http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3290492Oh my.
The green giant primitive, although he's not jolly.
Gentle Giant Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu May-15-08 03:26 PM
Original message
My recent experiences with "hidden" food price inflation and declining quality.
I thought I would take a minute to rant about some serious changes I'm witnessing regarding common food items, which many of you have probably noticed. I'd also like to hear of any other examples of these types of things if any of you out there have them. This is something that needs to be talked about because it's the type of stuff that just sort of "sneaks by" an inflation index which is already ridiculously biased and false.
The first thing I've recently noticed is that Dreyer's ice cream, which used to come in 2 quart containers, has been shrunk down for the second time in about a year. The first time, they left out about a cup to make a container 1.75 quarts. Now just this past week my wife went to buy us some as a treat and it was 1.5 quarts. Of course, the price hasn't dropped. And if I do say so myself, the stuff actually tasted pretty flaky to me. Since this is the sort of thing we only buy once every couple of months anyway, I suppose now I'll just write it off as not worth the money. It's full of corn syrup anyway.
Next stop, Doritos. I can remember back in my high school days of all-weekend Dungeons and Dragons sleepovers, Doritos and bean dip being one of our staples. Back then, 7-11 had the 16 ounce bags of the various flavors for about $1.79, and occasionally on sale for barely a buck (this was in the mid 80s). The chips were thick and crunchy, tasted wonderful, and wouldn't break as you drug them through a can of thick bean dip. Over the years, that 16 ounce bag of chips has decreased in size by small steps to where it is now only either 12.25 or 12.5 ounces and is price stamped $3.79 at the factory. I tried some of the Cooler Ranch chips a couple days ago and could not believe the difference in taste and texture. The chips now have a thin, flaky, frail body to them and after one chew they just melt into your mouth as though they were made out of some kind of flour rather than stone-ground corn like before. They also tasted much less "ranchy" than I remember, though that's harder to really quantify. Once again, this is a junk food item which I really can't justify being in the same zip code as with my health issues, but to me it sucks that one of my lifelong favorite comfort foods has taken a nosedive to the point where I no longer have any interest in it at all.
Finally, today we're expecting the exterminator over any time now to help get our bug problem under control, so the kitchen has been pretty much emptied out and I'm not about to mess it up trying to cook anything until he's come and gone. I needed some kind of snack to stop the hunger pangs I'm feeling, and sometimes when I get desperate I'll break open a bag of the 10-for-a-buck ramen noodles and just munch on them dry (and I know I'm not the only one who does this so don't even start with me!). Anywho, I notice that the noodle package is the same size it has always been, but it seems conspicuously... empty compared to how they used to be. Inside the package was this little square-shaped clump of dry ramen noodles, whereas not too long ago they came in a longer, more rectangular portion. The weight on the package said 3 ounces. I might be wrong here, but I could swear that they used to be 4 ounces. At least they otherwise tasted as predictably cardboard-ish as they normally do.
At Trader Joe's, where we do a lot of our shopping, the staples we depend on like organic, unsweetened soy milk and organic whole wheat pasta have seen price increases of around 50% in the past year. The cereals, which used to be almost universally under $2 per box, are now around $3 and in many cases higher. Sprouted grain bread is almost double in price compared to when I first started going there a few years ago.
I guess it's time to look into a thrift store bread machine, and to start worshipping at the altar of split pea and potato soup. On the bright side, it's a hell of a lot healthier and cheaper!
So, what other examples do my fellow DU'ers have of hidden inflation and declining food quality?
Hmmm. I wonder if split-pea and potato soup have fiber in them.
That might help the green giant primitive.
ayeshahaqqiqa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu May-15-08 03:28 PM
Response to Original message
1. I've noticed milk prices going up
even powdered milk, which is the cheapest way to buy the product. Luckily, I don't eat grains and many processed foods. And I've found a small garden keeps me in greens fairly well. When I do need to buy produce, it hasn't leaped up as much in price as processed foods.
Uh oh. franksolich bets the eyeshadow primitive has poor bowel management.
Breeze54 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu May-15-08 03:31 PM
Response to Original message
2. This short changing has been going on for a while now.
It pisses me off! You can't buy a pound of coffee anymore. It's now 12 or 13 2/3 ounces!
A can of coffee's been 13 ounces since the hyperinflation during the administration of the Incompetent One (1977-1981); anyone who remembers 16-ounce cans of coffee is dating himself.
eleny Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu May-15-08 03:36 PM
Response to Original message
3. Luckily, the ice cream and even Doritos can be made at home
A small electric ice cream machine doesn't take up too much space and you know how you'd like the flavor of homemade - for that once in a while treat. And chips are easy to make in the oven with corn tortillas.
I feel your ire. It's so aggravating when it feels like we're being taken for suckers. So I've been going the 'make it from scratch' route for some items and giving up on others.
