Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Spirals cost 37 cents more per box than regular Elbow variety, despite the former weighing 1.75 oz less than the latter, reports the thoughts on technology blog. This breaks down to a difference of $.06/oz, vs $.14/oz. That’s 24% fewer noodles, with a 133% price increase.
Why such a price difference? Obviously, cheese spirals are a technological marvel and Kraft needs to recoup the cost of building an entire spiral factory, not to mention the research and development. Plus, there’s the benefit of eating mac n cheese feature 3 chicks you’ve never heard of. So, if you’re looking for the best mac n cheese value, stick with the classic elbow box.
spiral macaroni is a racket [thoughts on technology]
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This sounds like an econmy of scale issue and likely some savvy marketing.
KP
Actually, the picture is a bit misleading b/c they both have Cheetah Girls and the contest on them, it’s just a newer box and not all the warehouses have cycled through the “old” stuff yet.(heck, my store still has the Spider-Man promotion on some of them.) And seriously, where did you find that stuff that cheap! Our normal price on Mac n Cheese is 79cents and the spirals are like 99 or a 1.09. Why are spirals more? Cuz are warehouse charges more for them then the regular stuff.. I’ll have to flag down a Kraft rep sometime and try to get to the bottom of this!
Here’s how to get a better Mac N Cheese with only a little work.
Go to Trader Joe’s and buy some Asiago cheese – the Wisconsin stuff for $6.49/lb (YIKES! It was 4.99/lb less than 3 months ago!). Grate that up and cook up some spiral Macaroni (69 cents) – drain the macaroni and put the cheese on – mix it up a little and eat!
Uh, the obvious answer is economies of scale. They ship crates of the elbow macaroni one while they might ship only a couple boxes of the spiral version. The actual manufacturing process doesn’t cost very much if spread over millions of boxes compared to tens of thousands.
And it’s not a premium version of their mac and cheese. If you want Kraft’s premium brand, took for their Velveeta.
I’ve noticed the price difference for years. Its not just on the spirals, its on any kind and is sometimes more. I’m a college student and I’m not ashamed to say that almost every time I go to purchase my Kraft Mac & Cheese I look longingly at the scooby doo version as I find it to be extremely satisfying to chow down on some of my favorite cartoon characters. The price gets me most of the time, but the fewer ounces per box is what keeps me away. Kraft, give me back my 1.25 ounces of scooby doo goodness. Thanks.
Tastes better due to a full even covering of cheese. With the elbows you get clumps and goops of cheese inside, or no cheese inside at all. Spirals are engineered to become fully and evenly coated in cheesy goodness.
I still buy the cheaper elbows, because I’m cheap.
NASA spent YEARS developing spiral macaroni (it was the project right after Tang) and you bastards want it CHEAP! Gah.
I think that, with pasta, the texture really makes a big difference.
“That’s 24% fewer noodles, with a 133% price increase.”
Exactly. Marketing geniuses get paid handsomely to sit around and dream up shit exactly like this.
“Hidden Vally seasoning mix” spice packs.
The fat free costs more than the regular. The only difference between the two is, with fat free, the instructions say to add fat free wet ingredients, rather than regular.
actually, the store brands here in Central NE do have a spiral version — in fact, our local grocery store has a sale this week on store brand boxed Mac and Cheese that includes both regular and spiral for the same price. So it’s a Kraft decision to charge more, even if it is economy of scale (which makes some sense).
and the shells are usually the best.
but the real trick to making box mac n cheese taste best is to drain the macaroni from the pot, then add the ingredients for the cheese sauce to the pot and heat to a slow boil while mixing. You’ll see the ingredients combine into a nice thick cheese sauce. then when you add the macaroni back in, it coats even better. if you just dump the cheese sauce ingredients over the pasta, it never really combines properly into a sauce.
Ummm.
Is it wrong to say that I only buy the Mac N Cheese when it is on sale?
Are there really people out there who think “Oooh, *Spiral* mac and cheese? That’s FANCY!”
Each box runs around a buck.
As long as I get a noodle of some kind, I’m good to go.
F spirals, fun shapes, flinstones, marketing BS aimed at addicting kids to mac n cheese.
Just make MACARONI and package it with some sort of cheese-like sauce makins’.
Kids like it.
End of problem. Save the money on packaging, marketing, dies, production, etc.
It has been that way since the 80′s at least.
This made me go instantly make a thing of macaroni and cheese. Only to realize no spirals. Put it on the shopping list though.
For some reason, the funky cartoon shaped ones that looked like an awkward graffiti stencil made with noodle based shrinky dinks gone horribly awry always tasted the best noodlewise to me. But frankly after adding the cheese mix and the milk and butter, I don’t just go for the elbow noodles – I go for the off brands. One night my roommates and I did a 3 brand and 1 homemade taste test and 1 of the 2 offbrand won hands down.