A grocery growth ray is set to hit a popular condiment and several kinds of baked corn with names ending “tos.” To push the brands as being good values, Heinz will be selling slightly larger ketchup bottles, and Frito-Lay is adding 20% to Tostitos, Fritos, Cheetos and Doritos – without raising the price. Unlike the grocery shrink ray, you can bet this change will be loudly trumpeted on the package.
Consumer-Goods Makers Heed ‘Paycheck Cycle’ [WSJ] (Thanks to RandomHookup!)
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Here’s to good news first thing in the morning!
[Raises cup of coffee to America]
Don’t they put it on the package regardless to make you *think* you’re getting a better deal. It’s marketing working against you because you think “Oh well they’d never advertise a smaller size!”
We’ve seen plenty of examples of products with “New! Now 10.5 ounces!” which makes you think oh, it must’ve been 10 before, when in actuality it was 12.
Good news indeed!
I will be inclined to buy the larger sizes…as long as it’s a good deal.
@boxjockey68: According to the article, the price will stay the same.
And Target will raise the price by 10% for each when they put them on the shelves as a “buy two and save!” item.
It’s a trap everybody run while you still can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Acolyte: Thank you, Admiral Ackbar
So three months ago, the ketchup bottle was 12 ounces for $3. Two months ago, it was shrunk to 10.5 ounces for $3. Now it will be increased to 12 ounces and the package will say NEW LARGER SIZE and the price will go to $3.50. Sneaky marketers
@johnfrombrooklyn: What part of “without raising the price” was unclear?
@hedonia: They’ll find a way around it…this you can count on.
This will be an easy way to add 20% to the bottle while adding 50% to the price tag.
I stopped buying “real” ketchup a long time ago, about the time the generics became less than 1/4 of the price of the real thing. Sure, they’re not as nice, but I’ve found all you need to do is add some salt. Or sometimes vinegar. And for the price difference, I just don’t mind that much.
My personal favourite subs: Aylmer’s and Hunts. Unfortunately, the grocers only sell these when Heniz product price breaks the $4 mark on the most popular size (can’t remember, but I think it’s something like 750 mL to 1 L).
@shepd: I just grab the packets from McDonalds.
@MrPibbistheGreatestSodaEver:
All the McDonald’s (and pretty much everywhere else) here have been hiding them behind the counter. You have to ask for them, and then you have to specify just how many you want if you don’t just want one or two. They’d balk at giving you 10 or 20, or if you’re not a take-out customer.
For those wondering how everyone gets ketchup with their eat-in meals, they usually have those gross condiment pumps (which are usually empty) and sample cups.
Actually, for ketchup, it’s been so long since I’ve found “restaurants” with packets, I bought a box of packets (~500 for $8… I still can’t figure out why they hide them, can’t be the price) for my desk at work. Stays fresher longer than a bottle and it’s still 4L, so it’s still a reasonably good value in this case.
@shepd:
I don’t mind Hunts ketchup, but the jerks managed to squeeze gluten into it, so now I can’t buy it anymore.
@shepd: Make your own. Not the same, but better.
@orlo: While I’m at it…I’ll grow a farm for my food needs, a timber forest for my paper needs, and I’ll chisel a car for myself out of a block of steel made from melted down paper clips….
That or I’ll take a second to realize that the thing that makes modern society great is the whole division of labor thing.
More Fritos…..
This is good news indeed.
They will probably claim they are trying to help Americans out in these tough times, bless their hearts. However, in a year or two watch the companies slowly and quietly reduce the sizes again.
This is great news. Companies have continued to down-size packaging claiming that it maintains sales volume by keeping a ‘price point’. I’ve had my fill of these HIDDEN price increases and have stopped buying tuna and ice cream for just that reason. The consumers only recourse is to speak with your feet.
This will be like the store close to me that raised the price of white american cheese from $3.99 to $5.99 then trumpeted a great sale at $4.99 a little later on.
@Blueskylaw:
Sounds like the Gordon Brothers’ solution!
They probably changed the ketchup formula again. Probably more corn syrup and water along with some tomato flavoring added.
I quit buying ketchup after the last bottle. It didn’t even taste like ketchup, more like vinegar laced goo. There are some decent make your own ketchup recipes out there and much tastier.
As for the growth ray, what is the catch? I am guessing it was the shrink ray then the un-shrink ray marketed as growth.
@bohemian: “vinegar laced goo”
Yep, that’s about right, and it’s what makes ketchup the finest condiment in history. It’s allegedly one of the few rare substances to tingle all five of the taste sensations simultaneously, including the mysterious “umami.” I loves me some ketchup. Who needs tomatoes?
Damn, I read “Grocery Growth Ray to Hit Ketchup Chips”, and as anyone else who’s a fan knows, you can’t have enough Ketchup Chips.
mariospants:
Yeah i thought that too… “Ketchup, chips” or “Ketchup chips?”
