Fuck You, Breyer's Ice Cream!!

A price increase on the previous quantity is HONEST and STRAIGHTFORWARD. I view a price stasis on a shrinking quantity as a deliberate attempt, by the company, to pull the wool over the eyes of the consumer -- to increase profit by GIVING LESS TO YOU FOR YOUR DOLLAR, while hoping that few of the consumers even notice the difference.

Really, what objective reason, apart from making the same money but giving less for that money, could have made them spend money to retool their factory? (That costs any company a LOT of money -- nothing works the same if they suddenly change the amount of ice cream that the robots have to put into a new container. I'm sure that even the stuff that holds or moves the containers had to be utterly reoutfitted.) There was no mandate to depart from the status quo. Consumers were not writing letters to Breyer's saying, "You're giving me too much value for my money -- put less ice cream into your package or else I'll stop buying it." I see no rational cause for the change except a money grab.

A straight-up price change is ALWAYS preferable to subterfuge. Put it this way: if the price of a given amount goes up, anyone paying it knows exactly what has happened; but if the price remains the same, some percentage greater than zero of the consumers buying that product will fail to realize that the quantity has been monkeyed with since the last time they bought a package that looked like (and WAS) a half gallon of ice cream. Some of those might even (like me) NOT have been willing to pay the money for the product if they had been aware of the switch. I bought one package of Breyer's in the "new improved" size and realized the scam when I got home. Now I will never buy Breyer's if they don't switch back (and they're 99% sure to not switch back, not after retooling at great expense). I consider anyone who does buy it in spite of knowing of the change to be a sucker who allows him/herself to be ripped off. That person deserves what he/she gets, sure, if they make the conscious decision to throw money to a company that operates like scumbags; but more to the point, they encourage the company to scam the public, and that affects even the rest of the public who won't feed the scam. Eventually, the rest of the ice cream companies that are still doing 1/2 gallons will see that the coast is clear to drop their amounts because they know there are few, if any, companies providing the former full amount 1/2 gallon. Eventually they know you'll have no one else to turn to for a fair amount at a fair price.

And we should also discuss the greedy advertising shitballs who now put ADS (not movie previews, but ADS) before a movie we paid $8-$10 to see!!

We should be outraged, but we as a complacent, stupid society of sheep and cows and pigs, say nothing and accept it. Indeed, hardly even notice it, nor think deeply enough to be offended by it.

For fuckin' real: they charge enough for one cup of Coca Cola at the concession stand to buy an entire fucking twelve-pack of cans! And then they have the nerve to fuckin' force me to watch an ADVERTISEMENT FOR COKE after the time when the MOVIE was advertised to start?! That's just fuckin' wrong.

It won't be long before they start putting an "ad intermission" WITHIN the movie, because the public is telling them, implicitly, "We don't seem to mind you throwing more idiotic, obnoxious ads at us even though we paid a premium price to see this movie and eat this shitty, flavorless, artificial adulterated popcorn.

-Jeffrey

 

Please start a new Thread on this topic.

It'll help minimize the confusion as this topic prolly hits Home for many more than some over priced, designer ice cream.

 

Over the Decades, I have seen the overwhelming number of grocery store customers to be members of the moron majority even in the 'rich' areas of a town.

As such they
1. Don't know/don't give a Damn about the cost per oz.
Many don't know how to calculate this figure.
Grocery store labels frequently are incorrect/missing especially in the case of temporary sales tags.

2. They have a fixed amount to spend for luxuries like ice cream.
If a container costs more money than they have, they won't buy.
Some Folks refer to this a a function of 'price targeting'.
What's a producer to do? Price themselves out of the market?

I'm not trying to start a riot, just stating my observations.


As for the production plant "retooling" issues, most large plants are automated.
1. The 'product packaging line' is computer controlled by PCs/PLCs/MPs.
It's a simple/quick/inexpensive program mod to change the fill rates/amounts.

2. No major mechanical changes are required if the 'new' container is roughly the same size/shape.

3. Typically, the largest Cost Centers are in the Sales/PR areas for somewhat obvious reasons.


You're perfectly within your Rights to be PO'd but these are the Realities of the Situation.
In most cases, We, the Consumer do have the final say - we don't have to purchase the product...

Money talks/bs walks...

 

Yeah, that's the old downsizing trick. They will make it a half-gallon again when they raise the price, and they will boast that they are giving you more to make you believe the price increase isn't really an increase. Then they will do the downsizing trick again later.

They do the same thing with candy bars, jars of tomato sauce, and lots of other things. It is kinda sneaky when the package looks like the same size.

The toothpaste companies years ago started making the hole bigger so that people would use up the tube faster (seriously). One of the shampoo companies years ago added the word 'repeat' at the end of the directions so everyone would use twice as much.

 

Watch movies carefully, and you'll see all sorts of ads in them. I remember one of the Friday the 13th movies where the young woman was holding a box of Tide straight at the camera for a long time just to make sure everyone saw it.

