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How shrinkflation is playing havoc with economists’ models

economist.com

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Re: How shrinkflation is playing havoc with economists’ models

#161

Post by 18pfsmt »

pjmorris wrote: post #150
graycat wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I wrote, I don't use an oven! Instead I finish the baking in a covered steel pan, and this does give a crisp bottom. > match a commercial pizza oven. "Match" in what sense? What I described is different but works great. For the 20 minutes, even in Manhattan, tough to take the order, make and bake the pizza, slice it, box it, and deliver it, all in 20 minutes. For the quality, that's a matter of taste, but frozen,…

I've wondered whether an unbaked pizza could be slotted in to a preheated pizza stone 'cage', slipped in to a heat sink type cooler for transportation, and bake while it's on its way to its destination. Assuming the details could be worked out, the customer would have hotter, fresher pizza, and the pizza shop could better match its resources to demand. Even if the tech could be worked out, it seems accident prone com…

As I read your parent's comment, my mind was drifting in the direction of your comment. Domino's is said to be working on such a thing, but more of warming rather than a cooking setup. The good pizza places I know use ovens that are ~500F. A couple issues: Is that feasible or safe in a vehicle? How about different distances to the delivery location resulting in overcooking/undercooking some pizzas?

I live a couple blocks from a pizza place. I order, wait 10 min, then turn on my oven, and then pick it up 10 min later.

Re: How shrinkflation is playing havoc with economists’ models

#162

Post by gnicholas »

pjmorris wrote: post #150
graycat wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I wrote, I don't use an oven! Instead I finish the baking in a covered steel pan, and this does give a crisp bottom. > match a commercial pizza oven. "Match" in what sense? What I described is different but works great. For the 20 minutes, even in Manhattan, tough to take the order, make and bake the pizza, slice it, box it, and deliver it, all in 20 minutes. For the quality, that's a matter of taste, but frozen,…

I've wondered whether an unbaked pizza could be slotted in to a preheated pizza stone 'cage', slipped in to a heat sink type cooler for transportation, and bake while it's on its way to its destination. Assuming the details could be worked out, the customer would have hotter, fresher pizza, and the pizza shop could better match its resources to demand. Even if the tech could be worked out, it seems accident prone com…

See Zume Pizza: https://mashable.com/2018/04/25/zume-pizza-robot-delivery-tr...

Re: How shrinkflation is playing havoc with economists’ models

#163

Post by 18pfsmt »

graycat wrote: post #153
darkwater wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You bake the pizza in a what? My Italian origins strongly disapprove this :/

So far it looks like the flour, yeast, salt, water, sauce, cheese, and sausage don't know about transgressions of Italian origins and traditions!

I think you should use a quality pizza stone, but you were unfairly treated for espousing the idea that one would choose to use quality ingredients, rather than accepting some inferior product (or at least a relatively expensive product).

Re: How shrinkflation is playing havoc with economists’ models

#164

Post by 18pfsmt »

samsonradu wrote: post #141
odiroot wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Chocolate bars used to have 200g. Some now have less than 100g. I think it's a very good development.

Agree! If there's any inflation I'd like to see it's for sugar products.

Sugars are heavily involved in inter cellular signaling we still do not understand at all. All sugars occur in nature within highly fibrous constituents. Fiber has been the helpful constituent on the side that helped with digestion of sugar, but when it isn't simultaneously present, it's a problem.

Re: How shrinkflation is playing havoc with economists’ models

#165

Post by WalterBright »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #159
WalterBright wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a quality of simple bread from 40 years ago Wonder Bread was popular in the 1960's, 50 years ago.

Wonder Bread was nothing like quality bread. Quite the opposite.

Exactly my point.

Re: How shrinkflation is playing havoc with economists’ models

#166

Post by graycat »

18pfsmt wrote: post #163
graycat wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So far it looks like the flour, yeast, salt, water, sauce, cheese, and sausage don't know about transgressions of Italian origins and traditions!

I think you should use a quality pizza stone, but you were unfairly treated for espousing the idea that one would choose to use quality ingredients, rather than accepting some inferior product (or at least a relatively expensive product).

A pizza stone needs an oven, typically a quite hot oven, and some significantly long pre-heating. The stone gives a crisp bottom.

For the actual, final baking, I'm not using an oven and am using just a common, restaurant style, all steel saute pan with a circular flat bottom about 8" in diameter. So, I get the bottom of the pizza crisp and as brown as I want. And I cover the pan to create an oven that does cook the dough some more and melt the cheese.

