prices higher, quantity and quality lower

[Syrinx]

I bought a pound of smoked sausage last night. Hillshire Farms to be exact. I was going to give another try at replicating some jambalaya someone made for me one time. I've tried this experiment a few times, and I just can't seem to get it right. Mine never comes out as good as what my friend made for me one time.

I didn't notice until I got home that the concept of a "pound" had shrunk. I noticed that it was only thirteen ounces instead of the normally expected sixteen. And I was charged the same amount, or maybe a little more, than for the 16-oz. package I had bought a few weeks ago.

And the product was less appealing too. Not to get too technical, but the texture seemed "mushier." Not the same product at all, really.

And I see this pattern replicated all over. Higher and higher prices for less and less of shittier food.

Bought a frozen pizza lately? I bought a Tombstone pizza a few weeks ago, and it curled into some sort of flour-based bivalve shape in the oven that tasted like ketchup-flavored gluten.

Remember when Totino's pizza rolls were tasty little snacks? Nowadays they taste like little pustules filled with random DNA.

And it's not just processed foods that I'm griping about.

I'm bringing home more rotten onions and rotten potatoes, and I'm paying more for the privilege.

It's just another example of the corporations that are sucking the life out of us all.

They are laughing as they sell us over-priced poison and garbage.

[meow mix]

1. its true, our store is offering small portions for a proportionally higher price

like "thin cut" steaks and such. half a gallon of milk is now 3.69 with the full being 4.69

how nice of them to offer us less for an additional cost!!!

[SoCalDem]

2. Some "pounds" of coffee are 11oz..I saw one with 9.5 oz of a "gourmet-brand"

The can size is the same as a 1lb can, but it's obviously half empty:(

What pisses me off is when can sizes change so that you have to buy TWO of them for a recipe..

My Cranberry/pumpkin/oatmeal cookie recipe calls for 2 cups of pumpkin...and of course the cans are now 13.5 oz instead of the former 16 oz.

I wish they had left the sizes alone and just raised the damned prices..

Have you noticed that the 5lb bag of sugar, now is 4 lbs?

[Obamanaut]

8. I buy beans for coffee, and grind them. I just checked the bag, and it is

clearly marked 11 oz. Nowhere does it say 1 lb or even 16 ounces, but clearly 11 oz.

Next, out of curiosity, I checked in the cabinet, and found a 5 lb bag of sugar, again clearly marked, 5 lb.

I don't understand how a 1 pound bag of coffee can be 11 ounces, or five pounds of sugar be four pounds. Are the ones you get mislabeled? Do you not check the labels?

Is it possible to reduce the other ingredients in your cookie recipe by the same ratio as the pumpkin?

[SoCalDem]

12. I'm "old school" and was referring to the "size" of the packaging

Ask any old timer , they'll know what I meant:)

I should have used "1-lb can"..in quotes.. mea culpa..

"clearly marking" in writing does not negate a lifetime's experience with what used to be "standardized" sizes we all grew up with

phrases like .."pound-of-bacon" are familiar to many of us oldies..

the packages of bacon are still the same size as they used to be but the "clearly written" lesser quantity on an overly large packaging for the quantity is deliberate:)

Sugar and flour have always been marketed in 5# , 10# sizes, and in "some" cases the tops are folded more. with more "empty" at the top, and yes there "are" 4# bags of sugar.. not all brands maybe, but I have definitely seen them out here at Stater Brothers

as for my cookies, I just buy two cans of pumpkin and throw away most of the second can,. doing my bit for the economy:)

[Obamanaut]

15. I don't know what the cutoff for 'old school' or 'old timer' is, but I'm 69. I check

the cost per ounce (for example) of the various sizes - 11 ounce pound, 5 pound bags, etc - and if a different size is less costly per unit, that's what we buy. Miz O and I both carry a pocket calculator when we go shopping for grocery items. She won't let me use my Pickett slide rule any more - people ask too many questions.

And I believe that there are 4 lb bags of sugar, because I have seen sugar in other sizes as well, down to 1 lb bags. But every time they are marked with what they have in them. I've never seen a 4 lb bag marked as 5 lbs. Have you? Really?

[seabeyond]

3. you are right on. yup. nt

[ejpoeta]

4. yeah, gotta be careful. they are sneaky about it too. Like peanut butter

with a concave bottom so the jar looks the same size. I try to be vigilant about checking that. my 34.5 oz maxwell house turned into 31.5 oz for the same price. Almost bought 1.5 ltrs of pop until my daughter noticed that one. Almost couldn't tell unless you put it up next to a 2 ltr. As for pizza.... I haven't bought a frozen pizza in awhile, but I am not surprised. And the fruits and vegetables... Pisses me off when stuff is rotting 2 days after I brought it home. Onions, bananas.... You name it. But with all my free choice to buy rotting fruit and vegetables from store a or store b, or buy shrinking products for the same or more from store a or store b... what to do with myself. My daughter's sneakers I bought in August, at the end of august are already falling apart. And I paid $16 for them NOT at walmart either. As if it matters. Most places sell the same shoes from the same companies don't they?

