Just charge me more, dammit.

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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by a nameless entity » Sun Mar 08, 2015 1:28 pm

Hermskii wrote:Great argument about how other cost should have gone down by now. You have to ask your self who gets pinched in this current arrangement.
Everybody that likes to eat any sort of prepared food gets the economic squeeze.

The original point of this thread was my rant against ever decreasing package sizes, and the sly packaging tricks that hide price increases.

It occurs to me that I may be constantly repeating myself in this thread, but nevertheless:

I forgot to mention that recently cheese makers up here reduced the size of their blocks of cheese. Kraft did it first, followed by Black Diamond a few weeks later. The size of the packages went from 500g to 450g. (454g = 1 pound) The effect is noticable. The bars of cheese are now narrower and shorter, and it is obvious that they don't last as long.

If you came up here and saw what we are paying per pound for cheese, you would not believe it. It's due to an outdated set of milk marketing board guidelines. Proposals to ensure that independent farmers (what few of them are left, as it's all agribusiness now) make a decent living while giving consumers a break with more realistic prices never seem to make it onto the government agenda.

When the Canadian dollar was at par, cross border shopping at American grocery stores was popular. The savings on food could be huge. Maybe I should move to Niagara Falls, so that I can be ready for when the dollar goes back up. There's all sorts of nice cheeses I would like to buy that NEVER go on sale here, and are way beyond my budget at their regular prices. :(
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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by a nameless entity » Fri Jun 17, 2022 3:22 pm

With all the news of inflation, and especially "shrinkflation" I thought maybe I'd kick this topic back up top. :roll:
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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by a nameless entity » Tue Jun 28, 2022 3:14 pm

I can't believe I started this thread 10 years ago! This means that I have been chaffing about this issue for more than a decade.

A lot sure has happened in these last 10 very short years. Now everything is upside down. Instead of cheap oil it's expensive again. The cold war has resumed, and the west is fighting Russia by proxy in Ukraine. The oil companies are exploiting the energy chaos and committing outright extortion at the pumps. Ukraine's grain is unable to get to market. Will wages keep up with the inflation these two problems alone are causing? They did in the '70's, but this time I'm not so sure they will. We didn't know how good we had it ten years ago. What a mess. May God help us all, if he's still alive. :?
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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by Hermskii » Wed Jul 06, 2022 11:46 am

God is alive and well and always will be. Inflation is and will stay way higher than wage increases.
~Peace~

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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by a nameless entity » Fri Oct 21, 2022 2:31 pm

Speaking of inflation:
As far as breakfast cereals go, I've switched to the store brands unless the national brands go on a sale that matches the price of the store brands. One store brand of "Raisin Bran" is nicer than both Kellog's and Post's. So I stick with that now. I stocked up anticipating price increases, that thankfully, haven't appeared yet.

Then a while back I started stocking up on TP. (The "economy" type of tp that the bear family likes.)
Not due to covid, but due to the anticipation that the price was bound to go up too. It didn't, for quite a while. Then it got pulled from the shelves.
And now it's back. In an all new package design. At the same price. I checked the sheet size and roll size. Same size sheets, but 21 less sheets per roll, in a 9 pack of triple sized rolls.
Or was it 51 fewer sheets per roll? Hmmm....

Anyway, just another hidden price increase. :? :roll:
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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by Hermskii » Tue Oct 25, 2022 8:48 pm

Two things are about to happen that I think will jack up USA prices another 25%.

We are going to be on restricted amounts of diesel fuel within 30 days and sometime also in the next 30 days, there is going to be a Freightline strike so supply chain issues again with the inflation.

You are smart to load up on TP and cereal is always a good deal in my book being I can't eat a whole box in one meal and yet a whole box always cost less than a Big Mac which makes the box of cereal very worth it!

I base cost of everything I eat on thinking that lunch for less than $10 is a good deal. If I go and buy a dinner at $20 and only eat half of it then the other half the next day, that's $20 for the meal but it fed me twice so that's $20 divided by 2 making it $10 each which again, I consider a good deal.

I expect breakfast to cost less and dinner to cost more so I average them and ended up at $10 per meal being ok.

That said, I have a Chinese food place that sells a totally full to-go box of Special Fried Rice made of Beef, Chicken, Pork and Shrimp. It cost me about $16 and I can eat off it and be full three times. So, $16 divided by 3 is $5.33 per meal. That is a huge win in my book because I love this Special Fried Rice and it saves me money.

Try it yourself. You will alter the way you buy food when eating out.
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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by a nameless entity » Thu Nov 10, 2022 4:34 pm

I stopped eating out years ago to save money. Although I have treated myself to a Harvey's Angus burger meal deal a few times during the summer over the last 15 years. But only with discount coupons that the postman brings.

