While migrating saved blog posts in 2020, I came across this one; it is not currently on my old Blogger blog and I’m not sure if it ever was.
Meijer has raised the prices on all their bagged nuts by using this ever-popular sequence of tricks:
- Change all the packaging to have a new name, logo, color scheme, etc.
- Coincidentally, the new packages hold 12 ounces, not 16 (1/4 less).
- Because there are still old bags on the shelf next to the new bags, it would look bad if they were the same price, so make the new bags 1/8th cheaper. (Who’s gonna do the complicated math to figure out price per ounce, anyway?)
- Next week, raise the prices of the new bags to the old price (only a modest increase, people won’t complain about that…)
Voila, nuts are now 25% more expensive. (Some of you may have noticed almost the exact same sequence of events happening with coffee, and cheese, over the last few years…)
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