[Obamanaut]

5. Was the correct weight listed on the package? Or on the tag on the shelf?

The packages of various food products have the weight/amount plainly printed. Many, if not most, of the shelf tags breakdown the prices into how much per unit (ounce, each, etc)

[trof]

6. Next time go 'local' with Conecuh.

A bit off topic, but I love Conecuh sausage.
Miz t. uses either that or andouille in jambalaya.
Andouille is preferred.

Yeah, I hear you about higher prices, lower quantity.
Peanut butter price is expected to skyrocket due to drought/low yield in southeast. Baldwin Co. seems to have bumper crop, so maybe I'll be making my own.

[DAMANgoldberg]

18. K & R

I can't say enough good things about Conecuh Sausage. I just wish it was available in the Charlotte area, but it is a bit far. Manda makes some awesome Andouille, but it's even further away in Baton Rouge.

[emcguffie]

7. tropicana orange juice.

New container. No longer 64 ounces, now it's 59. That's an odd number, isn't it?

Lots of items are in new packages and are a wee bit smaller, for more money. It's like they thought they needed to really hike the prices quite a bit, and didn't want to freak us out too much, so they made everything a little smaller and raised the prices too.

[SomethingFishy]

9. It's to the point now where I have to shop at Costco

or I'd never be able to afford the weekly food bill. Feeding 4 high school age boys is a nightmare.

[Robb]

10. You bought different sausage, perhaps?

My experience has been that the low-fat varieties of Hillshire Farms smoked tube meats ( :D ) are 13 oz, the full-fat kind are 16 oz. Did you get a turkey sausage or some such? :shrug:

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

11. Anyone notice cable movie channels getting worse?

It could be me and my tastes. But Dish Network keeps getting more expensive and the quality of the movie channels has dramatically deteriorated in my opinion. They are charging more but cutting channels carried. They have eliminated ESPN Classic from my package and want to charge me more to see it, whereas it used to be included. They've eliminated several other channels from my package including the Sundance Channel. And what movie channels they have tend to show more and more the same tired cycle of old chestnuts, usually repeating the same film more than once a day. It's becoming unwatchable and I've been thinking that it might have something to do with the economy and lower subscription rates, but I haven't seen the statistics.

[Bryn]

13. Networks on TV/Cable

are flooding channels with endless, mindless sitcoms ... I'd see ..

Friends, Friends, Friends, How I met your Mother, How I met your Mother, Tyler's, Tyler's, and more sitcoms. Even on weekends. In the past they didn't usually show sitcoms on weekends, now they're on all hours, every day. Less & less drama/actions programs. Nearly no more movies. Whatever happened to "Sunday Night Movies" or "Monday Night Movies"? Also more and more paid programming! I cut my cable down to just basic. It's frustrating. They don't want to spend money on quality programs, but instead throw us junks to make profits for themselves. I might as well shut down my TVs!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

14. Playhouse 90 is long, long gone, unfortunately

TV seems to get worse with every passing decade.

[Jack Sprat]

16. Something even more noticeable

It costs so much more to eat healthy foods. After having heart surgery, I have to be more selective on what I consume. It didn't take long to realize that lower calories and lower fats inflate the grocery bill by some 50%. Healthier foods are generally on the outside grocery ailes where fresh produce, seafood, and deli are maintained. I know canned goods are higher themselves, but going fresh or frozen is quite a bit higher.

[louslobbs]

17. Yep, it's the old "pay more get less" corporate way. I know they've been slipping out sheets from

my Bounty Paper Towels for years. The rolls just kept getting thinner and thinner, and then miraculously they came up with a single "double roll," that seems to be the same size as the original roll my mother used years ago, but now just costs more.

Also, my V-8 bottle has more curves and indentations carved into it with a much bigger "bubble curve" on the bottom going up and into the bottle, taking up space that used to be filled with liquid contents, less bottle, less product, more money.

I've never seen a more prolific and cunning pack of corrupt thieves and liars than the 1% and their bought and paid for corporate and political armies, all working together in a very lucrative criminal enterprise where they make the rules or don't, they make the regulations or don't, and they change the rules of the game at their whim to enable each other to continue their rule over and theft from the majority without any consequences criminal or other.

They steal from us in every imaginable way that they can come up with in a system rigged by them and for them, and when we finally take to the streets to stop them, they whine and cry like little babies who are being wronged. They're absolutely pathetic.

*You assist an unjust administration most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil administration never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil.
A good person will resist an evil system with his whole soul. Disobedience of the laws of an evil state is therefore a duty. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

*When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men or women, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it, and a moral code that glorifies and justifies it."
Political economist Frederic Bastiat, The Law <1850>

Lou

[coalition_unwilling]

19. OT a bit, but consider trying Jennie-O Turkey Kielbasa for your

Jumbalaya. You can usually find it at about the same price/ounce as Hillshire Farms, it's way healthier (many fewer fat grams per serving) and tastes almost exactly the same when used in Creole cuisine.