Caveat Emptor is more important now than ever!
The other day I wrote about the radically rising costs of food around the world. I warned that we could face serious socio-economic troubles here in America should people all of a sudden find themselves faced with severe inflation. I’m here to say that we have a major food inflationary crisis occurring here in the United States and most consumers don’t even realize it. In many cases people are paying anywhere from 10-30% in higher food costs. The cost of food is skyrocketing right in front of you but you might not even be aware of it happening.
During the last few years as we have struggled through the “Great Recession” consumers have been very good at watching prices, cutting expenses and tightening the belt. In this environment, we as consumers are very sensitive to price fluctuations. Marketers and big brands know this but at the same time they are facing significant increases in the raw production costs of goods and the costs for transportation of these goods. What can they do to offset these costs when everyone is pinching pennies?
In the end the solution was keep the prices the same but shrink the amount of good in the product. This is now a rapidly growing practice spreading across all retail areas. Have you noticed that the products you buy don’t last as long? Does that bottle seem a little smaller? A little lighter? Across this country in stores big and small shoppers are unwittingly being the victims of food inflation.
Here are a few examples of the changes to food and consumer products:
Tropicana Orange Juice
Before: 64 oz.
Now: 59 oz.
Change: 7.8%
Ivory Detergent
Before: 30 oz.
Now: 24 oz.
Change: 20%
Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream
Before: 16 oz.
Now: 14 oz.
Change: 12.5%
Hebrew National Hot Dogs
Before: 12 oz.
Now: 11 oz.
Change: 8%
Kraft American Cheese
Before: 24 slices
Now: 22 slices
Change: 8.3%
Classico Pasta Sauce
Before: 10 oz.
Now: 8.1 oz.
Change: 20%
And Many More…
That was a just a tiny little sampling of the changes to the prices at the grocery store! I know I’ve said this before but seriously have you received a 10%, 15%, 20% in the past year? Or let me put it another way what you be doing if the direct prices actually rose 20%? You would realize it more but the effect is still the same. The average American shopper is getting hit hard by the rising cost of food it’s not just something that happens in faraway places like Asia or Africa or South America. This is happening today right here and right now.
I think one of the most frustrating and upsetting parts about this is that the government is complicit in this hiding of inflation. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is how the government tracks inflation but they have in interest in making sure it stays low. I’ve written about how the CPI is calculated and index and how the numbers are typically adjusted to trend inflation down and lower than it truly is. Put simply when the trackers go to the stores and see the changes in quantity they turn a blind eye to it by either simply calculating that the price is the same or choose a new product and remove the inflationary product out of the index. This defeats the purpose of trying to track the actual costs consumers have to pay in real life.
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About Peter Serrano