Insult To Inflation
By CraftyCorner
@CraftyCorner (5600)
United States
June 8, 2008 5:32pm CST
To add insult to inflation, the grocery stores and restaurants are reducing portion sizes. They are not doing this instead of raising prices, they are doing this and raising prices. They also claim that the same amount of content is in the package, and often the package is the same size as before the inflation craze started. I'm furious.
2 people like this
6 responses
@fluffnflowers (1594)
• United States
8 Jun 08
The portion size decrease has been happening for awhile, and I think some of it has been encouraged by those of us who want healthy portions. I know that several restaurants locally decreased all of their portion sizes about three years ago when the healthier restaurants started to take away their business. I'm sure some of the recent changes are due to inflation and maximizing profits, though, which is a bit sad.
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
9 Jun 08
The stuff I'm talking about isn't that. It's inflation motivated. I remember the health stuff three years ago, here the restaurants added a bunch of healthy stuff to go with the unhealthy menu items. The portion stuff is effecting already small items.
1 person likes this
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
8 Jun 08
That is not a new tactic at all. Cereal companies especially were doing this before there was this "crisis".
I have not noticed a decrease in portion sizes at restaurants as of yet and we eat out a lot. If a place we went do did do that, we would not go there anymore. Still the best deal for the buck: Texas Roadhouse. For $8.99 you can get a 6 oz sirloin with two large sides (there are 12 items to choose from, including salads and veggies). Free, unlimited bread too!
2 people like this
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
9 Jun 08
I live in Prescott Arizona and they don't have that establishment here. Denny's shrank their Nachos plate down hard and got stingy with their sour cream, until I think some one kvetched.
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One restaurant answered the inflation challenge by growing some of their restaurant ingredients on the premises or nearby, then baking their own bread. That is how it should be done! Sadly, it's not in my area, but I talked about it in one of my discussions.
1 person likes this
@the_vicar (1477)
• United States
23 Jun 08
Everyone is suffering from inflation. It is eating us up. My money doesn't go very far and so I have quit shopping for anything but essentials. You know food and water, enough gas to get me to work and back. All the extras will just have to wait until something is done about high prices, especially gasoline and electricity. I can only imagine how this will affect manufacturing when people quit buying trinkets.
1 person likes this
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
25 Jun 08
I've not so much changed what I eat but how I prepare it. The beans are dry instead of from a can. The turkey comes whole rather than sliced in a package. It's all cooked in crock pots.
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If you've kids, you'd have to have a 'prep day', chopping veggies and putting them aside in bags. The fixings are then waiting for weekdays. Toss dinner in the crock pot in the the morning and have it ready come evening. Crock pots don't call for much electric.
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I shop once a month. I'm disabled so I can't drive, I rely on taxis which is even more expensive than driving.
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Renting Netflix videos for entertainment has been a Godsend sense I have been unable to go out long before the bite of this recent inflation. They've a deal where you pay $20 a month for unlimited DVD's 2 at a time...
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I'm rambling
@callarse1 (4783)
• United States
9 Jun 08
Yes, it's so they can make money. It is annoying, I agree but then again you don't have to eat at the restaurant. Perhaps we could make our own food instead of going to restaurants. Have a nice day!
Pablo
1 person likes this
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
10 Jun 08
It is turning up in places outside of restaurants. Grocery stores that sell staple foods are doing this to the staple products that people need to live on; raising the prices and cutting the content. I'm talking about bread, sacks of potatoes, bags of vegetables, eggs, milk.
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
9 Jun 08
True, although I've noted it with nearly all the places I've eaten at, especially Denny's, although I've not eaten out much.
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I hear about it most often from others I admit as I live out of a crock pot and cook from scratch. Friends are telling me stories about shortchanged loaves of bread, ice cream containers that shrank, coffee containers that went on diets, so on and so on...
1 person likes this
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
9 Jun 08
You aren't kidding. I no longer buy dairy products or eggs because I can't afford the darned things.
1 person likes this
@fortknox75 (842)
• Philippines
9 Jun 08
I guess they really need to do either reduce portion or servings at the same price, or increase price with the same portion or serving size as before. They need to do it to survive in the business. Of course, businessmen think of ways to get profitable to stay in the business. If they won't do that, their finances will suffer and might close the business. Much worse, more people will get laid-off if the business decides to close because they don't make profit. The problem on inflation and high prices we have today is the impact of the ever increasing oil prices. Everybody is affected. So we also need to be considerate with the business owners why they do such things. I guess the best way for us today is to cut our expenses and save as much as we can on every items that we consume. I'm not a businessman, just an ordinary employee. But I also see the plight of the businessman why they do such things. Of course, reducing portion sizes and increasing the price as well will be unfair to the consumers which businessmen should not do.
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
10 Jun 08
Consumers on small fixed incomes like myself have very small 'wiggle room' in which they can cut corners. The businesses are doing both: Cutting portions/content and raising prices at the same time. They are also dropping employees like so many flies.
