Modern 'Cons'

Beaker99

Something I've been wondering about, and finally thought of posting..

Companies naturally try to find ways to make more money out of their products, increasing their profits. It's what they do. But can we list the biggest 'modern cons'?

I'll start with my first one.. The Washing powder / dishwasher tablet.

Amazing modern invention, but what does it do for you, other than make you spend more money??.. so let's look at the dishwasher version. Starting with brand name tablets, typically 23p/tablet (on Qty30), Sainsbury's basics tablets 5.7p/tablet (Qty 30), but let's go all 'old fashioned at look at good 'ol powder.. Sainsbury's regular powder, £6.32/3Kg - that's 150 loads (my dishwasher needs 20g/load) - which is 4.2p/load -If you want to use a branded powder, that's 4.7p/load - that's a saving of nearly 80%!!

So, I give you the first modern 'con' - the tablet.

-The costs were taken from mysupermarket.com 10/10/09

ceridwen

Trying to make us all believe "anti-bacterial" soaps, etc, are necessary.

Huh!!! - and I expect objective research proves they are not only unnecessary, but destroy beneficial stuff as well.:mad:

Those horrible chemical airfresheners - smell revolting/wasteful use of resources and I believe they are bad for us as well. What's wrong with just opening a window/using natural potpourri or whatever?

stilernin

Low Fat Spread!!!

The manufacturer takes 'Full Fat Spread', adds water and voila! less fat per 100g - and they charge you more for the privilege.

My ol' mum used to do this with softened butter to make it go further on the sarnies. Little did she know she was using 'Low Fat Butter'!

Radish72

Bottled water

I will never understand why people buy litres of the stuff when it comes out of the tap at home

SailorSam

Radish72 wrote: »

Bottled water

I will never understand why people buy litres of the stuff when it comes out of the tap at home

Must be the biggest con of all time.
I heard on the Tv last week that a town in Australia had a vote whether to allow bottled water, and now it's banned, none of the shops are allowed to sell it.

stilernin

Radish72 wrote: »

Bottled water

I will never understand why people buy litres of the stuff when it comes out of the tap at home

I have often wondered if there is any correlation between the rise in volume of bottled water (just how much is stored?) and drought in the world. Water is a finite resource after all.

Beaker99

stilernin wrote: »

Low Fat Spread!!!

The manufacturer takes 'Full Fat Spread', adds water and voila! less fat per 100g - and they charge you more for the privilege.

My ol' mum used to do this with softened butter to make it go further on the sarnies. Little did she know she was using 'Low Fat Butter'!

Ah ha! - That's a fantastic one!! - reducing the cost to make the product and <sometimes> charging more for it's benefit!! - truly a 'modern con'!!

..it's a bit like that advert for dried dog food being 'more nutritious gram for gram over canned food'- Well of course it frickin' does!!! - one's dry (light) and the other is wet (heavy)!!!

Radish72

Shampoo bottles that state

If hair is still dirty wash again

I think if hair is still dirty, take shampoo back as its not fit for the job, manufactures must love that people use twice as much shampoo because they think their hair is still dirty

Beaker99

Just thinking - probably the 'buy one get one free' is a modern con. They often raise the price of the individual unit to fund the 'free' one! - ever thought it odd how BOGOF promotions are usually on an end isle?? - it's so you can't see that the individual prices are higher than other like-for-like products, NOT on offer!

( I once saw where they'd accidently left the 'non-offer' price of a bag of chips on the shelf.. It was £1.29 before, or £1.89 BOGOF!) - obviously still a saving (if you wanted two in the first place) but a proper con!

edit: actually, the 'price per 100ml/grams' is good for this.. look at this figure on BOGOF offers compared to other similar items.. you'll often be quite shocked how much more it is!!

luxor4t

Kitchen paper towels / Disposable dish cloths/ washing up sponges etc: Mum always used old t-towels for the first and home knitted dish cloths were clean each day. We had a boil wash once a week in the jam pan. Simple!

Dave101t

i guess extended warranties arent modern enough for this thread.

wet wipes maybe? have you ever ran toilet paper under the tap and used that? amazing!