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Shrinkflation Tracker

shrinkflation.io

181–190 of 240 posts

Re: Shrinkflation Tracker

#181
post #40

Would be nice to have the actual owning organisations in there. i bet these are largely subsidiaries of the same mother company.

I remember using this app[0] on my phone years ago, I just checked and they have an API. I'm not sure, but if I recall correctly this allowed you to scan barcodes of things and warn you if they are sub-brand or subsidiary of [evil company you wish to avoid]. [0] https://www.buycott.com/api

Is this the one that explicitly won't let you boycott products by Israeli companies?

edit: Yep https://honestreporting.com/fighting-bds-with-buycotts/

You can use it to boycott anything (perceived as conservative or neutral) you like as long as it's not progressive or Israeli.

So, useless.

Re: Shrinkflation Tracker

#182
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember using this app[0] on my phone years ago, I just checked and they have an API. I'm not sure, but if I recall correctly this allowed you to scan barcodes of things and warn you if they are sub-brand or subsidiary of [evil company you wish to avoid]. [0] https://www.buycott.com/api

Is this the one that explicitly won't let you boycott products by Israeli companies? edit: Yep https://honestreporting.com/fighting-bds-with-buycotts/ You can use it to boycott anything (perceived as conservative or neutral) you like as long as it's not progressive or Israeli. So, useless.

Wasn't aware of that, also my use-case during the brief time I messed with it was trying to see how clever it was at identifying companies which use animal testing to develop their products.

Thank you for the link.

Re: Shrinkflation Tracker

#183
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those of us on well water don't get fluoride in our drinking water.

Hopefully you get it from a dentist visit because unless you use a prescription toothpaste, it probably doesn’t have much effect.

How does the effectiveness compare of a twice yearly dosing at the dentist vs constant low-level exposure via municipal water?

My (very) lay understanding is that the constant low level fluoride was what's important for long-term dental health.

Re: Shrinkflation Tracker

#186
When submitting a weight, the site should allow you to submit a reference such as a newspaper article, an archived website, or other form of proof. And the proof should be publicly visible.

Re: Shrinkflation Tracker

#187

In an ideal world, one UPC code would identify only one product with one set of ingredients and one weight. Want to make a "+20% free!" package? New UPC! Want to change the contents from 16% cacao to 14% cacao and some more sugar? Sure, new UPC. The manufacturers would have to publish the contents for each UPC in a machine readable format. Then the retailers would have to publish daily prices, again in a machine reda…

The business just make store specific upcs like mattresses. Same cookies, different number

Re: Shrinkflation Tracker

#188
I have an original Pringle's can from the late 70s or whenever it was. (yes, it used to have an apostrophe in the name).

It contained 4.5 ozs of "newfangled potato chips" (I think they legally can't call them chips anymore). That works out to about 125grams give or take.

This site is kvetching that they are at 200 grams now.

Ps, my can doesn't have a UPC barcode on it because they hadn't been invented yet.

Re: Shrinkflation Tracker

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, free markets do lead to better products. But they cost more than the worse products. Look at coffee. The gradual shift from Arabica to more Robusta beans over a generation. Each year, an imperceptible shift was taken that, over decades, lead to coffee that tastes terrible. Opening the door for companies like Starbucks and a ton of gourmet roasters to compete. But properly roasted, single origin coffee costs…

The only thing that Starbucks did for coffee was that children now also love to drink it. In fact their coffee doesn't taste like coffee, but more like mocha/hazelnut ice cream.

Today’s Starbucks is well removed from its origins. Starbucks was never great coffee, but I’ve heard it started out pretty decent.

Much like how McDonalds, KFC, etc started by making decent food so did Starbucks. Add 40+ years of optimizing for the bottom line and the average person’s pallet and you get a very different product.

Re: Shrinkflation Tracker

#190
post #97

Another source of shrinkflation is changing ingredients. Something that used to be 50% water is now 75% water as an example. Another is changing from olive oil to canola or palm or, and things like that.

One of the worst offenders in this regard is packages of frozen meat products such as chicken wings, chicken fingers, nuggets, etc. They used to just contain the breaded meat with the net weight printed on the box (usually 2 lb). Now they've started including frozen sauce packets as well. I've weighed some of these and found, for example, a 2 lb box of chicken wings that comes with more than half a pound of buffalo s…

Sort of related is chocolate. I feel like 'pure' chocolate is a loss leader and all of the other types with mixed in caramel bits etc are a way of selling you a bunch of cheaper stuff for the same weight and price! Better to just buy the least adulterated chocolate for the best deal.
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