Grocery Shrink Ray: You're Doing it Wrong

And to add insult to injury their food tastes like crap.

People buy mac&cheese meals? That's super lazy.

@AirIntake: yeah, a box that will feed AT LEAST 2 people is only like a buck...

That's more than double the price. *Not* a bargain at twice the price. :(

They obviously didn't take GSR lessons from Wal-Mart. Last spring they reduced the quantity in their diaper packaging by 10%. Then they waited to raise the prices until late August. It's all about the illusion ...

@ncpeters: Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with you on that one.

I lived on those things in college. Partially due to the fact that I have a dairy allergy and their corn dog meal was one of the few prepared food items I could buy.

@brandihendrix: I disagree, not about being lazy but convenience, especially when you're in work by 8am and not out of work till 8pm, you just want to east somethinting easy to make and relatively tasty!

@metsarethe...: Eat*

@Rectilinear Propagation: My mother-inlaw buys these things. She also buys the fettuccini alfredo and both are terrible.

@ncpeters: I was just thinking the same thing, way to keep any customers they might have..

@AirIntake: Sometimes you just want the rubbery texture of TV dinner macaroni and cheese.

Banquet was only $0.99 at Wally.

In the world of you get what you pay for, the Banquet meals were well worth $0.99.

At a buck and half with smaller portions for Banquet, I am going to be tempted to buy Stouffer's instead

@AirIntake: The flavor of frozen mac and cheese is completely different. Stoufers makes a good one sold in a big bag. You pour out what you want and heat it. It is way more expensive than Kraft, but way better (albeit different).

Of course when cooking single servings easy mac is usually the way to go, not as good, but much cheaper. If feeding more than one, break out the box.

@ncpeters: True that. They also were not that big to begin with. You really needed two to be filled up.

Banquet doesn't set the price, the grocery store sets the price. Just because the grocery store has a higher price on the smaller product does not mean that Banquet has raised their price - the larger product may be on clearance, etc. The complaint on size discrepancy is properly placed with the manufacturer but on proce discrepancy should be laid at the feet of the retailer. Looked at another way, the clearance product is a great deal comparatively.

@fantomesq:

They also increased the price, notes our reader Richard, who confirmed the price hike at both his local Seattle supermarket and at Walmart.

Unless Walmart is all coochie-coo with it's local competitors, I don't think they colluded to increase retail price unless the wholesale price increased.

Nice 125% markup.
Way to go, Banquet!
*sarcastic applause*

@brandihendrix: I disagree on you with the at least 2 part. I usually eat one whole box.

Banquet foods have almost religiously been $0.99... now they are a $1.50 at all four grocery chains in town. So I don't think the stores are setting the prices.

@AustinTXProgrammer:
Stoufers mac and cheese is the yummiest you can get, bar none. Nothing else can touch it. Probably why it costs so much.

It's hard to imagine that the Banquet portions could be any smaller than they already were.

i was just going through one of grocery store ads and i found a 20 pack of coke for 4.99. call me crazy, but i thought we had 24 packs.

Does anyone know if the government takes the shrink ray into consideration in setting the Consumer Price Index?
If they don't, then they've really made a mess out of the Social Security COLA!

@Saboth:
Have you tried Amy's?

Many companies have been doing this lately. If needed, I can take some pictures and submit them to the site if they provided a way.

The best solution to these problems is to not buy the product at all until they lower the price and restore the original amount of food.

The reason why companies do this is because there always a few idiots who go out and buy the items at the newer increased price or downsized product. Once they do this, there basically telling the companies that it is ok to rip everyone off and it will encourage them to further downsize again.If people grow a brain and learn not to buy these products, the prices wont go up and the products wont be downsized because it wont be profitable to these companies.

@edesignway: Retailers are always in control of the prices for their products. Prices mandated by the manufacturer are price-fixing and illegal. Manufacturers set the wholesale prices - retailers set the retail prices.

@fantomesq: Umm..... maybe the retail price is related to the wholesale price. Especially considering it seems to have gone up everywhere.

@Razor512: I wish they would just leave the size alone. If you have to raise the price, I will make a decision. Lowering the size screws up recipes and means if you buy the same amount of packages the company sells less product. I think it would be better to sell more of the product at the same unit price than less? I brought up Tuna before, but it turns a 2 sandwich can to 1 1/2. I would still open the same can so they ended up selling less. Actually I found a place that had the old amount, so I stocked up.

@frank64: Umm, yeah, they are related but it is pointless to complain to the manufacturer about retail prices since its out of their control. Retail pricing is solely in the retailer's control.

@sqlrob: I second the Amy's recommendation.

@Razor512: I actually put back 4 of those last night while I was at the grocery store because I noticed the price hike. Nice avi btw.

@Greasy Thumb Guzik: My guess is that it is by way of unit pricing. OTOH, if they do what old-fashioned (not old, just old-fashioned) cooks do, they might just see 'box of Banquet mac & cheese' is $.99 and note that it didn't go up in price (until now, since it's $1.50).