There was a lawsuit in the ET movie over the use of Reeses' Pieces. I think the movie company backed out on using the candy with ET, and Reese's sued them for breach of contract.

 

I'm with ya Jeff, you have at least one supporter. I believe this was a deceptive move as well. Had they increased the amount you would have seen labels all over it praising the great reward of an extra 10%. But, when the opposite is done you don't see any alerting labels.

Someone mentioned the moron majority and that's exactly what this is all about. It's what all marketing mayhem is about. Marketing shows that the majority of people are mindless lemmings and will follow whatever system is put in front of them. The ol "ignorance is bliss" statement fits nicely here.

For the record Jeff, it most likely didn't cost them anything to retool because most machines for this type of box stamping and packaging are completely adjustable. They can adjust up or down with very little effort.

I will agree however, from a marketing standpoint it was the right move for them to do. Had they left it a gallon and increased the price they would have lost a lot more customers. As you have seen with this thread though, even the aware consumer will not worry to much about the little bit of ice cream missing.

 

Congress changed the labeling laws in the 90s. It used to be that you could put 100% on a label even if the prodect didn't contain 100% of that stuff. For example, they used to say 'Wesson is 100% sunflower seed oil." That meant that there was a small amount of 100% sunflower seed oil in it. The rest could have been any oil, not the healthier sunflower seed oil. It was legal as long as you didn't say "100% by weight."

One of the dishwashing liquids used to say it was 100% lemon juice. That means that about one percent of it was 100% lemon juice. And speaking of how dumb the general pubic is, people were squirting that dishwashing liquid in their ice tea, thinking it was 100% lemon juice, and getting sick. I'm not making this up! It was on the news.

 

Honestly, I never looked at the actual amount indicated on the carton when I was buying what I THOUGHT was a half gallon of Breyers. I just figured it was half a gallon, as it appeared pretty much like the rest of the half gallon ice cream cartons of the competetors.

It's ridiculous, we're getting ripped off everywhere we look anymore, and Breyers isn't exactly cheap. Sheesh. Breyers is pretty much the only ice cream our family likes to eat because it's the more "natural" one of the market.

I've noticed a LOT of products giving you less but making you pay the same price for it or even more. It really ticks me off.

 

This all presupposes that the optimal arrangement of all the participants in the cycle of commerce is that WE the consumers are like sheep that exist to be fleeced of our wool every so often.

That is, the greatest good to be hoped for is that companies make the most profit possible. Well, what about the idea that the greatest good is for the consumer to get the best possible value for his dollar?! And the companies should be happy to get a fair price for providing a product or service? It should not just be all about a feeding frenzy in which the companies just grab all the wealth they can while providing as little as they must. What happened to FAIRness? I have to believe that once upon a time, in commerce, producers of goods and services took pride in charging an amount that was FAIR, and JUSTIFIABLE, to their customers, who could in turn feel pleased to have been treated honestly.

Now it's just about companies trying to come up with schemes -- there is no other word for it -- to use us for sustenance. It's like the corporations are like the machines in The Matrix, keeping us around only to provide them something. In reality, it is WE who should be keeping the companies around to provide us something.

-Jeffrey

 

Dude, I wish those people had died of that. We honestly don't need people that stupid being allowed to circulate in society, breed, drive cars, operate machines, etc. They drag the whole of humanity down if they are that friggin' stupid.

If it were 100% lemon juice, the fuckin' product would BE lemon juice! What kind of fuckin' retard would you have to be to DRINK it?! :$

-Jeffrey

 

But it's a testament to the fact that if people will drink dishwashing liquid, they are certainly dumb enough to not notice how they are getting ripped off by underhanded labeling and packaging gimmicks.

 

Does anyone know why Bryers is so much more expensive for being more natural? I mean, what exactly in the contents or storage of it would make it that much more expensive? Shorter shelf life without preservatives, for example? Less non-natural filler?

I buy a half-gallon of no-name ice cream for $1.99 that appears to be mostly natural ingredients.

 

There's also an issue about volume and weight with ice cream too. Most ice cream is air bubbles. I let a box of ice cream melt once and it ended up about 1/3rd its original volume.

Ice cream companies can play games by puffing it up with more air too. You'd really have to go by weight instead of volume for a true measure of what you're getting.

And even that's a problem, because in the American weights and measures system, there is confusion between weight and volume. For example, is 12 ounces a volume we're talking about or a weight? There isn't that confusion in the metric system. A kilogram is a kilogram and a liter is a liter.

 

there is a big difference in taste between no name and breyers. at least there is with any no name ice cream i have ever eaten.

 

Usually the big corporations do also the home-brands of grocery stores. So it's the same thing. But i think Ben and Jerry's ice cream is better and the Founders were a little hip.

 

I've tasted Breyers only a couple times and it tasted more like ice milk. I actually prefer some of the no-names better. Maybe it's just me.

 

I bought some bryers ice cream a few weeks ago and it tasted like shit.

 

Look at the bright side: you only got 1.75 quarts of shit instead of 2.00.

.

 

rofl