I'm with you Joe. I used to, circa 2021, buy a pound of store-brand spaghetti for $1, or the brand name on sale for $1. Now they are both $0.50 more and only 12oz instead of a full 16oz. So the...
I'm with you Joe. I used to, circa 2021, buy a pound of store-brand spaghetti for $1, or the brand name on sale for $1.
Now they are both $0.50 more and only 12oz instead of a full 16oz. So the real cost of a lb of pasta is now $2, but hidden behind the cowardly emptier boxes.
Walmart got slapped with a class action for simply fabricating these numbers, always in their own financial favor. So be sure to do the math yourself whenever possible.
Walmart got slapped with a class action for simply fabricating these numbers, always in their own financial favor. So be sure to do the math yourself whenever possible.
There's a lot of sneaky tactics going on. You'll see some listed as $/item other as $/lb others list $/qt. If Kroger and Whole Foods actually standardized the unit of measure then I applaud them...
There's a lot of sneaky tactics going on. You'll see some listed as $/item other as $/lb others list $/qt. If Kroger and Whole Foods actually standardized the unit of measure then I applaud them (but I doubt it).
There's a lot of things in food labeling that drives me up the wall. $/item makes no sense, because the contents of those items are entirely arbitrary and aren't necessarily 100% comparable...
There's a lot of things in food labeling that drives me up the wall. $/item makes no sense, because the contents of those items are entirely arbitrary and aren't necessarily 100% comparable between brands - and sometimes within the same brand but with different SKUs. The concept of a nutritional serving size also needs to go for the exact same reason; it's not only misleading it's often intentionally misleading because food packagers abuse the rules around it. I own a bottle of avocado oil in a spray can that has zero calories! That's because they define a serving as 0.2g and there are more than 1000 servings in the can. It's ludicrous. We need to adopt the same rules that the UK has, where items need to have nutrition facts listed per 100g of the product.
Even the list of ingredients are misleading these days. Manufacturers are free to process the ingredients they include in many ways that are not required to be labeled, some of which can make the ingredients massively worse for your health or increase how carcinogenic they are. Only sometimes do the regulators step in on the public's behest (hydrogenation comes to mind). Nowadays, food manufacturers can group ingredients together on the ingredients list which makes it even harder to know what the concentration of the ingredient is in the food.
But I guess my grumbling is all for nothing. People aren't getting angry because they don't know these things are happening, and it's often because they didn't care to read and critically examine those labels to begin with. Personally speaking, I don't know anyone who fully catalogues their complete nutritional intake, even among the few that use calorie tracking apps. Their existence implies an academic rigor on the part of consumers that frankly does not exist.
I mean, it makes some sense since it’s what you actually pay. If your bank balance is near zero, the most important information is if you literally have enough money to pay for this item,...
$/item makes no sense
I mean, it makes some sense since it’s what you actually pay. If your bank balance is near zero, the most important information is if you literally have enough money to pay for this item, regardless of its size. There’s lots of people who live paycheck to paycheck and don’t have much of a buffer at the end of the month.
Why not both? I’m used to price tags that display both unit price and price by volume/weight. Is that not a thing where you live?
It's not what you actually pay though. You pay the whole product price, not the per-item price; otherwise they would not be packaged together and would be marked for individual sale. I'll give you...
It's not what you actually pay though. You pay the whole product price, not the per-item price; otherwise they would not be packaged together and would be marked for individual sale.
I'll give you a concrete example of why this is bad. I just saw an advertisement for Scott toilet paper that championed the fact that it had 1000 sheets per roll - a number that dwarfs the major competition! But that number is a lie. First of all, a roll is not 1000 sheets - it's one continuous sheet with approximately 999 perforations in it. But even without that pedantry, there is no standard size of sheet; toilet paper roll widths vary, and so do the lengths of where those perforations are placed. The advertisement also completely ignored that Scott is single-ply toilet paper and all of the other brands they compared are 2- or 3-ply. So by focusing on quantity, they get consumers to completely ignore everything that would make them able to make an informed decision about what product to buy.
I'm sure it is true in most of the US, and my search before I made this comment found many state laws to that effect. I honestly don't know the last time that I went to a grocery store in either...
I'm sure it is true in most of the US, and my search before I made this comment found many state laws to that effect. I honestly don't know the last time that I went to a grocery store in either continent that did not have unit prices.
First time in Germany I was surprised to see all the bar glassware had clear lines for volume, because you should know that you're getting what you paid for. In the US there's no way of knowing...
