Interesting piece from the Wall St Journal ... from
(snip)When spice maker McCormick & Co. started shipping 25% less pepper earlier this year in the same packaging at about the same price, it was engaging in an age-old means of getting frugal consumers to pay more for less.
Consumer-products makers have used similar tactics as a way of pushing through effective price increases for everything from laundry detergent and tissues to yogurt and candy bars. In the food industry, it’s called “weight-out,” or putting less cereal or potato chips into a package. In toilet paper, the term is “de-sheeting,” when the number of tissues in a box or sheets on a toilet-paper roll are reduced.
The regulatory term of art for putting less in a package than meets the eye is “nonfunctional slack fill.” That probably isn’t the term that came to mind for anyone who’s ever opened a bag of chips to find barely a handful inside. But with companies squeezed between thrifty shoppers and—in some cases—rising costs, it’s one that could become more familiar.
Earlier this year, McCormick reduced the amount of pepper in its signature red-and-white aluminum tins. What once had eight ounces of pepper now has six. A medium container with four ounces has only three, and a two-ounce tin contains 1.5 ounces. The revised volumes were marked in the “net quantity of contents” label as mandated by federal regulation on the front of the tins.
Chief Executive Alan Wilson said in January that pepper costs had risen sharply over the past five years and that the company had little room to raise prices any further..(snip)
(snip)But too much extra room can get a manufacturer into trouble.
ConAgra Foods Inc.’s Slim Jim was the target of a purported class-action suit filed in February for violating slack-fill rules. Procter & Gamble Co.’s Old Spice and Unilever PLC’s Axe deodorants faced similar complaints in suits filed in September.
Companies have wide leeway to add more empty space in packaging. Some states, like California, allow for even more “safe harbors” that manufacturers can use to justify bigger packaging, according to Angel Garganta, an attorney at Venable LLP that specializes in false advertising and consumer-protection law.
One way companies deflect blame (if not criticism) is by simply disclosing the actual new weight of the product on the side of containers.
One common-sense safeguard to deflect accusations of deception is to print the correct amount of product on the outside, legal experts say. “Consumers are mistaken, but the critical thing is that they in fact told the truth, said Thomas J. Maronick, a marketing professor at Towson University and former Federal Trade Commission official.(snip)
^^^ this raises the obvious question regarding how many consumers actually take the time to read the label to see that their pepper shaker, candy bar, deodorant stick etc. now contains 25% less pepper, candy, or deodorant for the same price ???



Reply With Quote


Bookmarks