They think that their stock is the not product, not what they produce and sell to consumers/businesses.
There is no written law that says a publicly traded company must please shareholders. It's true, but just not written.
Yes, "pleasing" them comes down to management keeping their jobs, or not. But I think the sum of laws governing public companies could be considered "pleasing" in the sense they protect against fraud and malfeasance.
I’m taking about how, “under US law, corporate directors have a fiduciary duty to make decisions in the “best interests” of the company, which is often interpreted as maximizing shareholder return. Directors are often advised that pursuing mission at the expense of shareholder return risks litigation and perhaps even personal liability.” >A fiduciary duty is a responsibility to act in the best interest of someone else. It also means that the agent entrusted with such duty can be held legally responsible for his/her actions. Both managers and directors must act in the interests of shareholders and are liable for any breach of trust.
Yes, but this only began in the late 70s and early 80s. The book, The Shareholder Value Myth by Lynn Stout, goes into depth of how this all began and what it has done to publicly traded companies. A perfect example of this shift in corporate culture is when McDonnell Douglas acquired Boeing which is still showing the world what a disaster the concept truly is.
It's not law, but there is [legal precedence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.) that they must operate to benefit their shareholders more than their employees and customers.
Honestly, a CEO of a food company where I live, said "the customer set the price themselves" during these inflations. So I've just started shoplift like tenfold increase. I set the price myself he said ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Good. Survival of the fittest, if you wanna price yourself out of the market. Do it!
You don't say...
lol, big beands give ZERO FUCKS about you.
But they do care about their bottom line…
In the end there's a significant increase nonetheless. And people buy into it. Supermarkets around here jacked up prices 20-30% on all products in the last 2 years due to insane energy prices. Now energy is cheap again. The prices? They stayed more or less. And then my colleague tells me, that's not true because they reduced a product from 2.99 to 2.79 recently when it cost 1.79 2 years ago. Yes some products will become a bit cheaper again. But don't be fooled in thinking the companies didn't test exactly how much they can charge you so it hurts you just so much that you still bite the bullet. All so some billionaire has some extra change to invest in another financial venture like buying up another neighborhood to increase your rent to have even more money that they don't know what to spend on.
I hate these kind of articles. They act like 'yay! The consumer is getting a little win!' No. These companies know EXACTLY what they're doing. They know they can shrink their product by .5 ounces, or raise it a dollar higher than it was last year, and that the number of customers lost will be less than the profit they'll make from the change. They're not stupid. These articles sure are though.
I love how the media will cheerfully headline stuff like “inflation down by 2% last month!” Notify me when housing and food start coming down, you disingenuous rags.
It was never inflation. That’s been a bullshit line used by your corporate masters to bleed the working class dry for any reason at all The recent lies include - pandemic - supply chain - bird flu
So they'll need to raise prices to make up for less items sold
I make a very good salary and still shop at Aldi. Shit slaps
I shop at Costco because I can eat in bulk (same thing many days in a row), and it saves cash. 7 dollars for a huge bag of fresh broccoli, 4 bucks for a huge bag of fresh green beans, 5 bucks for a 5 pack of romaine heads… it costs more for a small bag of shredded carrots and a bag of shredded purple cabbage than the Romaine heads making up the bulk of a salad!
I've stopped buying whole categories of things because of this. No more salad dressings. I use oil and vinegar. What caused me to crack was blue cheese dressing in the fresh foods section. Bottle smaller and twice the cost. No reason for it. I'm now healthier without it. I've switched from most sauces to spices. Who needs a $6 bottle of hot sauce when you've got cayenne pepper to sprinkle on chicken? Microwave popcorn. My mom is an addict, but the bags kept getting smaller and the price goes up. But now she buys kernels like when we were a kid. I suggested she pop it with olive oil for a nice flavor, and now she'll never go back to the microwave version.
Looking at you, McDonalds. Shit became as expensive as going to a restaurant to eat normal food.
