In the “Hope They Don’t Notice” Department

Oftentimes companies do things for various reasons and hop that you don’t notice. Here are some examples:

A candy company will change the size of a candy bar (or bag) making it larger and keep the price the same, then bump the price up. Then they make the bar a bit smaller and start over.

Some coffee companies have started offering 15 oz instead of 16 ounce of coffee in the same bag. Some bags here have dropped to 12 ounces.

An airline changed from something like 4 olives to 3 on a salad or slicing a lime into more sections for drinks can save “plane-loads” of money. Airlines can also scoot seats closer together and gain one or more rows of extra seats. Notice that next time, that the seats are in channels that allow them to move forward and back.

Marie Callenders dinners used to contain “spice” packets (pepper packs) but they were eliminate quietly when the company changed hands.

Costco rotisserie chicken used to come on a bed of a couple slices of lettuce. Now they don’t. I will admit that Costco changed from Coke to Pepsi to ensure they could still offer the hotdog/soda combination at $1.50 as they always had.

Some toilet paper companies have reduced the size of their rolls by shaving a bit from the once-standard 4.5 x 4.5 inch square. Paper towel manufacturers often charge more for a similar-sized roll of towels that now has a convenient perforation making each regular sheet half the size. The convenience of not having to rip a sheet in half for small jobs, now costs you money.

Walart offered a generic brand of headache medicine. It was packaged in the same sized bottle with the same number of pills with the same ingredients. One was labeled migraine relief and the other headache relief. Both carried a different price. Maybe they figured the price using Scrabble word scores?

A local store carried the same product, a plastic foam tube with a hole in the middle. In one department it is for kids to float in the pool, in the other department it is advertised to wrap your water heater pipes to retain heat.

Although different brands, I saved at least half price on rechargeable batteries. At the end of season sale in the outdoor shop, I bought rechargeable AA batteries for those outdoor solar lights that recharge in the sun and glow at night. Similar batteries on the battery rack the other side of the store had the same capacity but were twice the price.

Flash back to an upscale store on the mainland in the 70’s. They offered things like picture frames at 20%-40% off during their sale. The problem is, they never had the frames at a non-sale price. After a lawsuit they finally agreed to offer the frames at a regular price for a couple weeks a year.