Ripped off at Sherwin WIlliams

you werent ripped off if the lable was marked properly, but i know how you feel, bought a pound of bacon that i realized was 12 oz when i got home.

Reply to
ds549
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After posting the last I realized I left out one of (if not perhaps even) the most important factors--competition. In many cases, will do it and others will feel forced to follow suit. I suppose there's also the mentality if one is in the retail (or even wholesale for that matter) market to be the one to beat the other guy to the punch as well.

Thinking further, I'll restate my position--I'd I'd have the fortitude to not be first belligerent so to speak, and only stoop to the tactic if, after competitors had dones so, it was shown that my sales were actually being hurt by using what I'll term "honest pricing" against the smaller-volume equivalently-priced competition...

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

....

No, it was I, but you took what I said and conveniently snipped the part which included control cost raise price which I also pointed out in response to your comment there...

Either figure out a way to lower energy inputs or add transportation surcharges (which is equivalent to raising prices)...sometimes one has to do things one doesn't want to do.

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

Doug Kanter wrote: ....

Obviously, one either finds other ways to economize or eventually has to raise prices to cover increased costs. It's not rocket science, just a complex combination of marketing, competition and myriad other factors involved in running a business...

One obvious solution for many in the US continues to be to go overseas to reduce manufacturing costs, for example.

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

Doug Kanter wrote: ....

There must be reason you

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

Actually, like the paint or coffee, they did to be... :)

Somewhere along about in the 60s, they went to the "standard" sub-1/2" dimensions. I figured at the time it was a combination of making a convienient standard at the "even" fraction plus better sawmill control to shave a few extra tuba-ex's from a log, just like getting a few extra sheets of ply by going from full dimension to sub-32'nds--over enough sheets, that extra 32-nd of material adds up to quite a bit of raw material saved.

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

In alt.home.repair on Fri, 29 Jul 2005 13:26:14 -0700 nobody posted:

Aw, come on. Wasn't that true, isn't that true, with paint that comes in cans too.

We should learn if it is base or not, but Edwin says even his base is only 1/16 of a quart shy, 2/32, not 5/32nds.

I know what they do with candy, they keep making the bar smaller and smaller with the same price until there is a price hike, when they go to the higher price and original size. I don't know if that is the case here or not.

Meirman

-- If emailing, please let me know whether or not you are posting the same letter. Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

Reply to
meirman

other brands is one gallon, it is the tint base that was less to allow for adding the colorant.

Reply to
Hopkins

What's the matter, Kanter, couldn't you think of any other explanations?

Like I said... Greed is the most obvious. Were you thinking of something else?

Reply to
Doug Miller

Excuse me, where is the deception in selling a 1.75-quart container that is clearly labelled "1.75 quarts"?

He's saying that companies will charge what the market will bear. To do anything else is, from a business standpoint, foolish.

Better for the manufacturer, obviously. Like I said in another post: greed. [snip]

As you described it, it pretty clearly *was* the lower quality that did them in.

Reply to
Doug Miller

Why is either one inherently more worthy than the other?

It would be nice if oil still was only $40 a barrel -- last I heard it was over $60.

Reply to
Doug Miller

Did it actually have a full gallon of tint base in it? Or was it a few ounces short, so that the tint would bring it up to a full gallon? I never bothered checking, did you?

Reply to
Doug Miller

You conveniently left out the FACTS that I posted. The pre-colored paint by other brands is one gallon, it is the tint base that was less to allow for adding t he colorant.

Perhaps, but Pittsburgh allows for 2 ounces.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

B&J isn't being deceptive. Those small containers have always been overpriced (at least from my point of view, but apparently, not everyone's). Haagen Dasz is the same. Both have created an image which the public has bought into.

Were you equally bothered when canned vegetables went from 16 oz to 14.5 oz?

I keep coming back to two things: First, how much did a half gallon of milk increase in price over the past 5 years? Do you remember? Forget for the moment that many stores price it as a loss leader much of the time. Or, consider the corresponding hike in the prices of other dairy basics like yogurt and cream cheese. There is simply NO WAY this doesn't affect ice cream manufacturers.

