My Diet Coke rant

[poppo]

A few years ago a case of diet cokes was $4.40. Then one day they jumped up to like $6.00. And most recently they have gone up to $7.29 a case. 2 years of no COLA raises (no pun intended) because inflation has supposedly been low, but yet diet coke has almost doubled in price. 

So today they have them on sale at Wal-Mart with a 'roll-back' price of $4.97.  So I grab like 6 cases. After I get home and get ready to put them away, I notice something. What's wrong with this picture?      

[FORDSBS]

Pepsi is doing the same. 20 can to a case

[poppo]

Pepsi is doing the same. 20 can to a case

I'm sure there are others. This is just the first time I've seen it. I'm more peeved that they made it look like it was a roll-back on the 'normal' cases. How can you have a roll-back on something you never carried before? 

[a69mopar]

They did similar  with potato chips.  Same size bag, fewer chips.

W

[CaptainHappy]

I think that the rollback is referring to the 4 cans rolling back into the manufacturer's inventory!

I thas happened with all kinds of products... Ice Cream Cartons are smaller...

A really devious one is that they are making the bottoms of jars Concave! The Jar looks like the same exact size, but the concave bottom pushes up and reduces the capacity by a few ounces!!!

I say don't try and trick people, just raise the prices for the same thing if you must. Most consumers may not like the price increase, but will appreciate the honest!

CH

[FORDSBS]

Weis Markets here have been doing this for about 6 month. I don't buy it there anymore.

[knagl]

Wow.  I usually stock up when they're on sale -- just last week they were $4.44/24 cans at the local grocery store when you bought 48 cans (4 12-packs).

[StatFreak]

This subject has been one of my pet peeves for years. Ice cream used to come in 1/2 gallon tubs. At the end of the 1990s Dryers led the industry in reducing the size to 1.75qts. They were very sneaky and kept the proportions of the the container identical so that the fewest number of people would notice. Unfortunately, most people didn't notice so they "perceived" that Dryer's prices seemed better than the competition. As a result, the industry followed suit shortly after.

Dryers did it again about two years ago and reduced the size of the once half gallon container to 1.5qts. This time they had to change the proportions because the change was too drastic to go unnoticed. Again, and unfortunately, the rest of the industry is following suit. We have one brand around here called Umpak (or something) that is still 1.75qts and I'll patronize their brand until they change.


Chunk light tuna cans were 6.5ozs until recently. They quietly became 5ozs about 8-10 months ago. Again, they kept the proportions the same to pull the wool over the public's eyes. Costco still has 7oz cans. I wonder how many people notice that when comparing Costco's price to the supermarket prices? I haven't checked the solid white sizes but they might have also been reduced.


We had a brand of Polish sausages that came in packages of 16 and weighed 3lbs. Early this year the price soared by 40% in less than 3 months and then they reduced the package from 16 to 14 links. I stopped buying them since they no longer match up with the bun packages. Screw them. I would much rather pay more, get 16 links, and have them match up with the buns than to have them try to quietly cheat me.

Potato chips were already mentioned. That includes Pringles. The kept the cans the same size but put less in them. For those who care, the low fat Pringles have always had less in them than the regular, and also use the same containers.


We'll know we're really in trouble when we start getting 8 or 10 eggs instead of a dozen.  

[FORDSBS]

This subject has been one of my pet peeves for years. Ice cream used to come in 1/2 gallon tubs. At the end of the 1990s Dryers led the industry in reducing the size to 1.75qts. They were very sneaky and kept the proportions of the the container identical so that the fewest number of people would notice. Unfortunately, most people didn't notice so they "perceived" that Dryer's prices seemed better than the competition. As a result, the industry followed suit shortly after.

Dryers did it again about two years ago and reduced the size of the once half gallon container to 1.5qts. This time they had to change the proportions because the change was too drastic to go unnoticed. Again, and unfortunately, the rest of the industry is following suit. We have one brand around here called Umpak (or something) that is still 1.75qts and I'll patronize their brand until they change.


Chunk light tuna cans were 6.5ozs until recently. They quietly became 5ozs about 8-10 months ago. Again, they kept the proportions the same to pull the wool over the public's eyes. Costco still has 7oz cans. I wonder how many people notice that when comparing Costco's price to the supermarket prices? I haven't checked the solid white sizes but they might have also been reduced.


We had a brand of Polish sausages that came in packages of 16 and weighed 3lbs. Early this year the price soared by 40% in less than 3 months and then they reduced the package from 16 to 14 links. I stopped buying them since they no longer match up with the bun packages. Screw them. I would much rather pay more, get 16 links, and have them match up with the buns than to have them try to quietly cheat me.

Potato chips were already mentioned. That includes Pringles. The kept the cans the same size but put less in them. For those who care, the low fat Pringles have always had less in them than the regular, and also use the same containers.


We'll know we're really in trouble when we start getting 8 or 10 eggs instead of a dozen.  

 

[stayouttadabunker]

Four words to describe this...okay five lol>>>
Rotten, dirty, stinking, greedy, bastards!

I can easily think of more but I'm in a good mood! 

[StatFreak]

The bigger picture is that they are covering up the true amount of inflation in this country (at least in the food industry) since most people only look at price increases.

Look at the change in true cost per unit (by factoring in changes in package size as well as price) to figure out how much food costs have really  increased in the last two to three years.

It's not a pretty picture.

[channelmaniac]

A couple of months ago they changed the Pringles recipe... Now they are bland and tasteless. We have a can we haven't even finished yet still in the pantry and have stopped buying them.

BLAH!

[knagl]

Orange juice is another one where the package is shrinking. I noticed on the last trip to the store that most of the half gallon cartons were no longer a half a gallon - they just looked like they were the same size.

[sirwalt]

Maybe we should not buy COKE period 

[daddy2yea]

Ritz crackers Are going from 16ozs to 15.1ozs If you check your local store you may see both sizes side by side. They did this by putting in 2 less crackers in each sleeve (8 per box) . 
Mike