First time in Germany I was surprised to see all the bar glassware had clear lines for volume, because you should know that you're getting what you paid for. In the US there's no way of knowing and lots of tricks can be played with glass shape to make it seem like you're getting more (tall slightly thinner "large" turns out to be the same volume as the shorter wider "small").
Simple, clear, and consumer friendly. In other words, something that'd never get passed here in the US.
If the product is on sale does it show sale price per ounce as well? My local store slaps a sale tag over the base tag and it doesn't include a refreshed price per ounce. Drives me mad
If the product is on sale does it show sale price per ounce as well? My local store slaps a sale tag over the base tag and it doesn't include a refreshed price per ounce. Drives me mad
I think by law they’re supposed to show price by weight / quantity? What I tend to see is mixed measurements, so one product say oz. and another in fractions of a pound, or grams, so I still have...
I think by law they’re supposed to show price by weight / quantity? What I tend to see is mixed measurements, so one product say oz. and another in fractions of a pound, or grams, so I still have to pull out a calculator anyways. Sometimes the shelf tag will use one unit and the sale sticker a different unit.
Also worth checking the ingredients and amounts in the nutrition facts. Makes it easier to catch potential fillers. Can also use it to catch pretend ingredients, if I see something like sodium is really low in weight in the nutrition facts I can assume anything after in the ingredient list may as well not be there at all.
Junk food prices going up has been one of the biggest reasons why I’ve been able to kick the habit in recent years. Hopefully more people will be influenced to eat more healthy if prices continue...
Junk food prices going up has been one of the biggest reasons why I’ve been able to kick the habit in recent years. Hopefully more people will be influenced to eat more healthy if prices continue to go up.
A pound of bananas is usually under a dollar, even for organic (where I'm at) and that's cheaper per weight than even the most cheapest snack cakes. But yet, the lust for Twinkies with ogre green...
A pound of bananas is usually under a dollar, even for organic (where I'm at) and that's cheaper per weight than even the most cheapest snack cakes.
But yet, the lust for Twinkies with ogre green filling goes ever unsatiated.
Yea, but my experience with bananas (thanks Gwen for that spelling) is they go one of three ways: Yellow and edible for 3 days, then you better make banana bread Green and barely edible for 3...
Yea, but my experience with bananas (thanks Gwen for that spelling) is they go one of three ways:
Yellow and edible for 3 days, then you better make banana bread
Green and barely edible for 3 days, then you better make banana bread
My children eat them inside of 2 hours like we haven't fed them for a month.
I've had much better luck with apples, which usually sit around $1 or $1.50 a lb.
Just in-built functionality as junk food! Jokes aside, one of the greatest hinderances is actually just having time. If you have a few spare hours a week, bananas are spectacular because you can...
better make banana bread
Just in-built functionality as junk food!
Jokes aside, one of the greatest hinderances is actually just having time. If you have a few spare hours a week, bananas are spectacular because you can have fresh fruit around and turn it into banana bread (junk food but marginally "healthier" than store-bought junk food) but you need the spare time to buy bananas twice a week and make secondary dishes with them. I know my diet improved dramatically when I was able to set aside time to meal prep and menu prep for the week.
Having avoided junk foods for the last 20 years of my half century on this spinning rock I have to say that the phrase "Twinkies with ogre green filling" makes me want to puke now.
Having avoided junk foods for the last 20 years of my half century on this spinning rock I have to say that the phrase "Twinkies with ogre green filling" makes me want to puke now.
I’m eating a ton of beans, veggies, rice, nuts, fruit and yogurt. I do still have some things with sugar in them but I’ve gotten much better over time!
I’m eating a ton of beans, veggies, rice, nuts, fruit and yogurt. I do still have some things with sugar in them but I’ve gotten much better over time!
Haha yeah the jump in potato chip prices has been a great boon for my weight and cardiovascular system. I was already trending towards eating healthier, but these price increases have it made it...
Haha yeah the jump in potato chip prices has been a great boon for my weight and cardiovascular system. I was already trending towards eating healthier, but these price increases have it made it all the more easier.
I've been hearing a lot about these beans but I have yet to find them in any of the grocery stores around me. Supposedly the difference in taste is legit, but I'm too cheap to spend money on...
I've been hearing a lot about these beans but I have yet to find them in any of the grocery stores around me. Supposedly the difference in taste is legit, but I'm too cheap to spend money on expensive beans.
