Downsizing

[Deleted User]

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Nothing new. How many times over the years has a wagon wheel shrunk?

its more of a wagon nut than wheel now :rotfl:

WestonDave

Is this partly down to the rise of pound shops - given that pound shops by definition can't increase their prices, they will either see a smaller and smaller range or they get some co-operation from suppliers who reduce the size of the packs to make them still viable to sell at £1 (or 99p). At the same time the other retailers don't have a problem with prices appearing to stay low especially if they can blame the change on the manufacturer.

grizzly1911

danothy wrote: »

Maybe I am the exception, but my average daily spend on petrol in the year to date has dropped to £1.13 from £1.91 in the year to 2011-11-17.

Why, new car, no car, use it less, switched to diesel?

JimmyTheWig

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I guess it's called "hidden inflation" then as we simply don't notice it as much.

But as you say, why does the BBC (This was research from watchdog) get away with saying it? They clearly suggested it was to get around price inflation.

Maybe it does affect inflation when it is something like a Mars bar.
Obviously with nappies you need to do it on the price per nappy.
Obviously with, say, flour, you need to do it on the price per kilo.
But with something more discrete, do you not do it on price per item?

If previously you bought a 60g Mars bar twice a week, you wouldn't buy an extra one every 6 weeks if they dropped to 55g, would you?
So previously you were buying 2 Mars bars in your weekly shop and now you are buying 2 Mars bars in your weekly shop.
Is it more like when people drop to a cheaper brand? Martin blogged about this a while ago - to do with geometric mean vs arithmetic mean?

antrobus

Graham_Devon wrote: »

...Anyone got any other examples? Is it just a few manufacturers, or are we seeing this more and more?

The Great 'Shrinking Food' Hunt
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2394297


Thread started Thread April 2010; still going.

SailorSam

I think they only started selling petrol in litres was because the price got close to £5 a gallon.

danothy

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Why, new car, no car, use it less, switched to diesel?

No vehicular change ... probably a combination of driving more efficiently (I managed to up my mpg by 1) and planning my driving better. Either way, my spending on petrol has gone down slightly in the face of higher prices.

Jegersmart

Graham_Devon wrote: »

In packet size!

Was on the BBC this morning that packet sizes appear to be reducing in order to reduce price increases.

Mentioned were Pampers, reducing the size of their packs of nappies from 62 to 58 nappies, but keeping the same price. A brand of buscuits removing 2 buscuits from each pack but keeping the price the same.

Diluted products have also seen a dramatic reduction in the amount of raw product sold, but the price has actually gone up. Were talking laundry products, drinks products etc.

Apparently, all this is an attempt by the manufacturers to reduce the need to pass on cost increases...it's a product price inflation that can't be measured by current statistics.

This apparently has two net effects, we pay more for the price of the products, but more of them, but these increases in our costs are not shown in any figures, and hurts those on fixed incomes the most, especially those on benefits for whom these hidden cost increases won't be allowed for in any rate setting.

Anyone got any other examples? Is it just a few manufacturers, or are we seeing this more and more?

Companies need to grow. This is inherent in the current system.

imho

J

Kennyboy66

thor wrote: »

A lot of things have suffered during the past 4 or 5 years of recession but I refuse to believe that spending on food or petrol has gone down.
You see these behemoths buying 10 packs of pizzas, chips galore and gallons of fizzy pop and then driving round non stop for hours on end even though we are supposedly poorer as a country.
The roads are full of cars as ever and the number of takeaways seems to have gone up exponentially. I was hoping that at least some good could have come from the downturn but there seems to be no stopping eating and driving to excess. It's why supermarkets can put on deceptive sales and manufacturers can downsize on the sly. People will continue to buy their goods regardless.

Forumomics.

The amount of retail petrol and diesel sold is significantly lower in 2012 than 2008 (by approx 12%).

Maybe cars are more efficient or people are driving more efficiently or maybe there are less journeys being taken (its really a combination of all three).

Statistics like how much fuel is sold are amongst the most accurate we have because there are few suppliers & its taxed to !!!!!!y,

N1AK

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Anyone got any other examples? Is it just a few manufacturers, or are we seeing this more and more?

I work in the food industry and it is definitely standard practice. The multiples (tesco, asda etc) find price points that work well with shoppers, 2 for £7 for example, on products and want to maintain them.

As the cost of producing products has tended to increase over recent years (especially if you're using cereals or proteins) then you keep the price the same by decreasing pack size; eventually when you have decreased size to the point where a further decrease would be unacceptable to the consumer you increase the price point, to 2 for £8 for example, and then begin the process again; alternatively you release a larger pack-size at what was the original pack size. So after 5 years the 'large' topside joint is the size the normal was and the new 'extra large' joint is the size the large used to be.

This has actually helped in some cases. In the poultry market the size of wholebirds has dropped by category but people are also tending to cook for smaller households which means consumers don't want chickens that can feed 5-6 people any more.

There's nothing immoral or evil about it. Customers value the price point more than they value the change in pack size so companies behave accordingly. If customers behaviour meant that if product B increased price and product A got smaller they would continue to buy product B (rather than a mass migration to product A) then that's what would happen.