So now I can't stop thinking about this crap.
I notice a 2 for 1 on Pringles. I like salty and crunchy snacks as much as the next guy and so I make an impulse buy. Hey its a great deal right? But I start thinking about that deal and about how good it is. Where did these dried products come from? They could have come from anywhere in the world. They probably came from China. How else can they make a profit off of selling something half price?
More and more I'm appreciating the idea that we shouldn't eat something unless it rots.
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11 years ago
2 comments:
it's probably not made in china, so relax about eating your salty snacky.
putting aside the notion that eating anything that is sold from the middle of the store is often deleterious to your health--or at best, neutral--rather than contributory...
...do you know which mega-company manufactures pringles? http://www.pringles.com/pages/index.shtml?
Procter & Gamble!
that's right, the same company that also manufactures tide, tampax tampons, always pads, clairol hair products, crest & Oral b dental care items, head & shoulders, gilette razors, oil of olay, pampers, febreeze, and several brands of dog food, also manufactures pringles and folgers coffee.
don't believe me? click on the "P&G links" at the bottom of the pringles page.
because of their relative size as a company, P&G wields enormous influence in how their stuff, and everyone else's, is sold to you. most of the time, the stores have the upper hand. they have the real estate you want if you're a manufacturer--front and center in front of the consumer. and you will do virtually anything they tell you to do in order to get a piece of that real estate, including (always) paying cash money for "rent" on the shelves. and just like being a renter, even if you pay up, you can still get kicked out for being a bad tenant--you aren't popular enough with consumers, for example.
once upon a time, stores sold tide, one of P&G's biggest brands, as a "loss leader"...they sold it for LESS than they paid P&G for it. this was because it was such an important brand (lots of people bought it, very loyal to the brand, and used A LOT in the household, particularly among large families). it may seem ludicrous that a store would do that, but what they were banking on is the REST of the stuff that the consumer bought when they bought the tide.
believe it or not, consumers would sometimes determine where to do their shopping on the basis of which store had the cheapest tide. so they got the tide, but they also got hundreds of dollars of other stuff--everything ELSE the house needs, and tide is probably 1/10 to 1/20th of their total outlay. if the store is appealing to large families, then they're going to make their money back, in theory.
campbell's soup (particularly their three biggest flavors) also used to have this loss leader status, btw.
anyway, these things have changed and most retailers don't play the loss leader game anymore, but both manufacturers and stores do quite a bit of futzing around with prices. stores have competition too--your mom & pop grocery has big chains, walmart, and bodegas to fight against and they have to think about how to be attractive to you.
if you're a manufacturer, you're fighting the notion that a potato chip is a potato chip is a potato chip...so how can they win your loyalty? price is one of many ways to do it. to be clear, no one is moving their production lines to china to offer you a 2-1 deal...either their line is there already or it's not (and you can call the company and try to find out what they make where if you are really hot about knowing).
but everyone who sells something to you is doing so using a finely, intensely calibrated model of pricing that takes into account all of the products in their portfolio, not just the one that's on sale. it takes into account the margin they get. it takes into account competitive forces (other brands and sometimes other categories--what if you decide you want brazil nuts instead of chips altogether! in the US we have so many choices that things often compete against a very broad set of items), how much $ they're droppping on advertising their products, and a jillion other factors.
and that's today's boring lesson on shit virtually no one cares about.
:)
Holy crap! Everything you needed to know about Chinese pringles! My brain is bursting at the seams now. I need some comfort food from a foreign country to compensate.
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