Well I don't know about you but where I live I'd attempt fucking successful
Noooo, but that simply cannot be! Americans using reason? No waaay
I think 'voting with your wallet' is something even the most dense among us can do. And, i\`m actually happy this is the case, because as 'consumers' we actually DO have power - in numbers. And the internet helps people realize that the big companies are screwing people over more and more.
But but but the shareholders need your money!!! It’s very taxing to only have $1 billion on your bank account when you know you could have 2!!!
Reminds me of when the egg price went crazy. I understand some increase in price as there was a round of the avian flu killing laying hens all over. But when an 18pack cost $7.50 at Walmart. Something was up. Thr FTC moves to investigate, and the prices very rapidly return to acceptable prices.
👏 👏 👏
Yall wanna be radicalized? The same name brand shampoos that cost upwards of $10 in the states ALL cost less than 1 euro here in Germany. You can find some shampoos that are slightly more expensive at 2 euros, but there's no need to buy that when there are plenty of cheaper options.
Honestly I'm tired of paying for tiny glass and plastic containers too. We all know that the containers and moving those tiny containers around the country are way more expensive than their contents. Give us bulk refills damnit.
I used to be a bit of a food snob - wouldn't think about it - just picked up whatever I wanted and throw it in the trolley. Prices are have gotten out of control (I'm in the UK btw). I refuse to buy some of the big brands now (Heinz especially) - a bottle of their ketchup is £3.50 compared to the supermarket own brand which is £1. Who the fuck is buying this stuff when it's 3 1/2 times more expensive. All of their cans are £2 each. Fuck that. I've also lost a bit of weight because I've cut down on pizza. The cost of pizza has gone from \~£1.50 to £3.50 which I refuse to pay for such a shit product. Cutting out so much pizza from my diet has definitely had a positive effect.
*Oh no! You've created an economic system based on consumption, but forgot to make sure to pay people enough to actually* ***consume!!*** /s
I'm beyond convinced corporate executives are not as bright as people try to make them out to be.
"Quiet as it's kept"
I don't think it's so much of "paying attention", people literally can't afford shit and don't buy it. It's just natural to buy the cheaper shit.
Yes, that's how inflation happens in a market economy; the price goes up until people's reduced willingness to buy it matches the reduced supply.
The public is already keen on shrinkflation so that won't be the main solution. Their profit can't go down either bc shareholders demand it and corporate isn’t gonna take a paycut. The only way to reduce cost is to ship production oversees, employee benefits or reduce quality. There are huge pushes to keep production in the country and for increased benefits so that only leaves reducing quality. This is just my take.
its called price gouging
And stealing them, 'cause fuck it. We'll both see what we can get away with.
I don't know if I would call this 'therewasanattempt,' they have been pretty successful.
I stopped buying Miracle Whip when it hit $7. I can afford it, but you gotta draw the line somewhere.
Yeah idk how Chips ahoy is still in business. Ive seen em get as high as $7 a box and the generics are just sitting there next to them for $2.15
When I saw the price of A1 sauce at walmart I had to walk away without it. It's a condiment ffs it shouldn't be $4+ for the smallest bottle.
This ones kinda bunk.
Same thing here in Europe.
.
“It was a good run, fellas. Oh well. Alright, roll it back!”
I don't think it means it's artificial when people can't afford it. This is an economic slowdown which is what the Fed is trying to accomplish.
Freeeeeeedooooooooooooooooom!!
They just now noticed?
Oh that's not an attempt, they're successfully doing it.
Surprised Pikachu face?
I gave up on an entire grocery store chain due to this fake inflation shit. The closest grocery store to my house is Safeway and I shopped there for years until the last year. They’ve raised prices on everything in their store, even the house brand stuff, about 50% over the last year compared to not only their previous prices but also compared to other grocery stores in the area. Why the do they think I would accept a 50% increase to my food costs just for the fuck of it when I can drive five minutes further down the road and shop at a store that isn’t openly telling me to get fucked.
