181–190 of 535 posts
I had heard about that anecodtally about a local supermarket chain and I was frankly surprised at the time. As most consumers, I also thought that the supermarkets were the ones profiteering. A giant like Carrefour having to call out the manufacturers just shows how much this practice has been used and abused.
For those wondering if it's truly representative, it's estimated that 50% of the inflation in Europe is due to margin increase not bc of the inflation itself. https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2023/06/26/europes-inf...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, the reason why is price gouging. Or as companies like to call it 'not leaving money on the table'. Prices have outpaced inflation. Everything has, except worker pay and minimum wage. Profits are record-breaking while laying off workers. CEO compensation and bonuses are insane. Housing prices are out of control. Gas is still $5/gallon where I'm at. It all boils down to one word: GREED.
Looks like we're in the 'blaming suppliers for being greedy' stage of inflation. Haven't seen that one before.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Supply constraints typically lead to higher prices and higher margins. The fact that the margins have gone up does not somehow imply that the higher prices are something other than inflation.
Temporarily and in a localized way, yes. For example, if there's a natural disaster, and the people in power aren't dumb, they'll let prices float instead of putting caps in place, and everyone will be incentivised to rent big trucks full of water bottles and sell it for 20-50x the normal price. For the affected people it makes sense because now they can drink water, and if the prices were controlled nobody would mak…
I think most states that experience natural disasters have price gouging laws that make it illegal to raise prices, during a declared emergency, beyond the level required by increased costs.
Or at least I know Louisiana[1] and California[2] do.
And here in Louisiana we've had a lot of disasters and it generally works (sometimes gouging still happens).
[1] https://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=85680
[2] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...
This is such a good idea. I know that everyone in the Western World is told that they eat too much but people need to be able to buy food and eat it. And if the same packaging this week has 90% of what it had last week then then consumers are going to suffer. In the UK many people rely on Food banks and parents skip meals to feed their children. Cutting the amount of food in a package in a manner that is not even vis…
I wish there was legislation in place that sets legal standard sizes; for one, it would allow for more uniform packaging, allowing reuse between brands and reducing trash. It would be more predictable box / pallet sizes, reducing transport costs. And it would give consumers more security, even with the mandatory price per liter / kilo notices which are often hard to read. One example of shrinkflation / cost fuckery h…
For those wondering if it's truly representative, it's estimated that 50% of the inflation in Europe is due to margin increase not bc of the inflation itself. https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2023/06/26/europes-inf...
Do not buy into that narrative. This inflationary process has been mostly driven by monetary policy. Margin increases are the result of businesses trying to navigate an inflationary period. These margin increases are not resulting in increased profits across the board (there are some notable exceptions). For example, Carrefour's profits in 2022 were about the same as in 2019. [1] From the article you linked: "Profits…
Isn't this exactly why we should buy into this narrative? The manufacturers increased their margins, so Carrefour sells more expensive, but in the end gets the same total profit.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looks like we're in the 'blaming suppliers for being greedy' stage of inflation. Haven't seen that one before.
It’s not irrational to be mad. All the poor see is that they are getting screwed and the rich are doing fine (sometime thriving) no platitudes about “economics” are going to make them feel better.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the former is the default in the EU/UK. I do find it really helpful, especially when comparing different brands or sizes. It also allowed me to spot some shady pricing practices, the recent one: dishwasher tablets are 10% cheaper when buying a bunch of smaller packages, rather than a big one. I still buy the latter as it results in less waste but it pisses me off to know how unnecessary and bad for the enviro…
Be careful to double check, in my experience, most of the time it's a labeling mistake...
The worse combo is shrinkflation with significantly increased price. I used to buy Arm and Hammer detergent (250 FL OZ) from Costco for ~$11 about a year ago. Last week, I went to Costco and saw that they have reduced the size of the container (in a very subtle way so it is hard to notice) with 200 FL OZ and charges $14.89. That is like double rip-off. My salary did not increase 35% between this and last year. For Ch…
That assumes there's extra profits. They also have to pay for materials, labor, etc. which have also gone up recently. Perhaps they're making the same profit (amount or percent) they were 4 years ago at that size/price?
Buy items priced by bulk weight to begin with. Meat, vegetables, nuts, also items in standard packaging sizes like milk per liter or gallon. All this processed junk (with its non-standard package sizing) is bad for you anyway. If someone will start packaging toothpaste in bulk liter sizes, I'll switch to that, and find some kind of more permanent dispenser to fill that looks better in my bathroom anyway.
At the same time, finding food that is high fiber, low salt and unsweetened is nearly impossible. Such food is literally made of precursor ingredients and subsets of the stuff added to the unhealthy stuff.
I switched to eating more of the latter, and feel much better in multiple dimensions. Also, most of what I eat now tastes better and is more filling. My weight is slowly going down too.
My current litmus test is that the fiber % daily value should be more than the carbohydrates %DV and the salt %DV should be less than it. I try to buy stuff with zero salt added (I have a nice collection of salty condiments at home already), and no sugar added (though that metric is already being gamed by manufacturers).
Simply avoiding all processed foods would achieve a similar effect, but that eliminates staple foods that are often loaded with salt, sugar or worse (e.g. yogurt, bread, peanut butter) and making them all from scratch is too time consuming.