When a gallon is not a gallon

The price is now $5.49 locally. At 64 ounces it would be $6.29. They passed the $4 mark and are still selling. The only time I'll buy it now is when on sale every few weeks. I get a few and keep them in the freezer. Sale price is up to $2.74 last week. Rather than run sales on rotation, just sell at a fair price every day. Since they cut the package size, I've not bought any at full price. Screw them.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski
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Or mini spares that are only good for 50mph and a couple thousand miles tread wear. Oh wait, they already do...

Reply to
Rick Blaine

Most sales are initiated by the stores, not the manufacturers. At the moment, most stores are paying between $3.28 and $3.96 per container for the product.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom
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See, they beat you too. It would still be a 14.3% increase in the smaller package, just a smaller cash outlay at the time of purchase as they "hide" the increase. .

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Was that a serious response? All you did was reword the exact point I was making.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Was that a serious response? All you did was reword the exact point I was making.

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Read what you wrote. " 'cuz it's one or the other."

Could be interpreted as the choice is a smaller package or a price increase.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

You know, you are probably more right that not but;

1) Why complain here? Complain to WalMart 2) I do have some sympathy for the suppliers who feel forced to kowtow to WalMart's demands but maybe it's time to tell them to go to hell. Perhaps the manufacturer shoulkd be the one who sets quality and other issues. Perhaps it is time that the consumer says to hell with cheap crap and demands fair value for decent quality stuff.

OH! I gues I'm dreaming.

Reply to
Doug Brown

Fortunately, flat tires are so damn rare, that spending another $200 for a real spare tire and rim is a complete waste of money.

The days of having 2 flat tires and a blowout on a 2500 mile road trip are gone.

Reply to
AZ Nomad

Gosh, where I come from I am not sure that it ever came in 64 oz containers.

Of course back in the day my Gallon was 160 oz so my quart would have ben 40 oz etc.

And of course no one here (that I have seen) has addressed the issue of how much air might be incorporated in the ice cream, fat content etc.

So, while this is all fun and gams to discuss it really can not and will not settle anything.

Reply to
Doug Brown

quoted text -

I gave those as examples of human nature. Your claim was that it wasn't dishonest to shrink packages because people could read the labels. Once people have learned something we don't examine the minutia each time and just go on with life. So when we buy the "gallon" ice cream we reach for the package that has always represented a gallon.

Just like when you twist a light bulb to the left to remove it without lifting up the lamp to read the instructions. Or you put food in a microwave and don't pour over the manual for 5 minutes because you "know" what to do. Or you know that the pedal on the right is the throttle (in left side operator cars) without needing to look for instructions when you get in a car and when they drive through an area that has the same posted speed forever we proceed as normal unless there is something to call our attention to the change.

Reply to
George

Not a complaint, just an example of how big box stores operate and quite pertinent to this thread.

It won't happen as long as big box has the war chests they have which gives them the ability to buy mindshare through marketing.

Reply to
George

But certainly unless it was a huge increase the sales slowdown is just a momentary thing.

If it wasn't the case soda sales should have ceased when they went from $0.02 to $0.03 a bottle and the same for everything you can thing of.

The problem today is that there are few real managers who truly understand what they are doing. Most just live by computer printouts that describe the moment without seeing the big picture.

Reply to
George

re: Read what you wrote.

Understand what I wrote.

re: Could be interpreted as the choice is a smaller package or a price increase.

Sure, if you ignore the context of everything else we've said in this discussion.

You started this part of the discussion by saying that my attitude (shop by unit pricing and ignore the size of the package) was letting them get away with "sleaze". I gave in - I said don't buy ice cream until they go back to 64 oz. I also added that when it does, we would have no right to complain when the price jumped by 14.3% because when viewed from a unit price perspective it's the same thing.

"One or the other" is a choice between 56 oz for $5.49 or 64 oz $6.29. I'll let you do the math to determine the unit price. I believe you'll find very little difference, which is why I say "Who gives a crap what size package anything comes in?"

Reply to
DerbyDad03

"Cleaning bus station bathrooms?" Where'd you get the idea I'm employed in that area?

And thanks for offering to provide for my family in the event of my demise. That's not only neighborly, but it's the right thing to do.

I've made a note to include your email address in the next revision of my will. Don't be surprised if you get a polite note sometime in the (hopefully) distant future.

Thanks in advance for your compassion. You are such a nice person.

Love,

HeyBub

Reply to
HeyBub

Actually, above a certain price point, the movement of so-called "premium" ice cream gets slow and stays slow. Not momentary. Around here, $4-something is the so-called "normal" price - that's where volume shrinks. Every product is viewed differently by customers, insofar as whether they're necessities you'll pay anything for. If you need eggs, you buy eggs, even if the store isn't pricing them at loss-leader level at the moment. Ice cream's not like that. Soda's a different story. For many people, that's considered a staple item - there's always an opened liter in their refrigerators.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

That one, at least, is a bad choice of example when trying to illustrate your point: left pedal brake, right pedal throttle is a requirement of Federal law, and has been for many years. It's not something that manufacturers could suddenly change on a whim.

Reply to
Doug Miller

I have NO sympathy for suppliers to Wal Mart. The want the volume and they willingly take a lot of crap from them. Thee is no obligation to sell to any of the big tyrant stores. Do a Google search on Vlasic pickles+WalMart and see how they were forced into bankruptcy because they had no balls. The do a search on Snapper Mowers+WalMart and see how a company can tell them to

****off and still be successful.
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My company faced a similar situation. We supplied parts to a major manufacturer of room air conditioners. They were our largest customer for a few years. Tough to deal with, we still made a fair profit and they always tried to squeeze us for more. Before the start of a season, they sent us (and all their suppliers) a letter thanking us for past performance. They then said for the next year they wanted a 25% price reduction for the same parts. Then, if we agreed to that, they wanted a 6% rebate on the past years sales to them.

We declined and asked where they wanted the tooling shipped. It went to a hungry competitor that cheerfully took the business away from us. Two years later, we had new and profitable customers, they had a bankruptcy filing and the customer moved to Mexico and found new cheaper suppliers there.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Snapper (lawnmower mfr) made a similar decision. Interesting article:

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Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

Edwin Pawlowski wrote: (snip)

Good for your company. I wish more manufacturers had the balls to do the same. Every time I have to replace a tool or piece of hardware with moving parts, I am astounded at how cheaply the modern items are made. I'm a cheap SOB, but I am willing to pay extra for quality, within limits. Initial cost is only one factor in cost of ownership. If I have to replace something in half or 2/3 the time span the previous item lasted, but the price is only slightly lower, I haven't saved a thing. And that doesn't even count the value of the time I have to waste chasing a replacement sooner than I should have.

aem sends...

Reply to
aemeijers

For every supplier such as Snapper, there are 10,000 WalMart suppliers who have listened to the experts from WalMart on issues such as packaging, material sourcing, paperwork reduction, automation, improved technology, and the like. The insistence, for example, by WalMart on RFID tags will drag many suppliers into the modern age, just like supermarket chains did with barcodes.

With sufficient RFIDs, you can bypass the time-consuming check out line. As you leave Walmart, a sensor will scan all the stuff in your basket and read the credit card numbers in your wallet.

That's efficiency.

Reply to
HeyBub

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