I opened a can of Honey Boy pink salmon, for lunch. The content came 3/4 of an inch below the rim. I don't know for certain that they shorted it, because it has been a long time since I opened one. I get suspicious of everything anymore.
Driving home, I caught the tail end of an interview on NPR, regarding the economy.
All I really heard of the last part of it was the person being interviewed talking about how some business are now making smaller packages of products, rather than cut the price. He said how they hoped the "myopic public" would not notice they are being "cheated"
But are we?
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The Consumerist's Ben Popken on NPR's "All Things Considered"
By JLP | July 11, 2008
Yesterday, Ben Popken from the Consumerist was on NPR's "All Things Considered" talking about how the products we purchase at the grocery store are shrinking and yet we're paying the same amount!
One thing that they didn't talk about was just HOW EXPENSIVE these size reductions turn out to be. For instance, Tropicana recently reduced their 96oz. containers to "new improved" 89oz. containers but left the price the same (for this example we'll say the price is $3.99 per container). What was the price increase as a percentage?
Here's a look at the math:
Notice that the size reduction of 7.29% means a PRICE INCREASE of 7.87%! To put that in perspective, if Tropicana simply raised the price of the 96oz. container by the same percentage, the new price would be $4.30! This is why companies like size reductions. They're much sneakier and give the companies much more leeway to significantly raise prices!
