User post: Supermarket games

SUPERMARKET GAMES by Vince DeMattia

This report is about the "strange goings on" at the supermarkets. These are my personal observations about all the games, tricks and price manipulation going on in the food and supermarket business.

I remember when we used to buy fruit like apples, oranges, peaches, etc.... by the dozen. It had been the practice for years. Now supermarkets are charging by the pound. Did anyone care?Oh, so now we're not only paying based on the weight and density of these fruits, but for the pits and seeds, as well.

How about the injection of water into nearly all meats. All forms of meat are being injected with up to as much as 20%... most say 10%, several 15% and I saw one package that admitted to 20% water. Some packages say, it's for flavor. One package of chicken actually said that it was injected with chicken broth. Yeah... I guess if you take the water that comes out of the chicken and take it to a lab, it could be found to be chicken broth of a sort. Sure! After it's been in the chicken for a couple of weeks. I don't know about you, but I doubt very much that the company actually went to the trouble to make actual chicken broth (you know... with carrots, celery and onions, etc). I say... either keep your water out of our meats or weigh the meat and charge us according to that weight reading, before injecting the water. And I gotta guess that the additional handling and equipment necessary to inject water into the meat products... is yet another opportunity for the adding bacteria to the meat.

How about the packaging games?! Whatever happened to 64 ounce (half gallon) containers for orange juice, grapefruit juice and ice cream. Now many juice containers, especially the plastic ones... are at 59 (or so) ounces, pint-like containers are no longer 16 ounces, but 14 and 15 ounces. Half Gallon-like ice cream containers are now 1 1/2 quarts instead of 2 quarts. But, the prices that were being asked for the pints and quarts and half gallons... are the same (or higher) prices being asked for the new smaller-size containers. How about Coke and Pepsi putting out 8 packs at, "yes," the prices that 12 packs were at. 12 packs were routinely selling anywhere from $2.50 to $3.33 each. Now the 8 packs are selling for those very same prices.

Look at the packages of cheeses. All the cheeses... the sliced sandwich cheeses, the various grated cheddar and mozarella cheeses. They're all kinds of weights, now. Packages that look kinda like 16 ounces, are 15 or 14 or 12 ounces. The sliced American cheeses come in pound-like packages that are only 12 ounces, and so on. And again.... the prices for these smaller, substitute packages is at the same level as their larger weight predecessors.

And, how about what's goin' on with shrimp packaging and sizing. Bags of shrimp usually came in 2 pound sizes... now they come in similar-looking bags that are actually only a pound and a half (they haven't shrunk the size of the bags in faithful scale to the contents). And, I can tell you this, the count on shrimp is being abused, fairly regularly. If you purchase 31-35's, you're supposed to get anywhere
from 31 to 35 shrimp per pound. If it is a really fair count, you should probably have about 33 shrimp. Never... I repeat... Never... more than 35 shrimp. It's the same with all the size levels. 15-20's should have around 17 per package, but never more than 20, and so on.

So a 1 1/2 pound bag of 31-35's should have around 50 shrimp, but never more than 52-53 shrimp. Next time... count the shrimp, in those packages. And, if the counts are not as labeled... call or write your state's Attorney General or the Weights and Measures folks.

And how about the fact that the most well-thought of shrimp on the planet comes from the United States. There's great shrimp to be had from any of the Gulf of Mexico border States... even from Mexico. But, if you look at the shrimp packaging to learn where the shrimp is coming from, chances are you'll learn that it is coming from Thailand or Vietnam, especially if you're looking at the shrimp being sold in Wal-Mart.

And, has anyone noticed the liberty being taken with eggs. The sizes are as different as you can imagine from store to store and egg company to egg company. In my opinion... what used to be a medium egg is now being touted as a large... the large now as an extra-large, and so on.

How about the Deli section. It was one thing to sell Boar's Head products at the steep prices... but, then the supermarket chains started to introduce their own (so called) special brands at similarly steep prices. Like those products were similarly special. I don't think so. Quite frankly, I don't think the Boar's Head products are worth the exorbident prices being asked for them... but, I can tell you... the new fancy-named supermarket brands, sure as heck aren't. But, hey... that's me!

Ya know... the supermarkets would have us believe that these deceptive (my word) packaging practices, etc... have been created to save us money. Their explanation (excuse) might go like this: People couldn't afford the products in the package sizes they were coming in, so packaging has been re-sized to make it possible for them to purchase those products. Yeah... that would be somewhat believeable, if only the prices they're charging for the new sizes aren't exactly the same or more than they were getting for the original, larger packages.

Some of you, as you read this... are probably asking... how can they get away with these practices. The answer is simple... No One is watching them. And, none of us are making enough noise to call attention to these practices. Price gouging... which is what I believe this to be... along with deceptive pricing, etc.... only seems to be (somewhat) important during emergencies and disasters. And, even then... they're only watching the pricing on items heavily purchased that relate to the emergency items, like water, batteries, canned foods, etc. (Actually I believe that it's more of a published warning approach than actual watching). But, it sure ain't goin' on, otherwise.

It's like collusion without the meetings. Most market areas have only 3-5 major supermarket chains operating in them. They just watch each other... and if one supermarket were to be getting an increased price on a particular item over a good period of time... than, you can bet that the other supermarkets will ease their price up to that same level before long. Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem that any of them could grasp the idea of a system that would work in reverse to bring the prices down.

Yet, at the same time... they ask us to save them money (and help the environment) by buying their little canvas-like shopping bags to bring with us each time we go to the super market. My question to them is... if you really want us to help save the environment by bringing those bags with us every time we shop, why not give us the canvas bags. It's another one of those examples of them building their public image as a community-conscious company... with OUR money!

I know this may sound cynical to some... but I honestly believe the facts support this attitude. I am a long-time consumer advocate. I have actually spent the last several months researching products and prices in all the local supermarkets to support these conclusions.

If you find that these things I have related to you here are well-founded... then do like me... raise hell with your government authorities and write blogs and letters to the editors of your local newspapers and call the tv news departments (it can be tough to get those folks on board 'cause many of the supermarkets are advertisers.) Thank you.

Vince DeMattia is a former Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety staff reporter and Las Vegas Jazz Radio Announcer.