Ouch

So last night I am preparing Nicki’s dinner.  Part of the process is taking a small glass bowl of vegetables and warming it up in the microwave for it to be added to the rest of the concoction.  When I pulled it out the glass felt rather hot.  I shifted my fingers to avoid burning them.  As I did, the glass bowl slipped out of my hands and smashed into the tile floor. Instinctively I yelled “F%CK !!!!!!!!” which sent Nicki scampering back to the bedroom.  It was a freaking mess to clean up, glass and food residue was everywhere.  I wound up using the combination of a dustpan, shop vac, wet rags and my fingers to clean up the disaster area. I wasn’t very happy.

I was following a thread on Facebook in the “Topic: Reasons why Scott is not a Real Republican” thread.  Scott is Scott DePace from the Stern show.  He is a die hard, blinders fully on republican.  He actually thinks George Bush did a decent job. Anyway in the thread Scott was talking about George’s virtues, one of which was how inflation was kept in check during his administration.  A poster pointed out how inflation numbers are very skewed.  Manufacturers pull stunts to make it seem like they are keeping prices in line when in reality they are doing the exact opposite.  He posted the following example:

A few years back you could buy a carton of ice cream for about 2.50$ (2.0 quarts).

Then they started making those 1.75 quart cartons and charging about 3.25$.

Now, as of yesterday, I saw they now are switching to 1.5 quart cartons and the price is up to about $4.00. Sweet

Let’s do the math:
2001 ice-cream 2.0 qts @ $2.50 = $1.25 per qt.
2006 ice-cream 1.75 qts @ $3.25 = $1.86 per qt. (48.8% increase)
2008 ice-cream 1.5 qts @ $4.00 = $2.66 per qt. (112.8% increase since 2001)

I thought about what the poster said and he is exactly right.  I see this trend all over the place, take laundry detergent for example.  Now manufacturers are all selling “concentrated” versions of their products, almost exclusively.  It allows them to sell you less product for the same money under the ruse that it does the same amount of laundry as the older, bigger product.  Of course they know the reality is people will more than likely dump in the same amount of detergent they always have.  The end result, they quietly have jacked up their profit margins and cost to the consumer exponentially.  If you look around there are countless examples of this business practice.