Shrinking crocks
The big tubs of Country Crock are now three ounces lighter. Raise the price 6%, people notice. Shrink the product 6%, maybe they don’t.
Country Crock is famous for having a lie-to-word ratio of one. It’s not from the country, and it’s not a crock. Two words, two lies. Now the container itself is misleading.
I eat butter occasionally, but I’m not a fan of margarine. So I took a good look at the margarine section of the supermarket, and it was not pretty. There is something called “Real Margarine”. As opposed to what, fake margarine? Margarine is fake butter to begin with. To paraphrase Woody Allen, fake margarine is a farce of a mockery of a sham.
It turns out that there really is a difference between real margarine and fake margarine, or “spread”. Butter is an emulsion of 80% fat, 20% water. Real margarine is an emulsion of 80% vegetable oil, 20% water. Country Crock, a fake margarine, is an emulsion of 39% vegetable oil and 61% water. Half the fat and three times as much water as real margarine.
April 29th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
6%: Not so far from the inflation rate, especially if they haven’t raised the price in a while.
Hershey did the same thing with chocolate bars during the big inflation of the 1970s.
Bad omen, Dudes and Dudesses. Especially if you are planning a comfortable retirement on a fixed income.