Btw, you might enjoy visiting our Cooking & Baking forum here at DU. We discuss this issue and solutions often.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
And then there's our Frugals forum, too
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
yardwork Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu May-15-08 03:44 PM
Response to Original message
4. Interesting post! I was a kid in the 1960s and early 1970s.
I remember noticing how the candy bars rapidly shrank in size and increased in price during that time of hyperinflation. I used to think about saving the candy wrappers to have a record of how they changed over time. (I wish I'd done that.)
In the late 1960s candy bars like Milky Way came in two sizes - dime size and nickel size. Then the nickel bars disappeared and the dime bar shrank to about the size of the previous nickel bar. Then the price started going up. Then the size started going up so that they could raise the price a lot more, which they did.
So, when I was a kid a person could buy a small candy bar for a nickel. Now we can buy a big candy bar for what, 75 cents? And the ingredients aren't the same, either. It used to be real chocolate, cane sugar, and vanilla flavoring. Now it's cocoa powder, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial flavorings.
And the worst insult of all - those nasty plastic wrappers! I miss the satisfying sound the old paper wrappers made when you tore into them.
Progress phooey.
The five-cent candy bar disappeared in 1971; it's in the history books and old magazines.
Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu May-15-08 03:49 PM
Response to Original message
5. Well, if you're going to blow money on a piece of kitchen gear invest in a Kitchen Aid stand mixer instead of the bread machine. It's the one mixer hefty enough to do bread dough, plus there's a stone grinder attachment if you want to buy whole wheat and really do cheap bread. The mixer is a lot more versatile than a bread machine and eats up less counter space than most of them do. Most general cookbooks have adequate bread recipes, or you can search "New York Times No Knead Bread" on the web for the easiest recipe out there--it lives up to its label, trust me.
Cheap French bread at Wally's is double what it was in January. I get it once in a blue moon because it squishes down and makes great panini sandwiches. Package sizes have been shrinking for about 4 years now, just so that they can sneak huge price increases past people who aren't paying attention.
Of course, that's a good thing. I know I've been losing weight lately and I suppose other people are starting to, as well, as the whole bag of chips they snarf up in a night of TV watching has only 3/4 of the calories that got them fat.
They can no longer do the scam of the incredible shrinking package contents. They're now jumping the prices up as well, so that inflation is right there out in the open for the most ovine of us to see.
Meanwhile, I notice they're still talking about low inflation and a great economy. Instead of being angry, realize that everybody knows that they're being lied to by all "official channels," government and media, and that trust is finally breaking down. This is the good news.
franksolich is curious. What's a "panini sandwich"? It must be Massachusetts cuisine.
slampoet (1000+ posts) Thu May-15-08 03:53 PM
Response to Original message
6. All the Microwaves in the US have had their "popcorn" function disabled by this.
The "popcorn" button on a microwave is set for a certain popcorn size.
That size was reduced by nearly all microwave popcorn manufacturers about two-three years ago.
As a result people all over the US have been complaining that their microwave burns their popcorn to a crisp when it used to work.
Liberal_in_LA (1000+ posts) Thu May-15-08 04:18 PM
Response to Original message
7. I've noticed the sizes getting smaller. NPR reported on this, I think, a few weeks ago.
manufacturers making smaller sizes when economy goes south.
KitSileya Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu May-15-08 04:21 PM
Response to Original message
8. Price pr pound
Here in Norway the government got thru a bill that mandated price pr kg/liter etc on the labels on the shelves several years ago. That means that if they shrink the amount of goods inside a carton, the consumer is told anyway. It also makes it much easier to compare prices of different brands.
But then, we have a government that works for the people, not for the corporations that are trying to trick the consumer. Americans are very unfortunate to have no such regulations, nor regulation when it comes to the manufacturing of foodstuffs.
Hmmmm. Norway. Isn't that where a loaf of bread costs $5 or something, because of the taxes?
REACTIVATED IN CT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu May-15-08 04:53 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. We have that here, too, but it is in very small print
If you want to take the time to compare prices, it is there.
simskl (1000+ posts) Thu May-15-08 04:48 PM
Response to Original message
9. My favorite marketing scam.
Orville Reddenbaker(sp?) popcorn about 15 years ago. I head into the store and notice the New and Improved marking on the popcorn bottle, nothing else on it different, just "New and Improved". The price was exactly the same as it used to be so I didn't pay much attention. When I got home I noticed that the bottle looked the same from the side and the top as the old one but when you looked at the bottom it was punched in in the center removing damned near 25% of the capacity of the original bottle. New and Improved simply meant 25% less for the same money.
Toilet paper was notorious for this scam "new and improved" would show up on the bag and you were down 10% in sheets.
Oh yes. And the bottoms of glass shot-glasses got thicker too.
I was looking around for a bonfire on Skins's island where the primitives complain about the inflation in the price of marijuana and the excess windfall profits of the marijuana industry, but alas for some odd reason the primitives remain mum about the subject.
For those who don't know, the prices of groceries and gasoline has gone up circa 3x since 1981; the price of a one-ounce baggie of marijuana has gone up circa 16x since 1981.