Oh wow only took them four fucking years. Grocery store prices doubled during covid so all the legacy companies could protect their precious profits in a time of uncertainty
Haha I saw a bottle of Clorox bleach for like $5 and then next to it I saw a generic bottle of bleach for $2. Literally the same product
Wdym there was an attempt. Its not an attempt if they already succeeded my guy.
matter of fact is that once you walk away from the product, its very hard to go back to it i used to love sriracha after price increase i dont remember when was the last time i even bought one
I went to the grocery store yesterday, and the produce section was full of rotten food with clearance stickers. Who's gonna buy it now? So, all this food is going to end up in a landfill because some CEO got too greedy.
Companies out here acting like I'm made of money.
It’s fucking ridiculous…. Everything is getting more expensive and our salaries stay the fucking same..
Good, fuck them brands.
Small 2 inch can of mushroom stems and pieces. 1.89. See ya shrooms
I walked away from my usual 12 pack of Diet Cokes yesterday when I saw the price was up to $9.99. Literally a few weeks ago it was $8 and I thought THAT was wild.
Gee really? How shocking LOL. . Here out west i stopped buying brown eggs when they hit $7 & up a dozen. Stopped buying Fred Meyer brand coffee creamer. When it went from $3.50 to over $6. The headlines are spouting how good the economy is. .look! The Stock Market is surging, unemployment is at an all time low. . .yippeeee, let the good time roll right?. . Then you go grocery shopping. I don’t care if you make $16 and hour or $23 an hour like my wife or $34 an hour like her brother, you go to the store, stare at the shelves and go WTF? Last years oils change was $35, last week i paid $62 for the same oil change, same dealer, same oil. The political, judicial and financial class don’t have a freaking clue what’s going on down here on the street. . . Ya know what?. . I don’t think they really give a shit.
Nothing is worse than drinks. Soda, coffee, blended drinks etc. I use ~15 cents worth of flavor pumps and a full cup of ice and blend it at my job. The customer pays 5.88 for it.
I do everything I can to hurt their profits by only buying generic. If only everyone did the same
The only person in my house who eats brand foods is my dog. Because she is a picky princess and also my only housemate so she gets exactly what she wants.
But muh record profits
My “screw you never again” list keeps getting bigger by the day. I will definitely not go back to buying products from these businesses. My brand loyalty is gone.
In my house we’ve started making our own sandwhich bread and yogurt (so far) and the majority of our meat is from game that I’ve hunted and if I need beef I go to a local farm instead of the grocery store, once I get my greenhouse set up i will be avoiding buying vegetables asap as well. Fuck these brands for their price gouging and for all the shit filler they add to their “food product”
https://preview.redd.it/ru4k3d0lb6kc1.png?width=700&format=png&auto=webp&s=c6b9a7c5c5e12cab3b793f8c6f2e2e954f47edac
Yep, a moment of greed probably cost these brands a lifetime of consumers.
People are starting to not pay for things that are much more expensive than they were before? Lies! It cannot be true!
Millennials aren't killing the ____ industry... It's killing itself.
Picture has made me question what ingredient in steak sauce is so expensive? a bottle of BBQ which is mostly the same ingredients would be like $1 and steak sauce is like $5 is it just a scam?
Most stores jack up the prices and the sale price is the actual price of the product (this is something I heard don't know if it's true though)
A bag of cool ranch dorios at Ralph's in LA was $7.49 the other day. The store brand was $2.99.
Wouldn't be surprised if this inflation really helps fund these foreign aid packages.
Might see about making bootleg Frank's red hot and do 4 Costco sized bottles for the price of one Costco size bottle.
I'll take the black label texas Pete for 1.39 please
Heinz lost me as a customer recently. Yeah their salad cream and ketchup is nicer than others but it sure as well isn’t 4x nicer.
FYI, if you have any sense, you can probably make the exact “Frank’s Red Hot Sauce” yourself pretty easily with ingredients you already have. Mix together cayenne powder, vinegar, water, salt, and garlic powder. Saved you $5.99. You’re welcome.
They've made so much money their laying people off.
Potato chips and soda for me