All of this is my response to the OP about shrinkflation. I've outlined a response -- 20 minutes, 9 cents of flour, crisp bottom, sauce, cheese, and sausage of your choice, etc. My post is just in response to the OP's shrinkflation and not throwing down a gauntlet as the world's greatest pizza, better than NYC, Chicago, Naples, etc. For one, do some arithmetic on the 1 kg of flour, split 8 ways, and the 7" diameter -- get a relatively thick pizza, and people who want pizza very thin might not be happy.

Re: How shrinkflation is playing havoc with economists’ models

#167

Post by ekianjo »

dbskdb wrote: post #35
ekianjo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd also like to see a law passed that requires each product to mention on its packaging if its ingredients (even just their relative proportions) have changed. This would apply to things like foods/drinks and also cleaning products. Ridiculous proposition. Formulations change pretty much constantly for various reasons (ingredients become more expensive, or you change suppliers, or you decide to adjust something to…

As a consumer I rather like it when I know how much filler is added in my products 1. I want to be able to compare w other brands 2. I don’t want any filler at all! If chocolate goes up in price, I’ll pay more to get the real stuff, or buy less of it. I most certainly won’t buy a bar of food wax with chocolate solids, or whatever Hershey is

> As a consumer I rather like it when I know how much filler is added in my products

Depends where you live but many brands actually indicate their content of chocolate directly on the box (70%, 80% etc... unless you buy milk chocolate.

As for not wanting any filler at all: then buy pure cocoa beans! If you buy processed food you should always assume there is some kind of "filler". And not that "fillers" are also necessary sometimes to give a proper texture to what you eat and make sure the taste is consistent from one box to another.

Re: How shrinkflation is playing havoc with economists’ models

#168

Post by kingludite »

sorenjan wrote: post #139
null_object wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. This is ridiculously derailing the general discussion, but I don’t know whether you can PM me an email address or something, but when I get back to Stockholm tomorrow I could photograph and send you any number of images showing this happening. It does indicate both how blind Swedes are to the faults in their own country, and how passionately defensive they are though. Edit: This doesn’t seem to me to be highly r…

I merely presented anecdata contrary to your experience, that does not in any way indicate any kind of blindness to faults or mean I'm passionately defensive. If you shop in stores that break the law you should take it up with the store manager, store owner, Stockholm's konsumentvägledare [0], or Konsumentverket [1]. They're violating the law [2]. I hope you had a nice vacation outside of Stockholm, no need to add an…

Here in NL the stores often display the price per kg. I don't think there is a law but dutch people are just cheap, we feel like we get something extra for free out of it. (joking)

At least one supermarket forbids taking pictures tho.

Re: How shrinkflation is playing havoc with economists’ models

#169

Post by kingludite »

dane-pgp wrote: post #6
forinti wrote: post #4

This is a process Brazilians know well. Chocolate bars used to have 200g. Some now have less than 100g. Toilet paper rolls used to have 50m; most now have 30m and some have only 10m. This sort of thing started happening in the 1980s, because the government had frozen prices (that always works well). It became such a problem that now the law says that the packaging must clearly point out if the quantity inside has cha…

I'd also like to see a law passed that requires each product to mention on its packaging if its ingredients (even just their relative proportions) have changed. This would apply to things like foods/drinks and also cleaning products. Of course companies would protest, claiming that their recipes are trade secrets, but we already require that products list their ingredients, and we protect trademarks for products, whi…

I would like to see some qr code pointing at an ever expanding list of data. I imagine a game where every 3 months 1% tax is added that can be waved if some new data set is exposed to the customer.

Its terrible how disconnected we are from the things that sustain us. There are so many companies involved in producing something simple. We can gradually expose the consumers to all these business processes we've accumulated over many thousands of years. I think it could be mind blowing in many ways.

People aslo behave different if someone might be looking. Investors get a tour of the facility and everything seems designed for them rather than for the customer. I've seen places remove chairs and force everyone to stand all day simply because it looked good to investors. Open floor plans anyone? From an investor perspective the less room for livestock the better. Salaries cant possibly be low enough. etc

Have them make [say] a nice video showing the production process. Have some fancy committee sign of on it. Or if the product is to embarrassed to show how it's made have it pay the 1% extra taxes.

Re: How shrinkflation is playing havoc with economists’ models

#170

Post by taejo »

walshemj wrote: post #118
hnarn wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it also happens in the EU that one item will be shown as €/100g and another as €/kg In my experience this difference is decided by what a "normal" amount of the good tends to be. For example, €/kg is usually used for meat, flour etc, but for something like spices or herbs a price of €/kg would seem silly since you rarely buy, and it's rarely sold in, a kilo. Still, a luxury of the metric system is that even if it's…

in the UK I have seen products in the same category next to each other on the shelves use different units.

It happens in Germany too, and that's what I was referring to.
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