Dispatches: The Truth About Food Prices, C4

securespark

securespark

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Supermarkets must think their customers are stupid.

But they know when product recipes are altered for the worse. Like reducing beef content in ready meals and adding mushrooms.
Like Greek style yogurt with a lower fat content.

Customers write on supermarket websites about how recipes have changed: of course they notice!

But the supermarkets compound this attitude by saying, "We are always looking at ways to improve products..."

You are not improving products. It is obvious you are making them worse in order to make more profit.
 
securespark said:
You are not improving products. It is obvious you are making them worse in order to make more profit.
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As well as charging more, for the privilege.

They are on about loyalty cards - I used to never bother with them, but now it would be stupid not to. We use it against them, only buying the special bargains availably with the card. Avril is especially good at this, she went in and bought three joints, from Tesco, at half price, and nowt else.

We normally, when there is something especially cheap, bulk buy it. 5 bottles of shampoo, at half price the other week.
 
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Odds said:
Shrinkflation is the word you're looking for.
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That's an easy way to make more profit. The price goes up and the size reduces.

But in this case I was talking about them altering the ingredients in a recipe to make the product cheaper, like using cold starch that absorbs water in the manufacture of mayonnaise. Aldi's old mayo (with blue on the label) was a good substitute for you-know-whose, but the "new recipe" is noticeably different.

Like reducing the content of foods in products like the percentage of beef or milk.
 
Ah yes. The old switcheroo. I used to love Ambrosia rice pudding. Very tasty. A blob o' jam or honey to give it zing - then they did something to the recipe about 20 years ago. Awful stuff these days, i'd imagine. Maybe fit for pasting up wallpaper but i won't put my jam anywhere near that abomination.
 
Odds said:
I used to love Ambrosia rice pudding. Very tasty. A blob o' jam or honey to give it zing - then they did something to the recipe about 20 years ago. Awful stuff these days, i'd imagine.
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We buy the Lidl offering - passable.
 
securespark said:
That's an easy way to make more profit. The price goes up and the size reduces.

But in this case I was talking about them altering the ingredients in a recipe to make the product cheaper, like using cold starch that absorbs water in the manufacture of mayonnaise. Aldi's old mayo (with blue on the label) was a good substitute for you-know-whose, but the "new recipe" is noticeably different.

Like reducing the content of foods in products like the percentage of beef or milk.
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well I hate the 'muck'. I know I'm not alone in that thought. It's everything from sandwiches to Horseradish sauce nowadays.
luckily I know what the horseradish plant looks like and where it grows nearby.

Just wasted a lot of money on sandwich platters from a big supermarket chain for a wake. Over 50% of the wasted sandwiches had one bite taken out of them and left. People complaining about the quantity of 'disgusting white sh1te' in sandwiches, even my wife had to agree that it did seem to be overused. Still in dispute with chain over the amount of waste.
 
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Diver Fred said:
well I hate the 'muck'. I know I'm not all e in that thought. It's everything from sandwiches to Horseradish sauce nowadays.
luckily I know what the horseradish plant looks like and where it grows nearby.
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Fun Fact #81 - if you're served wasabi at a restaurant in this country the chances are it's really horseradish with a dash of green food colouring.
 
Odds said:
so it's all moot to me
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That's debatable.

I was pondering the other day how the word "moot" has developed two almost completely opposite meanings in the UK. Until relatively recently it meant "debatable", but now we often seem to use the American version where it means "irrelevant".
 
securespark said:
Supermarkets must think their customers are stupid.
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Wrong; (most of) their customers are stupid.


And if you think that making things more simple will mitigate that stupidity, you are well on the way to joining their ranks.



"Making something idiotproof just evolves a better idiot" (y)
 
Brig

Not sure that's entirely fair.

I know very few people who are not bothered about what they eat. One, in fact.

Most people know if the food they buy regularly changes for the worse.

Most can tell the difference between (for example) a budget mayonnaise and a premium one.
 
securespark said:
Brig

Not sure that's entirely fair.

I know very few people who are not bothered about what they eat. One, in fact.

Most people know if the food they buy regularly changes for the worse.

Most can tell the difference between (for example) a budget mayonnaise and a premium one.
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Which renders your opening post redundant.
 
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