They're about 2x the price of canned beans. But given how cheap canned beans are it's pretty acceptable. I eat a lot of beans as someone that's nearly vegetarian. It's worth it to make a core part...
They're about 2x the price of canned beans. But given how cheap canned beans are it's pretty acceptable. I eat a lot of beans as someone that's nearly vegetarian. It's worth it to make a core part of my diet taste better.
Edit: It could also end up saving you money. Once you've got one bag hydrated it's over 2 lbs of beans. That's 2 lbs of fiber and protein-rich food that will keep you full for only $7.50. Get a good bean cook book (I use Cool Beans) and you'll be making cheap meals in bulk.
That may be the case, but I'm the kind of guy who begrudgingly pays $2 for a whole pound of dried beans regularly. I've actually been trying to invest more in good quality food these days, though....
That may be the case, but I'm the kind of guy who begrudgingly pays $2 for a whole pound of dried beans regularly.
I've actually been trying to invest more in good quality food these days, though. I just bought a sack of fancy red wheat flour and it made a huge impact in the taste of my homemade sourdough (which makes sense, given flour and water are the only ingredients). I've also been trying to buy more organic produce, but those prices add up quickly! It really does make a difference, though.
I'll probably mail order these beans one day, but I've actually got ~3 pounds of various dried beans in my pantry right now so it won't be soon.
Yeah - when my boss learned I'm a bean boy he told me about Rancho Gordo. But the week before I'd bought a dozen cans of various beans, so it wasn't exactly the right time for me to stock up either.
Yeah - when my boss learned I'm a bean boy he told me about Rancho Gordo. But the week before I'd bought a dozen cans of various beans, so it wasn't exactly the right time for me to stock up either.
Not really though....not in the same way. I don't remember this happening in a major way a single time in the 90s or even into the early 00's, though I'm sure it happened. It was more of a one-off...
Not really though....not in the same way.
I don't remember this happening in a major way a single time in the 90s or even into the early 00's, though I'm sure it happened. It was more of a one-off thing every few years. But it's been happening a lot since 2008 or so...even in areas where it would normally be less susceptible, across damn near every product.
The worst is "wholesale club" packages going from 8 containers to 6 containers in a box with a cardboard spacer.
I watched the video and was pretty disappointed. It would have been nice to see him at least suggest some concrete action he will do (or congress should do) that will address this, beyond saying...
I watched the video and was pretty disappointed. It would have been nice to see him at least suggest some concrete action he will do (or congress should do) that will address this, beyond saying "hey guys, knock it off." It's fine for politicians to draw attention to things, but it would be better if there were a bill drafted that I could ask my representative to vote for or something like that. Or even some campaign promise like, "if you elect a democratic congress this year, we will fix this."
It's always been happening in America. I remember about my mom complaining about ice cream sizes over 20 years ago, and I'm sure it was going on well before I was aware of money.
It's always been happening in America. I remember about my mom complaining about ice cream sizes over 20 years ago, and I'm sure it was going on well before I was aware of money.
I remember my parents pointing out concave bottoms on pre-packaged food containers as a way companies charged more for less back when I was a kid in the mid-90s.
I remember my parents pointing out concave bottoms on pre-packaged food containers as a way companies charged more for less back when I was a kid in the mid-90s.
I remember a few years ago I was seeing some name-brand products being sold in the dollar store in tiny packages, and usually right next to a generic version that is normal sized for the same...
I remember a few years ago I was seeing some name-brand products being sold in the dollar store in tiny packages, and usually right next to a generic version that is normal sized for the same price. It's crazy how much people are willing to spend on brand loyalty.
Must only be a thing for pre-packed, store bought ice cream. The serving sizes at my local ice cream shops have only gotten bigger over the years. I get the kids size now and it still feels like...
Must only be a thing for pre-packed, store bought ice cream. The serving sizes at my local ice cream shops have only gotten bigger over the years. I get the kids size now and it still feels like too much sometimes.
I'm with you Joe. I used to, circa 2021, buy a pound of store-brand spaghetti for $1, or the brand name on sale for $1.
Now they are both $0.50 more and only 12oz instead of a full 16oz. So the real cost of a lb of pasta is now $2, but hidden behind the cowardly emptier boxes.
I like that in Whole Foods, (all of?) the price tags show prices by ounce. It makes it easy to compare products by 'true' price.
Kroger does this as well. It's a super nice "feature" for actually know what's a good deal and what's a rup-off
Walmart got slapped with a class action for simply fabricating these numbers, always in their own financial favor. So be sure to do the math yourself whenever possible.
