PRINGLES (a whiny rant with no clear conclusion)

[rodekyll]

Went grocery shopping today at the ACC (Alaska Commercial Company -- misnamed since it's Canadian).  Pringles were on sale.  I haven't had a pringle in literally years, so I bought a can.  Not the first one.  The first one I hefted felt odd.  I shook it and it seemed to have excessive rattle -- busted chips, I thought.  Selected another and moved on.  Bacon.  Needed bacon.  On sale @ $4.49.  Not bad for a pound.  I picked up a package -- felt odd.  Took a close look -- it's a 12oz pound!  Onward to the canned fruit.  I like apricots.  The sign said "save $0.70!"  I looked at the price -- no savings -- it's the price permanently affixed to the shelf.  The $0.70 savings is not a sale or discount, it's a comparison to some other brand -- not carried by the ACC.  Onward through the 58.5oz 'half gallon' of orange juice, the 14oz 'double-whipped' pint of ice cream, and the "80% lean" Australian ground beef.  I was feeling like I'd just got off the turnip truck.

At the cash register I was invited to bag my own groceries on account of the great savings won't allow them to hire a bagster, a clutch of whom were comparing texts behind the Western Union counter.  On the way home I opened the pringles.  WTF?  They rattle because they no longer fit the tube.  The 10oz tube now holds 5.68 oz, according to the label.  It's the same NUMBER of chips, but half-sized, in the traditional tube.

I stopped for gas because I was on "E".  Keeping in mind that there was still SOME fuel in the 22 gal tank I thought it odd that the pump said I got 23.7gal.

Once home I opened the big box of ALEVE.  I bought it because the box was three times larger than the others.  I assumed that meant it was the economy size.  Nope.  It was a box three times bigger than needed for the tiny bottle.  I'll take three pills instead of two, just in case the trend is continuing.

[segesta]

When I was a kid in Guam, the grass-fed Australian beef was the cheap stuff, because it was/is tough and stringy. But now it's considered de rigeur, and dour, gaunt suburbanites--the ones with "26.2" and "Bernie" stickers on their GL550s-- pay big money for it at Whole Foods. Go figure.

[guzzied]

Got Lube?

Happens everywhere now..

Mike

[Scud]

Got Lube?

Sheez - there was only .946 liters of oil in my last quart. What gives? What happened to the other 0.000352946?

[travelingbyguzzi]

Same package, less product. My wife says it's an epidemic.

[trippah]

This is why all you red suspender group's COLA isn't going up by much.   As our grandfathers before us, we whine and sake our heads, cussing under our breaths and regale folks with when I was a boy(s).  I hope the Pringles were fresh, my goodness they are good tasting when they are.  munch munch on goodness from a red cylindrical container.

[trippah]

oh -travellingbyguzzi - my wife has been saying the same to me since I hit 60!  Most curious.

[Vasco DG]

Here in sunny Queanbeyan we are always amused by the Woolworths butter pricing policy. Two 250g bars of butter are almost invariably 30c cheaper than one 500g bar. It has been thus for as long as I can remember and is quite touchingly bonkers! 

Pete

[Triple Jim]

Two 250g bars of butter are almost invariably 30c cheaper than one 500g bar.

They're like diamonds... the big ones are rarer in the butter mines, and are therefore more expensive.

[lucydad]

Rode,  brought to you by the same Harvard MBA people that invented statistics....

Hey, I am grumpy this morning too.

Maybe today will be better than Monday.

[Subdewd]

I blame it on the metric system.
 Or maybe "big brother" is trying
to force us to eat less!!

[Vasco DG]

They're like diamonds... the big ones are rarer in the butter mines, and are therefore more expensive.

Nice theory Jim, but arse-about.

[Joe A.]

the large print giveth

the small print taketh away.  - Tom Waits

[blackcat]

....... pay big money for it at Whole Foods.

I'd rather deal with a Pawn shop than go to Whole Foods. Add Starbucks into that too. 

[Lannis]

Sheez - there was only .946 liters of oil in my last quart. What gives? What happened to the other 0.000352946?

The worst one, and the one that got us used to BOHICA pricing policies, is that 9/10 cent per gallon tacked on to the back of each gallon of gas.

No one HAS to do it; but everyone is so used to being "fooled" now that it's not even foolish any more.

Lannis

[Sasquatch Jim]

  Al you red suspender types probably remember so many years ago when schools began teaching ( The new Math )
  Now you know what they were teaching.

[pebra]

Hmmm
Could this be why the cherished inflation isn't picking up?
Prices appear to be stable, even fall....

[atavar]

By the way, and along this line..  Starkist got caught out overstating the weight of the tuna in their cans.  It appears they were weighing the water or something. 
Anyway, they lost a class action lawsuit and you can go sign up at tunalawsuit.com to get $50 worth of free tuna or $25 cash.  This was on CNN so it might even be legit.  All you need to do is swear you bought a 5oz can of tuna.  No receipt necessary.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/27/news/companies/tuna-settlement/index.html

[boatdetective]

No question that this flim flam stuff gets you more enraged than simply raising the price of the product.

I might suggest thinking of some products that have remained a good value and have not resorted to these tactics.

[Gliderjohn]

Is this why my "1,200" Norge has only 1159cc?
GliderJohn

[atavar]

Is this why my "1,200" Norge has only 1159cc?
GliderJohn

That was when it was new.  Now that you have it all carbon'ed up it's only 1098cc,,   

[rodekyll]

The 9/10 on gas is a federal tax.

The $39,999.99 (look, ma -- it's under $40,000,00!) was started so vendors had to give back change.  The problem was that immigrants didn't understand the new money and were often short-changed or no-changed.  By making for odd amounts the vendor had to count the change back to the customer.  This helped keep everyone honest.

Another area where the amount is slipping is coffee.  Watch out for that familiar package (mostly the plastic bagged stuff) having more air, less beans, and the weight re-labeled in smaller print.  A giveaway is a package that used to be vacuum packed now being loose packed.

 . . .  and if you have a seal-a-meal-type vacuum sealer, just try to compare prices between packaging.  In the same company's line-up you'll find one box labeled as "19 pint" bags, another labled as "300 sq/in" and a third as "30cm x 1500cm."  If they all cost the same, which is the better deal?  Or more applicable -- which one has enough to shrink wrap the fish?