Second: If this discussion continues for one more day, then it's ridiculous. Wanna flip a coin and decide who gets to write a letter to Breyers, and see what they say? Somebody's gotta do it. Or, I'll handle Breyers, you handle Sherwin Williams. :-)

They've still got the basic no-guar flavors alongside the adulterated ones. I suspect they've introduced the newer crap because what the hell...why not? It enables them to grab some of the B&J crowd who insists on 118 different tastes in the same container. (Cherry Garcia, however, is nothing to shake a stick at). :-)

Here's a scary thought: They almost dumped strawberry about 5 years ago, not because customers weren't buying it, but because so many stores were not stocking it. You'd be shocked at how many stupid policies can be kept in place by just one buyer at a chain's headquarters. Here, for instance, we have a local brand called Perry's. And, the otherwise excellent chain, Wegman's, also has their store brand. Both strawberry offerings are sad imitations. Artificially colored bright pink, guar gum, "other flavors". Our other major store, Tops, carried Breyer's strawberry occasionally, if you believed the shelf tag. Out of stock most of the time.

My company was dealing with Wegman's, so I had access to the buyers. I called the frozen buyer and asked about Breyer's. His response: "First of all, we don't need it. We carry two other strawberry products. And, nobody buys it anyway. The movement numbers were real low last time we had it". Turns out "last time" was 8 or 10 years earlier. I reminded him that nobody buys it because it's not there. That didn't make much impact, although it seems logical to me. Anyway, I guess enough people bitched and now they carry it. (That buyer retired, too.)

I found out later (from a company rep) that local and private label brands had impacted certain flavors to the point where they were almost discontinued. Strawberry was one of them. It took some reeducation by the reps to change this.

Back to the subject: I don't know about how other families shop, but I don't have ice cream around all the time. When I do, I tend to forget it's there and go for fruit instead. I'm sure some people consider it a staple item like milk & eggs. There's always going to be a segment of this group who will compare the price of Breyer's to the private label or local brands every time they buy, even though they KNOW the last two are usually cheaper and are of lower quality. The cheaper brands will consistently snag some of those customers, SOME of the time. Nobody knows why. But, when these brands are selling for $0.99 to $2.00 per half gallon, the national brand has to do SOMETHING. You may recall that not long ago, Breyer's (not on sale) sold for $3.50 to $4.25, depending on the market. Like me, many people never bought it at that price, waiting for a sale instead.

That was simply not working for Breyer's. First of all, it's obvious that they weren't moving enough product. And, it meant that if they offered deals to the stores, it sometimes did not generate larger orders because nobody wanted to be stuck with aging product. They don't want to store it, and you & I don't want to buy it. This generated quite a scam a few years back when someone in the NYC area altered the freshness dates on a few truckloads of Breyer's ice cream.

Faced with this, and the drastic increase in the price of raw milk, I think they had no choice but to change something. It worked. They're moving more ice cream. Go figure.

Reply to
Doug Kanter

What's the difference between greed, and wanting to do more business? Are you in a business which has a policy of not finding ways to grow?

Go find the message I just wrote to Edwin. Open your mind to other possibilities.

Reply to
Doug Kanter

Greed??? They were getting hammered by local brands and private label, at a time when the price of raw milk rose drastically. What would YOU do? Increase the price beyond a point which, in the minds of consumers, was already a little edgy, in terms of what they think a half gallon of ice cream is worth?

Try this: What would have to happen in order for you to pay $6.75 for a half gallon of ice cream, and to do so 3-4 times a month? If you think that price is too high, then name your limit, and describe how you came up with it.

Reply to
Doug Kanter

But it was a real 2 x 4 before it was planed to get what is considered straight. I buy wood at a full 1" thick, but have to plane it down to 3/4" to make it usable. I know this up front and expect to do it. It was cut a true 1" at the sawmill though.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Oh, it is perfectly legal. It is just that after selling true half gallon for more than a half century, shrinking containers is a sleazy, but legal, method of increasing prices and hoping that the consumer does not notice. How often do you check the milk container to see if it is still a quart or half gallon? Do you do it every time you go shopping? Shame on you if you don't.

No doubt, but relying on perception is different that giving the real deal. Some are still selling full half gallons, some are going to small containers. The reality is they are relying on the customer not noticing the downsizing when comparison shopping.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I thought the size diff was due to shrinkage as the wood dried. Not true?

Reply to
Doug Kanter

I'll repeat a question I asked earlier, which nobody is comfortable answering: If you were informed of the size change, would that have satisfied you? If yes, how would you like to be informed?

Reply to
Doug Kanter

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