My recent experiences with "hidden" food price inflation and declining quality.

[Systematic Chaos]

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. :eyes:

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?

edited for text error

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

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.

[Breeze54]

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! :eyes:

[eleny]

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.php?az=show_topics&forum=236
And then there's our Frugals forum, too
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=353

[Fireweed247]

18. "I've been going the 'make it from scratch' route"

me too, and I just have to mention that I bought an Cuisinart ice cream maker last year...you can make ice cream in 30 minutes with the pre-frozen bowl you make it in...cream, soy milk, a little salt and sugar and then think ben and jerry's....it is so good, and for some reason cream prices haven't gone up as much so it is very worth it.

[yardwork]

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.

[Warpy]

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.

[juno jones]

12. French Bread:

Check out Julia Child's recipe in the second volume of 'French Cooking'.

It's just flour, yeast, salt and water. And a lot of rise time in the fridge. Planning ahead and a kitchenaid makes this process do-able (I use a hobart mixer at my job- I'm a baker). The pro baking books recommend a 12-15 minute kneading time with a dough hook. I can testify that the longer knead time gives a fluffier loaf and more active yeast.

We were buying french loaves for $1.60 each because my husband enjoys bread with meals. I began toting the ingredients to work a few weeks ago and mixing it on the commercial equipment myself and can make a loaf for around 40 cents each (depends on size,size I make depends on how hungry we are). A double batch (about 4 lbs flour) makes about 4 french loaves and is better than any storebought.

My recipes(I also have great ones for corn bread and challah) are at my workplace right now, but anyone PM me and I'll get them if you'd like to check them out. Bread is a great place to economize and if you do it right, you make lots of dough, frig some freeze some and bake as needed.

Bon Appetit!

[Warpy]

13. I do great baguettes

but it takes the squishy crap from Wally's to make the good panini.

Back in Boston it was bread from an Italian bakery.

Baking good breads is not my problem. Making squishy bread with a fine crumb is not possible without the dough conditioners and other crud commercial bakeries use.

I have been baking bread for 40 years and did the nutritional labeling in a commercial bakery. I know the differences between flour, water, yeast and salt and what commercial bakeries do.

[juno jones]

16. Squishy bread

:)

Yeah, all I do is the straightforward stuff, like challah for our bread pudding, etc. I wouln't know what to do with a dough conditioner if someone handed it to me. I've been borrowing my chef's pro baking textbook and while there's some good stuff in there, there's some pretty esoteric stuff that I doubt I'll ever use...unless I wind up in a pro bakery instead of a restaurant....naaah, I have enough problems waking up at 6 AM, never mind 2 AM.

I got into baking when I apprenticed to a master baker for a couple of years at a catering place. It's an amazing thing to explore, once you get the basics down, and it made my kitchen skills more valuable in the market, as a lot of line cooks won't cross over to baking. Sounds like you have been doing it a long time.

Well, good luck in the kitchen. Happy baking! (pannini, mmmmmm) :) (I gotta get ready to go to work, up today, yeast beignet dough and caramel sauce....)

[Fireweed247]

19. That is great advice

I love love LOVE my mixer, couldn't live without it. With a mixer you can make several loaves at once, enough to make bagels, pizza, cinnamon rolls, hamburger buns as well as the loaf for sandwiches. I buy a 50lb bag of whole wheat and it lasts forever.

[slampoet]

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.

[Fireweed247]

20. Return to the pan

This might be a good thing because people might return to the kitchen and old fashioned ways which are cheaper and healthier. There is a popcorn manufacturing illness people who work in the business get because of the crap they are putting in microwave popcorn.(can't remember the name-sorry) It is actually so easy to pop in on the stove, and fun! And then you know exactly what is in it...

[KamaAina]

23. Yes, but you do have to remember to put the lid on

this was newlywed Mom's downfall, back before there were microwaves, and I was but a gleam in Daddy's eye! :-)

[Liberal_in_LA]

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]

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.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

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.

[sharp_stick]

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.

[fed-up]

10. Trader Joes packages most of it's produce-forcing consumers to buy more than they need-hides quality

also


MY BF's daughter BBQ'd dinner the other night and I had a piece of the chicken-it was a mealy mouthful
usually I buy free-range or organic-HUGE difference in quality and taste-god only knows what genetically engineered crap they are feeding those poor factory farm chickens

for those that want great ice cream try Tilamook-rGbh free milk is used-
http://www.tillamookcheese.com/
Our farmer-owners have certified that their milk is from cows not supplemented with artificial bovine growth hormone. Read more...

[Fireweed247]

21. I only buy Tillamook cheese

because it is rGbh free(and people wonder why they children are maturing younger and younger) and really the most flavorful as well except for imported of course.
If we all start doing this, maybe the other cheesemakers will get a clue and join Tillamook.

[Kat45]

14. Columbo yogurt shrunk the size of the containers.

It used to be an 8 ounce cup of yogurt, now it's 6 ounces. They did lower the price some, but I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up costing more per ounce (but I didn't feel like doing the math). I noticed the size difference immediately and I was pissed off because I eat yogurt as part of a meal, and the smaller size means it will be less filling and I'll be eating less protein in that meal.

[Sydnie]

15. Now add in these costs too

When a company downsizes a package, it must retool all of their machines to comply to the change. A packaging change not only means retooling to accommodate the new package shape and size, it also means redesigning the label to make it appear to be the same as before on the new size, further helping the consumer to blindly purchase the product without noticing the change in package size. Then, you have a work force that visits the majority of the stores that sell the product to assure that the old product is fronted (so it disappears from the shelf quickly) and the new product is in place behind so that the products can cycle through to the new label and packaging quickly. Even though warehouse's might be visited, many products are not returned to the manufacturer due to a package change, but are rotated quickly or marked down for quick sale to remove them from the shelves as quickly as possible.

So there is a cost involved in changing a package size that runs from the factory floor, through the advertising department, through the retail sales floor, all done in hopes that you won't notice that a pound of pasta is now only 12 ounce.

Ice cream is a great example. The containers went from rectangular to tapering in hopes that your eye would be deceived.

Cereal is another good example. In an attempt to compete with WalMart, many chains have forced the big cereal companies to lower their wholesale prices for all sales, not just to mega-buyers like WalMart. Even lower prices were not enough to help the chains compete with WalMart so less product is now being carried by many major chains, less selection. Rather than have their cash tied up in flavor/brand options, the stores have merely dropped the number of products they carry in total, removed a shelf from the section (from 4 shelves of products to choose from to 3 shelves of products, with just more facings of the same product and higher stacks of those products too) and hope that you don't lose a sale completely because you no longer carry someone's favorite breakfast cereal. Many chains have now started to limit selection in an attempt to not have their cash tied up in back stock and having more and more of the same product displayed instead. Cereal alone has lost 25% of their selection in most major chains across the country.


And, of course, those costs get passed on to us as well because the price is never lowered to reflect the product packaging change, even one the initial cost of making such a change has been repaid.

Sucks to be us for sure.

[MadinMo]

17. Sugar --- 4lbs instead of 5lb packages.

But you all have no doubt noticed this. Aldis on the other hand proudly displays a sign that says their sugar is in a 5lb package.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

22. Tyson frozen chicken has gone to hell.

Breaded chicken boobies. Stringy and gross. And of course the price of everything goes up.

Got some bitter mushrooms in the produce dept. too. This was Kroger.