News, Food makers thin out their product lines. (triscuits, cookie, breakfast)
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Companies like Kraft, Sara Lee want to save money by eliminating poorly performing items.
MILWAUKEE -- If you want to see how the nation's food makers are weathering the recession, the proof is in the pudding.
Food makers thin out their product lines | detnews.com | The Detroit News (http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090220/NATION/902200308 - broken link)
this makes a lot of sense. there are just too many things out there. some are so similar, it really is a good move on their part. the thing that is irritating about all of this, is there new, re-packaging of items.. they are really shrinking down the sizes, yet keeping prices the same. that is a pain.
Good! Like other overheated over consumption trends of the past age that are now going away. I felt the too-many-products craze in loosing many items that I wanted and could no longer find on the grocery store shelves. I called it the "Triscuit Effect". You know Triscuits, those wonderful, addictive woven wheat crackers? Used to be it was just Triscuits, but then came Garden Herb, Roasted Garlic, Cheddar, Deli Style Rye, Cracked Pepper and Olive, Rosemary and Olive, Fire Roasted Tomato flavors. And each of these varieties took up almost as much shelf space as was held by original style Triscuits. But wait, I'm not done yet... There are also low sodium Triscuits, and these also come in most of the flavors as the regular. And I'm not done yet... There's low-fat Triscuits that also come in many of the flavors. Yow! whole, long sections of the store shelf taken up by the seemingly endless varieties of Triscuits
At the same time this Triscuit explosion was taking place, my long time favorite Red Oval Farms Stoned Wheat Thins crackers disappeared from the shelves. Clearly something had to give way shelf space wise for the Triscuit "Hummer" on the shelf parking lot.
I don't mean to single out Triscuit crackers. It's just an example of many foods that expanded varieties in this way, and I lost favorite item after item that became unavailable, crowded out by other major brands' many products. I wonder how grocery stores dealt with this situation. There is a grocery store near where I used to work. One summer day a friend brought in a big box of fresh homegrown tomatoes. I went to the store to get some bread, lettuce, mayo and Baco's so that my associates and I could enjoy blt's for lunch. But it took forever to find those four items in that store that was about as big as two football fields - not the kind of place I would want to venture into again
I lost a favorite Sunshine brand cookie a few years ago and, upon reflection, it may have been a result of the Chips Ahoy invasion and occupation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by quiet walker
Good! Like other overheated over consumption trends of the past age that are now going away. I felt the too-many-products craze in loosing many items that I wanted and could no longer find on the grocery store shelves. I called it the "Triscuit Effect". You know Triscuits, those wonderful, addictive woven wheat crackers? Used to be it was just Triscuits, but then came Garden Herb, Roasted Garlic, Cheddar, Deli Style Rye, Cracked Pepper and Olive, Rosemary and Olive, Fire Roasted Tomato flavors. And each of these varieties took up almost as much shelf space as was held by original style Triscuits. But wait, I'm not done yet... There are also low sodium Triscuits, and these also come in most of the flavors as the regular. And I'm not done yet... There's low-fat Triscuits that also come in many of the flavors. Yow! whole, long sections of the store shelf taken up by the seemingly endless varieties of Triscuits
At the same time this Triscuit explosion was taking place, my long time favorite Red Oval Farms Stoned Wheat Thins crackers disappeared from the shelves. Clearly something had to give way shelf space wise for the Triscuit "Hummer" on the shelf parking lot.
I don't mean to single out Triscuit crackers. It's just an example of many foods that expanded varieties in this way, and I lost favorite item after item that became unavailable, crowded out by other major brands' many products. I wonder how grocery stores dealt with this situation. There is a grocery store near where I used to work. One summer day a friend brought in a big box of fresh homegrown tomatoes. I went to the store to get some bread, lettuce, mayo and Baco's so that my associates and I could enjoy blt's for lunch. But it took forever to find those four items in that store that was about as big as two football fields - not the kind of place I would want to venture into again
I bought a box of Cheez-its last week and it said new and improved....maybe for them it was but they thinned out the cracker and took a lot of the "cheeze" out.
I am aware of the re-packaging on a lot of items and that bothers me as a consumer to buy something more expensive for less product BUT there are still many many choices out there and I am going to go with quality and quantity.
In NewEngland, a box of cheez-its is close to 4.00...that is 4.00 I will spend on something else.
Ice cream is another problem the packaging has gotten smaller and the price is terrible. I have seen Edy's ice cream for 5.99 for a smaller container where maybe Breyer's is buy one get one free although smaller. Why would I buy Edy's when someone has given me multiple choices and a better buy.
We've stopped buying those small things of ice cream - we get the one gallon one quart ones from Walmart for $6. They don't have all the different flavors (only vanilla, vanilla/chocolate, neopolitan, vanilla/strawberry, and chocolate) but they last for a while and the kids don't mind at all.
Also, we usually go to either Aldi or Superwalmart and get store brands (unless we have a good coupon for the regular grocery store). They haven't gotten smaller as of yet.
Used to be it was just Triscuits, but then came Garden Herb, Roasted Garlic, Cheddar, Deli Style Rye, Cracked Pepper and Olive, Rosemary and Olive, Fire Roasted Tomato flavors. And each of these varieties took up almost as much shelf space as was held by original style Triscuits. But wait, I'm not done yet... There are also low sodium Triscuits, and these also come in most of the flavors as the regular. And I'm not done yet... There's low-fat Triscuits that also come in many of the flavors. Yow! whole, long sections of the store shelf taken up by the seemingly endless varieties of Triscuits
That's an old marketing trick where a company takes up as much shelf space as possible with its product, crowding out other products or relegating them to lower or higher shelves.
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