There's a lot of sneaky tactics going on. You'll see some listed as $/item other as $/lb others list $/qt. If Kroger and Whole Foods actually standardized the unit of measure then I applaud them (but I doubt it).
There's a lot of things in food labeling that drives me up the wall. $/item makes no sense, because the contents of those items are entirely arbitrary and aren't necessarily 100% comparable between brands - and sometimes within the same brand but with different SKUs. The concept of a nutritional serving size also needs to go for the exact same reason; it's not only misleading it's often intentionally misleading because food packagers abuse the rules around it. I own a bottle of avocado oil in a spray can that has zero calories! That's because they define a serving as 0.2g and there are more than 1000 servings in the can. It's ludicrous. We need to adopt the same rules that the UK has, where items need to have nutrition facts listed per 100g of the product.
Even the list of ingredients are misleading these days. Manufacturers are free to process the ingredients they include in many ways that are not required to be labeled, some of which can make the ingredients massively worse for your health or increase how carcinogenic they are. Only sometimes do the regulators step in on the public's behest (hydrogenation comes to mind). Nowadays, food manufacturers can group ingredients together on the ingredients list which makes it even harder to know what the concentration of the ingredient is in the food.
But I guess my grumbling is all for nothing. People aren't getting angry because they don't know these things are happening, and it's often because they didn't care to read and critically examine those labels to begin with. Personally speaking, I don't know anyone who fully catalogues their complete nutritional intake, even among the few that use calorie tracking apps. Their existence implies an academic rigor on the part of consumers that frankly does not exist.
I mean, it makes some sense since it’s what you actually pay. If your bank balance is near zero, the most important information is if you literally have enough money to pay for this item, regardless of its size. There’s lots of people who live paycheck to paycheck and don’t have much of a buffer at the end of the month.
Why not both? I’m used to price tags that display both unit price and price by volume/weight. Is that not a thing where you live?
It's not what you actually pay though. You pay the whole product price, not the per-item price; otherwise they would not be packaged together and would be marked for individual sale.
I'll give you a concrete example of why this is bad. I just saw an advertisement for Scott toilet paper that championed the fact that it had 1000 sheets per roll - a number that dwarfs the major competition! But that number is a lie. First of all, a roll is not 1000 sheets - it's one continuous sheet with approximately 999 perforations in it. But even without that pedantry, there is no standard size of sheet; toilet paper roll widths vary, and so do the lengths of where those perforations are placed. The advertisement also completely ignored that Scott is single-ply toilet paper and all of the other brands they compared are 2- or 3-ply. So by focusing on quantity, they get consumers to completely ignore everything that would make them able to make an informed decision about what product to buy.
Sorry, I assumed you meant per unit for sale (which could be a pack of one or 500). I agree that seems silly.
Isn't that usually required by law?
I believe it is in the EU, but not in much of America.
I'm sure it is true in most of the US, and my search before I made this comment found many state laws to that effect. I honestly don't know the last time that I went to a grocery store in either continent that did not have unit prices.
First time in Germany I was surprised to see all the bar glassware had clear lines for volume, because you should know that you're getting what you paid for. In the US there's no way of knowing and lots of tricks can be played with glass shape to make it seem like you're getting more (tall slightly thinner "large" turns out to be the same volume as the shorter wider "small").
Simple, clear, and consumer friendly. In other words, something that'd never get passed here in the US.
And the EU also requires supermarkets to do it in grown up units (i.e. metric).
If the product is on sale does it show sale price per ounce as well? My local store slaps a sale tag over the base tag and it doesn't include a refreshed price per ounce. Drives me mad
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Depends on the store.
I think by law they’re supposed to show price by weight / quantity? What I tend to see is mixed measurements, so one product say oz. and another in fractions of a pound, or grams, so I still have to pull out a calculator anyways. Sometimes the shelf tag will use one unit and the sale sticker a different unit.
Also worth checking the ingredients and amounts in the nutrition facts. Makes it easier to catch potential fillers. Can also use it to catch pretend ingredients, if I see something like sodium is really low in weight in the nutrition facts I can assume anything after in the ingredient list may as well not be there at all.
Junk food prices going up has been one of the biggest reasons why I’ve been able to kick the habit in recent years. Hopefully more people will be influenced to eat more healthy if prices continue to go up.
I know what you mean, but I wished fresh fruit and veggies were cheaper as snack prices increased.
A pound of bananas is usually under a dollar, even for organic (where I'm at) and that's cheaper per weight than even the most cheapest snack cakes.