Speaking of coupons: I keep hearing about them, especially in the USA, but I don't see that many that are of any use here in Canada. Coupon website stuff is a rip off, they want your info but supply only expired coupons. IF you own a smart phone you can get apps for grocery store coupons, but of course first you must invest 500-1000 dollars in a phone, plus a phone plan. Some savings. :roll:

_______________

I just checked to see if Sears USA still exists. It does. Lucky you guys.
The suits up here in Canada robbed Sears Canada blind with bogus bonuses to themselves, then let it die with a badly underfunded retirement pension plan. All the pensioners had to take a massive cut to their pensions, and many are now hard up.
I keenly miss shopping at Sears. They had a lot of nice stuff on the shelves you couldn't find elsewhere at the price and quality points that they had, especially when something was on sale.
Be warned, you'll miss them if they go, so toss some of your money their way when you can.
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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by Hermskii » Mon Nov 14, 2022 12:52 pm

Sears is all but gone here I'm pretty sure. I think they have one store still open. I used to like sears until I got a sears credit card. Missed one payment and they stuck it to me on my credit report. I suffered for 7 years for that. Hated Sears ever since and stop doing business with them. I suspect many other did too and now look at them! Buh-bye!
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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by a nameless entity » Thu Dec 01, 2022 4:45 pm

a nameless entity wrote:
Thu Nov 10, 2022 4:34 pm
Speaking of coupons: I keep hearing about them, especially in the USA, but I don't see that many that are of any use here in Canada. Coupon website stuff is a rip off, they want your info but supply only expired coupons. IF you own a smart phone you can get apps for grocery store coupons, but of course first you must invest 500-1000 dollars in a phone, plus a phone plan. Some savings. :roll:
Another thing I've noticed: The supermarket flyers that come in the local paper now show larger photos of the products they have on sale. Because they have cut back on the number of items that are on sale.
However, the local supermarkets have also locked down their prices on their store brands. This is increasing my temptation to stock up on those items that keep forever, in order to save money in the long run. Stocking up on frequently bought items that went on sale in the past was how I got through those 15 years of enforced frugal living. And the habit seems hard to break, and perhaps is still a good idea.
Times are tough. But I acknowledge that I have it better than most, nevertheless.
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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by a nameless entity » Sat Jul 22, 2023 3:37 pm

An American brand of snack cakes went on sale here last week. So I grabbed a six pack. I didn't notice how flat the box was at the time. I opened it up to find that the chocolate cup cakes inside were only half the size they used to be originally. This level of "shrinkflation" has gone from ridiculous to sublime. :roll:
Just charge me more, dammit! :?

I'd also gladly pay more for those "Delissio Rising Crust" frozen pizzas that I really like, if only I could. Nestle has decided to stop importing them from the US into Canada. Damn them. :cry: :roll:
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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by Hermskii » Mon Jul 24, 2023 12:31 pm

That sux Nameless. Shrinkflation hits here too. I usually don't notice it but when I do it pisses me off bad. Paying more for less sux. I hate when they do it on items that they were already making a killing on like super glue, shrimp, sodas, cable tv.
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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by a nameless entity » Fri Sep 01, 2023 3:00 pm

a nameless entity wrote:
Sat Jul 22, 2023 3:37 pm
I'd also gladly pay more for those "Delissio Rising Crust" frozen pizzas that I really like, if only I could. Nestle has decided to stop importing them from the US into Canada. Damn them. :cry: :roll:
There was a follow up story on the news last week that confirmed Nestle's decision to stop bringing their frozen food products into Canada. They also mentioned that Little Debbie brand snack cakes were no longer available up here, and I then realized that I hadn't seen them on the store shelves for a while now. They also mentioned another company that had taken their food products away from us, but who it was escapes me at the moment.
Some American clothing stores, and Lowes hardware stores have retreated back to the USA too. I'm starting to worry that this is a sign of a nasty recession that might be on its way. :o
Things are changing rapidly, that's for sure.
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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by a nameless entity » Fri Sep 08, 2023 2:58 pm

a nameless entity wrote:
Fri Sep 01, 2023 3:00 pm
They also mentioned another company that had taken their food products away from us, but who it was escapes me at the moment.
D'oh! It was actually Kimberly-Clark, who announced that they would be withdrawing "Kleenex" brand facial wipes from the Canadian market. -And perhaps some of their other paper products too... not sure now.
I'm also not sure why so many U.S. companies are abandoning the Canadian market nowadays. :?
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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by a nameless entity » Sun Oct 01, 2023 3:32 pm

You keep hearing in the news about how the price of fuel, rent, food, and everything else is sky rocketing. -Especially since Putin started his personal war in Ukraine.

During COVID I stopped paying cash for my groceries. I was subliminally noticing that an increasingly higher percentage of the charges on my card were for food. So I added it up for September.

It works out to $51 a week. Twenty years ago it was about $20 a week, but soon jumped to $25. I stopped keeping track for years, but I'm not surprised my weekly outlay has doubled.

Given that wages have not been keeping up, I'm not surprised when I hear that food bank shelves are nearly bare.

Maybe I'm lucky that I'm a senior citizen now. My government pensions (OAS, CPP & etc) are automatically topped up once or twice a year to keep up.

I predict that the Unions that have been suffering for so long may soon see a resurgence in strength. That's a good thing, but I hate the hardships that are the cause. It should never have been allowed to come to this. :(
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Re: Just charge me more, dammit.

Post by Hermskii » Sun Oct 08, 2023 6:28 pm

The economy is Global and I may be wrong but I think the USA's is what the world's is based on. That said, I went to a Jersey Mike's Sub shop with my boy for lunch. I got the giant sized Big Kahuna sub with chips and a fountain drink. My boy got a giant Italian cold cut sub with a bag of chips and a fountain drink. The total was $47.00 . They never asked for a tip so I don't know if they got one or not. I did not intentionally leave one or not leave one.

The only good news here is neither of us could finish more than 1/2 our sandwich so this meal served twice. Two years ago this meal would have cost about $30. I know who I blame. i know who many of you don't and yet...here we are. The world is slipping into HELL. Good luck everyone!
~Peace~

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