In the same vein as Andy Rooney I'm seeing a sneeky route of inflation coming into our stores. Andy did a piece a few years back about how companies not wanting to raise prices merely cut the quantity of the product. Have you noticed it? The one pound can of (fill in the product) is now 15 ozs. The once 16 oz. package went to 15.3 then to 14. The 12 oz. package went to 9.5. The type of packaging has changed as well. At one time milk came only in glass bottles delivered by truck in the early morning hours. Then came the wax paper cartons that were not good as imperfections would cause a 'leaker'. Not a good thing to have on your breakfast table. Oh, and they were not easy to open. Then came the plastic jugs. Easy to open easy to pour but only one drawback, they don't keep the milk fresh for very long and with energy costs going up a gallon will far out pace gas.
Another thing I've noticed is where things are made. Just noticed a lot of candy bars are now made in South America. I don't have a problem with products being made out of the country, but these companys have made their reputations as American institutions. It's fine if they'd export products here that were native to their culture. But, shipping jobs overseas creates fewer consumers here.
It will be interesting to see what happens in a few years when the Chineese become the major comsumers of the world. Maybe the jobs will come home to roust.
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I'm seeing this too. In the quantity of the products and the quality. I'm noticing food products changing in taste for the worst - presumably lower quality ingredients are being substituted to cut costs.
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