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Alex Rast

at Sun, 30 Apr 2006 18:46:27 GMT in
>,
(hob) wrote :

>I was walking through the store yesterday, and I noticed that the "5
>pound" bags of sugar (of all producers) were now all 4 pounds.. (and the
>price PER BAG was also up from last year, fwiw).
>...
>
> I realize there has been a lot of "downsizing" of the quantity
> without
>any commensurate lowering of price

Ultimately, most of these manifestations (in sugar, candy bars, coffee, ice
cream, just about anything else), are nothing more than inflation. Time
goes by, things cost more. The manufacturer then has 2 options:

1) Keep the same weight and increase the price
2) Reduce the weight while retaining the same price.

It's common to opt for the latter because more consumers will stop buying
if the price goes up. To a certain extent, it's the result of unrealistic
expectations - the belief that prices will stay static forever.

Reducing the weight without mentioning it appears deceptive when noticed by
the consumer, but if they said boldly "new smaller size", and then sold it
for the same price, people would buy still *less* than they would had the
price been increased for the same size.

Not that in the case of sugar, at least in the USA, that might not be such
a bad thing, but there is the rationale.

--
Alex Rast

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