Posts Tagged ‘inflation’
Shrinking products at same prices
It has been widely reported that certain American food manufacturers have turned to downsizing package sizes on the quiet in a bid to cut costs, fuelled by rising production costs due to soaring oil and food prices (what’s new).
Of course, the hush-hush game is being played so as not to repulse consumers who may not be observant enough to notice the downsizing at all. After all, in a world where prices of everything else is going up, it will be a promotion of the items of some sorts should their prices remain stagnant. Such coy marketing ploys at work, albeit underhand. Who cares about honesty being the best policy if profiteering is affected at the end of the day?
Though, with the latest reports, these ploys are likely to have been foiled and the companies have some answering to do to their customers.
Then again, are consumers that blind not to notice the surreptitious marginalising privately at play?
As Ms Deirdre Cummings, legislative director at consumer advocacy group MASSPIRG aptly puts, “So many times, they put ‘new improved package’ on the label but they would never put ‘new, improved and smaller’.”
Shouldn’t it be made clear for consumers that they are paying less for the same amount? As buyers, we definitely have the right to know about such changes. Well, at least the Singapore market is not that badly affected yet, although even if it is, we can probably trust our Consumers Association (CASE) to set things straight.
In the meantime, however, has any other fellow local readers noticed a possible covert shift taking place in the fast food restaurants here, in terms of the food portions? I was having supper with a friend recently when he commented, rather aptly it seems, that “unlike 10 years ago when the Big Mac was so huge that we have to split the hamburger into two layers to eat it, the Big Mac is more like a Small Mac now”. Apart from which, the sizes of the burgers at McDonald’s, the fried chicken at KFC, as well as the meat at Long John Silver’s certainly seem to be shrinking by the year, while the prices of their meals are still going up.
As consumers become savvier while the business world gets tougher, it remains to be seen who will have the last laugh.
Can something DEFLATE for once?
(How’s that for a new year gift.)
Though there’s a positive side in all this inflation nonsense in that angpow rates have been inflated as well, as reported by mypaper a few days ago. While it was $2 a few years back, the market rate is $4 currently for the minimal angpow amount you may packet without having to be seen as indecently cheapskate by said angpow receiver and his parents. (Good news for all unmarried people!)
However, by inflation here, it means MARKET inflation, which may not necessarily be such a good thing after all. Though I realise that newspapers here love to make a lot of comparisons with the inflation rates in other countries to essentially soften the impact (and that is where the scary close-to-10%-inflation-rates-in-Dubai comes in.. While global economics are intrinsically linked, face it, nobody really cares how much more people in Dubai have to pay for an egg). However, this impact certainly hasn’t been reduced much when people have been making radical changes to their lives!
It all seems to be a chain reaction to me. The companies, organisations and what not get affected by all the rising food costs, fuel costs, and what not, and the people subsequently get affected. When this happens, the people will get buay song and blame said companies for not paying attention to their needs and threaten not to patronise the services of these companies again. But at the end of the day they’ll somehow mince their words and go running back to these companies because it has formed part of their lives. Which in turn gives them more reason to up prices in future because they know they have a stable customer base to fall back on!
Let’s take a look at the good news:
- 75% of 1,271 hawkers here have yet to raise their food prices (though I realise the key word here is ‘yet’)
- More ERP gantries mean higher transportation fees
- Higher taxi fares (which is another interesting issue to be looked at in a later post)
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*Written by aR