But yet, the lust for Twinkies with ogre green filling goes ever unsatiated.
Yea, but my experience with bananas (thanks Gwen for that spelling) is they go one of three ways:
I've had much better luck with apples, which usually sit around $1 or $1.50 a lb.
Just in-built functionality as junk food!
Jokes aside, one of the greatest hinderances is actually just having time. If you have a few spare hours a week, bananas are spectacular because you can have fresh fruit around and turn it into banana bread (junk food but marginally "healthier" than store-bought junk food) but you need the spare time to buy bananas twice a week and make secondary dishes with them. I know my diet improved dramatically when I was able to set aside time to meal prep and menu prep for the week.
That song is the only reason I can consistently spell banana right every time.
“Nanny Ogg knew how to start spelling 'banana', but didn't know how you stopped.”
― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad
You, me, and pretty much everyone else between the ages of like 30 and 50.
Having avoided junk foods for the last 20 years of my half century on this spinning rock I have to say that the phrase "Twinkies with ogre green filling" makes me want to puke now.
I’m eating a ton of beans, veggies, rice, nuts, fruit and yogurt. I do still have some things with sugar in them but I’ve gotten much better over time!
Haha yeah the jump in potato chip prices has been a great boon for my weight and cardiovascular system. I was already trending towards eating healthier, but these price increases have it made it all the more easier.
May I interest you in the finest of beans? Good for the heart!
I've been hearing a lot about these beans but I have yet to find them in any of the grocery stores around me. Supposedly the difference in taste is legit, but I'm too cheap to spend money on expensive beans.
They're about 2x the price of canned beans. But given how cheap canned beans are it's pretty acceptable. I eat a lot of beans as someone that's nearly vegetarian. It's worth it to make a core part of my diet taste better.
Edit: It could also end up saving you money. Once you've got one bag hydrated it's over 2 lbs of beans. That's 2 lbs of fiber and protein-rich food that will keep you full for only $7.50. Get a good bean cook book (I use Cool Beans) and you'll be making cheap meals in bulk.
That may be the case, but I'm the kind of guy who begrudgingly pays $2 for a whole pound of dried beans regularly.
I've actually been trying to invest more in good quality food these days, though. I just bought a sack of fancy red wheat flour and it made a huge impact in the taste of my homemade sourdough (which makes sense, given flour and water are the only ingredients). I've also been trying to buy more organic produce, but those prices add up quickly! It really does make a difference, though.
I'll probably mail order these beans one day, but I've actually got ~3 pounds of various dried beans in my pantry right now so it won't be soon.
Yeah - when my boss learned I'm a bean boy he told me about Rancho Gordo. But the week before I'd bought a dozen cans of various beans, so it wasn't exactly the right time for me to stock up either.
While I agree, this has been happening since forever.
Not really though....not in the same way.
I don't remember this happening in a major way a single time in the 90s or even into the early 00's, though I'm sure it happened. It was more of a one-off thing every few years. But it's been happening a lot since 2008 or so...even in areas where it would normally be less susceptible, across damn near every product.
The worst is "wholesale club" packages going from 8 containers to 6 containers in a box with a cardboard spacer.
I watched the video and was pretty disappointed. It would have been nice to see him at least suggest some concrete action he will do (or congress should do) that will address this, beyond saying "hey guys, knock it off." It's fine for politicians to draw attention to things, but it would be better if there were a bill drafted that I could ask my representative to vote for or something like that. Or even some campaign promise like, "if you elect a democratic congress this year, we will fix this."
Not just USA. Its happening everywhere. Cadbury,, Arnotts, Smiths (here in Australia)
14 years ago, shrinkflation happened in Argentina.
Now it's happening in America.
https://ferfal.blogspot.com/2010/06/what-i-brought-back-from-us.html
It's always been happening in America. I remember about my mom complaining about ice cream sizes over 20 years ago, and I'm sure it was going on well before I was aware of money.
I remember my parents pointing out concave bottoms on pre-packaged food containers as a way companies charged more for less back when I was a kid in the mid-90s.
I remember a few years ago I was seeing some name-brand products being sold in the dollar store in tiny packages, and usually right next to a generic version that is normal sized for the same price. It's crazy how much people are willing to spend on brand loyalty.
Must only be a thing for pre-packed, store bought ice cream. The serving sizes at my local ice cream shops have only gotten bigger over the years. I get the kids size now and it still feels like too much sometimes.