@fantomesq: Ahh ... NO?

Retail price is a MARKUP of the cost the retailer has to pay ... so staying that retail pricing is beyond the control of the manufacture is a bit naive.

When a MFG changes it's price list, they change TWO columns on their pricing sheet. One column is the "cost" of the item and the other column is the "suggested retail" of the item.

Sure the MFG doesn't hold a gun to the retailers head and make they sell at the suggested retail price, but do you REALLY believe they have to?

Any port in a store, as the saying goes, is what retailers look for with regards to charging more for items.

Especially when the "suggested marketing" plan from the MFG is highly orchestrated.

@Razor512: That's why I haven't bought tuna since they were 6.25-ounce cans. And I have added Haagen Daz to the list since they no longer know the definition of what a pint it. Same with just about any ice cream maker (except for Ben & Jerry's since they know what a pint is).

@nybiker: Heh. Pints. That's crazy talk. I thought the move from half-gallons was a great thing, for diets. The more recent 1.5Qt sizes don't even merit a glance. 1.5qts? That's like two bowls and an "accidental drop" for rover.

Our local coop has two local brands of real premium ice cream in half gallon sizes for under $5. Tastes like the world-could-end-and-i'd-be-smiling, and without the huge foodco crap.

So much for diets.

@StanTheManDean: Nope, they're not worth $0.99. If you're eating Banquet, you might as well be eating fast food. Last time I checked, fast food items are generally < $1. and they have to taste better than this.

Has anyone noticed what many of the "casual dining" restaurants have done to drink prices in recent months? First, they've removed prices from the drinks entirely, second, they've doubled the prices. $3/glass of soda/etc. Some of them also stopped giving out free refills.

I've also seen the prices at many of these restaurants go up quite a bit over the past year as well, to the point that I'm better off eating at a good restaurant rather than chain food hell.

@boxjockey68: At this point Elvis (the picky shopper) has left the Banquet building.

This is just the final disintegration of a classic brand on its way to slaughter. They're maximizing profit from the least educated, least aware, and those who have the toughest time switching products/brands.

In a few years the Banquet trademark will be owned by a trade group and licensed to whomever, for whatever products.

Zenith beef-flavored pot pies, anyone?

@david.c: In a perfect world, retail pricing is a markup over wholesale... real world varies. By your own words, they are -suggested- retail pricing. Retailers set their own pricing which varies with promotions, packages, etc. More to the point though is that a manufacturer will dismiss complaints that talk to retail pricing since legally this is something out of their control. They can't tell the retailer what to price something even if they wanted to.

Since Banquet meals are often high profile ad items, we don't know if the $1 meals are profitable or merely loss-leaders. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that they're the latter at this price.

The last time I tried a Banquet meal, I think I ended up throwing most of it out. The quality was just awful.

@StanTheManDean: I noticed a whole bunch of Stouffer's entrees at Walmart for $2 each. Since they are usually over $3 at the grocery store, I load up. They are great for lunch when I'm pressed for time in the morning; I just toss them in my little bag and nuke them at work.

@HogwartsAlum:

The 1) lasgna and 2) Chicken Breast with Mash Potatoes are my favorites.

You can take any Banquet meal and they all taste the same. Swanson meals replaced the corn with carrots, Banquet just shrunk em down. I picked up some for 79 cents for microwaving at work, with the shrink ray it takes less time to heat em up.

I buy these for my sprouts. I miss being a kid and not caring much about the taste of something as long as it wasn't putrid. If it didn't taste like roadkill and didn't devour me first, it was a meal. Anyone remember the old TV dinners you had to actually put in the oven? Do those still exist?

@StanTheManDean: The cost of this "food" to the manufacturer is closer to 0.10 per, I figured.

You can get close to that yourself: 1 kg bags of dry pasta can still be found on sale for $1, and you can also buy "orange powder" (since it has of cheese but the name) in bulk for next to nothing.

Get a huge pot going and a bunch of plastic containers and freeze them yourself. It will take you less than an hour to do, and your yield should be less than $1 per kg (about 32oz).

Or you could spend more and get about the same cost as Banquet meals by using good dura pasta and real cheese, and toss in some seasonal veges too!

Banquet reduced the sizes of all of thier meals several months ago. I only noticed because the plastic part on the inside, instead of having a rectangle parallel to the edges of the whole thing now had the middle parts edged in so all four sides of the rectangle curved in/ I stopped buying them at that point, because they weren't the bargain they once were. I still glance at them occasionally, and haven't really noticed a price increase, but will keep a sharp eye out now to see...

@Rectilinear Propagation: @ncpeters: For many of their items I agree, but I actually liked the rib/corn/mashed potato meals is pretty good - and at under a $1 at Wal-Mart, a very good deal.

..... well have to see if it is still worth it is they now include less for a larger price on that item also.