My first bag: [flickr.com]
is this a permanent thing? Otherwise these are just bonus pack (10% more for FREE!) items that will only be around for a short term to gain some share away from other brands.
Of course this will just restore Tostitos to the original size. A few months back, I noticed that Tostitos went from 16 oz to 13.5 oz with no reduction in price.
I really, really hate to continue an annoying internet “meme” (almost as much as I hate that stupid word), but here it is:
1. Quietly reduce product size.
2. Return product back to original size, but with “Now X% more FREE!” on package.
3. Profit.
@Hank Scorpio: That’s exactly what’s happening, you nailed it!
@Hank Scorpio: Mr. Scorpion, I like the fact that someone finally figured out Phase 2. Now what do I do with all of this underwear?
“Unlike the grocery shrink ray, you can bet this change will be loudly trumpeted on the package” – When I read this, I laughed out loud with a mental picture of a container of ice cream. The package proudly states; “NOW WITH 25% LESS FOR FREE”
Call me cynical, but I’d rather get a better deal on veggies or eggs.
Chips and ketchup? No thanks, but how about lowering that $4/gallon milk price?
I know, I know, it’s not that simple. But still.
@emona: move to the midwest. it’s under 3 bucks in ohio.
@emona: I bought a gallon of 2% in Des Moines at a regular grocery store for $2.69 last week. Today, I saw gas for $1.49. Seriously, everything is cheaper here.
@Alex Duzik: Salaries are probably also lower…
@Alex Duzik: That’s about what it is in Virginia…and usually everything in VA is way more! Check the Costco by Jordan Creek…they usually have the best deal for decent milk (Iowa Milk > Florida milk, which tastes like water).
@emona: Eggs are cheep…or would you like them to squeeze a 6th chicken into the battery cage?
@emona:
$5.49 a “gallon” (actually for a total of 4 L of milk divided into three bags) in most grocery stores when you go across the border. $3.97 in Walmart, but that’s a heavily advertised loss leader, IMHO.
Of course, I’m lactose intolerant, so I don’t care, but my wife drinks it like it’s going out of style.
@shepd:
Wal-Mart doesn’t lose money on milk… they do, however, take a hit on fruit juices and apples.
Perhaps with Pepsi and Snapple removing HFCS Heinz decided to give us more of it for our buck, i actually thought i was reading yet another shrink ray post for a minute.
I used to buy nothing but store brand chips, but they strangely started disappearing off of Stop and Shop’s shelves. At least I can still get cheapo chips at Aldi.
I’m going to stick with the lessons I learned at the Chuck Garabedian Mega-Savings Seminar. Nothing but 33 cent stores and canned plankton for me!
Hooray! More GMO tomatoes, GMO corn and high-fructose corn syrup is just what this country needs.
When I bought Tostitos for the Super Bowl, I thought all of the bags, or at least the contents, looked smaller than usual. Did the shrink before and now they are de-shrinking?
All Frito-Lay brand chips have shrunk every year. So by increasing their current bag sizes, the bags will probably only as big as they were a year ago yet still smaller than what they were 2 years ago.
It’s unfortunate that we’re getting a “deal” on chips and ketchup, the junkiest of the junk foods. What about unprocessed food?
@Fermina Daza: I kind of feel like the “organic” craze made produce and other unprocessed foods seem like luxury items, and the prices went up accordingly.
I took this picture in the grocery store the other day. It wasn’t the only bag like that either.
@Vanilla5: Yeah, but look at all that “air” (or whatever gas it is) you’re getting to keep those NCAA BOWL GAME chips nice and in one piece. You don’t want crumbs with your NCAA BOWL GAME Salsa do you?
it’s always the american way to make worthless calories more palatable to a fat nation.
@fuzzymuffins: Watch out, fuzzymuffins wants to control your caloric intake! First its smoking, then what one can eat, then its off to the FEMA concentration camps and loss of our freedoms!
@fuzzymuffins: High-profit calories to a poor nation.
It’s like Viagra for consumer packaged goods.
I think the 114oz Heinz ketchup bottle at Costco is $3.79. One of those short squat ones with the 6″ wide lid. There’s value there!
Doesn’t come with a pump like it should, but I have a paint sprayer that works fabulously. An even coat of ketchup every time.
mmm ketchup chips, a canadian delicacy.
Will this be done for Baked cheetos as well?
I think they’ll just increase the size of the bag and puff more air into it.
@MisterE: Nope, I think they’ll boldly proclaim “same price as smaller size” as a promotional price (and eat the loss), then jack it up within a few months to where it’s higher per ounce than the old one.
The rest of the story (the whole, “cycle of promotions timed around paychecks” thing) was much, much more disturbing/interesting than some packages getting larger.