Katie wrote:Masks are currently required in all Illinois state office buildings.
General Mills (GIS) notified retail customers that it's raising prices in mid-January on hundreds of items across dozens of brands. They include Annie's, Progresso, Yoplait, Fruit Roll-Ups, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charm's, Wheaties, Reese's Puffs, Trix and more, according to letters General Mills sent to at least one major regional wholesale supplier last week. For some items, prices will go up by around 20% beginning next year.
NFriday wrote:I think Walmart and Sam's Club now require all of their employees to wear masks.
These are the U.S. states and territories without mask mandates:
Alabama | Alaska | American Samoa | Arizona | Arkansas | Colorado | Delaware | District of Columbia | Florida | Georgia | Idaho | Indiana | Iowa | Kansas | Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska | New Hampshire | New Jersey | North Carolina | North Dakota | Northern Mariana Islands | Ohio | Oklahoma | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas | Utah | Vermont | Virginia | West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wyoming
It’s the inflation you’re not supposed to see.
From toilet paper to yogurt and coffee to corn chips, manufacturers are quietly shrinking package sizes without lowering prices. It’s dubbed “shrinkflation,” and it’s accelerating worldwide.
In the U.S., a small box of Kleenex now has 60 tissues; a few months ago, it had 65. Chobani Flips yogurts have shrunk from 5.3 ounces to 4.5 ounces. In the U.K., Nestle slimmed down its Nescafe Azera Americano coffee tins from 100 grams to 90 grams. In India, a bar of Vim dish soap has shrunk from 155 grams to 135 grams.
Dave148 wrote:It’s the inflation you’re not supposed to see.
From toilet paper to yogurt and coffee to corn chips, manufacturers are quietly shrinking package sizes without lowering prices. It’s dubbed “shrinkflation,” and it’s accelerating worldwide.
In the U.S., a small box of Kleenex now has 60 tissues; a few months ago, it had 65. Chobani Flips yogurts have shrunk from 5.3 ounces to 4.5 ounces. In the U.K., Nestle slimmed down its Nescafe Azera Americano coffee tins from 100 grams to 90 grams. In India, a bar of Vim dish soap has shrunk from 155 grams to 135 grams.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/business ... story.html
Hitendra Chaturvedi, a professor of supply chain management at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, said he has no doubt many companies are struggling with labor shortages and higher raw material costs.
But in some cases, companies’ profits — or sales minus the cost of doing business — are also increasing exponentially, and Chaturvedi finds that troubling.
He points to Mondelez International, which took some heat this spring for shrinking the size of its Cadbury Dairy Milk bar in the U.K. without lowering the price. The company’s operating income climbed 21% in 2021, but fell 15% in the first quarter as cost pressures grew. By comparison, PepsiCo’s operating profit climbed 11% in 2021 and 128% in the first quarter.
“I’m not saying they’re profiteering, but it smells like it,” Chaturvedi said. “Are we using supply constraints as a weapon to make more money?”
WhyBeeSea wrote: Why do they still make gallon jugs when no car I've ever owned holds a gallon of this stuff??
I checked the Merkt's port wine I bought over the weekend, but it's the larger 20 oz size. I don't know if that's lower than before, but there's a significant price per ounce discount from the smaller size with a 7+ month good-by date on this one.JoelF wrote:The one that really burns me lately is Merkt's cheese spreads. The standard tub was 15oz for many years. I remember that distinctly because the Mariano's house brand (might have been pre-Kroger, haven't checked lately) was a full pound. But Merkt's standard tub is now 12.9 oz (which isn't even a round number of grams), and the price is easily a buck higher than a year ago (although it does go on sale pretty regularly at the Jewels).
seebee wrote:WhyBeeSea wrote: Why do they still make gallon jugs when no car I've ever owned holds a gallon of this stuff??
Quick guess: The gallon jugs are much cheaper than custom sized jugs. Those gallon jugs might be the same ones that the vinegar/ bleach / ammonia / whatever companies use, and the places that make them can simply scale up production instead of producing some new product.
My contribution to this thread is those damn 8 packs of sparkling water. I saw the writing on the wall a few months ago. It looks like 12 packs are dwindling, and turning into 8packs, but the previous 12 pack price sure isn't.
JoelF wrote:What is it about shrimp that is making it immune to these price changes? They're mostly overseas (more of it South American these days than SE Asia), so you would think the supply chain problems would apply.
Cathy2 wrote:Hi,
I saw eggs at $2.19 last week at Woodman's.
A quart of whipping cream at Aldi was $3.89 last week and $3.25 the week before. At Woodman's it was over $5 last week.
Regards,
Cathy2
JoelF wrote:Did my first online order with Jewel today. We didn't have time to run out and get stuff after getting home from two weeks away. The fees are too high, they didn't deliver a couple things, claiming they were out of stock (mushrooms, swiss cheese that were on sale). And I remembered more things I wanted after I placed the order. This is likely to be my last try.