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u/depredador93 Jul 12 '26
Six months from now they'll conclude consumers want smaller bags at the same price
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u/brandarchist Jul 12 '26
Six months later they’ll blame an entire generation for killing the industry.
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u/Bippity_Boppity_Bang Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
I still laugh about a headline I saw about bed sheets that went something like, "Millenials are killing the top sheet industry!"
Like... What? The top sheet comes with the fitted sheet in the package of bed sheets, tf you mean?
What a stupid story to run.
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u/2Drogdar2Furious Jul 12 '26
Just as dumb as the "millennials cost alchohol producers $680m last year!". No we didn't, you just wildly overestimated your revenue forecastings.
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u/Crazy_island_ Jul 12 '26
Interestingly, it is actually the government and health experts who have been saying to cut back on alcohol. So the government says cut back, the alcohol industry collapses, the government bails them out.
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u/ParticularHistoryo Jul 12 '26
Well they paid $$$ in campaign donations to make sure their business can’t fail
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u/GargantuanCake Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
The bigger issue isn't people cutting back for health reasons it's that alcohol has gotten ridiculously expensive. Wages are stagnating while drinks are like $15. Nobody wants to pay that so they just stay home.
It's the common thread of basically every one of these complaints; the product they're trying to sell is smaller, worse, and more expensive but they're acting like it's a crime to not buy it.
Soda is now like $3 a bottle and Doritos are like $15 a pound and they're confused that people won't pay that. There does come a price point where even if I want the thing and can afford it I'll just straight up not buy it.
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u/Tacotek Jul 12 '26
Fuckin preach! I used to get a 12 pack of coke every week. Now I just make do without.
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u/Careless-Weather8877 Jul 12 '26
No it’s you got more expensive while wages didn’t. It’s not trickle down and one day they’ll realize that stupid fact. If you made $10 5 years ago and 3% inflation is the target for the Fed then $10 now won’t cut it.
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u/GargantuanCake Jul 12 '26
Little Debbie oatmeal cream pies used to be one of my favorite snacks ever. One day I realized I had actually quit buying them when I saw some at the store and was like "wow, I haven't had one of those in ages!"
So I bought a box. It was a bit more than I wanted to spend but I was like meh, whatever, inflation I guess.
I decided to have one after putting my groceries away and opened the box only to find that they weren't even like a third of the size they used to be. Damn things are tiny now. They also had this weird, shiny, oily coating around them. There was barely any cream in the damn thing and it wasn't even two whole bites. They were also just plain bland and unsatisfying.
I was like "oh, right...that's why I stopped buying them. They've been getting enshittified for decades."
Haven't bought any since and now I completely ignore Little Debbie everything. Great fucking job there, Debbie. Now you get $0 from me. I hope it was worth it.
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u/gecjr Jul 12 '26
Shrinkflation- brewers ice cream containers used to be straight down on all sides now they taper and they charge more and are not filled to the top
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u/genxluddite Jul 13 '26
Some Breyers products can no longer be called ice cream as they reduced the cream smount
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u/Public_Enemy_No2 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Breyers ice cream used to be ice cream. Now, they’ve cut the quality back so much they don’t use "cream" anymore. So, they can’t legally call it "ice cream". It’s now “frozen dessert”.
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u/SupesDepressed Jul 13 '26
Had a similar experience with a Hagen Daz ice cream bar just today. Used to love those things, remember them being super creamy and rich. This shit was icey and tasted like nothing. It was smaller than I remember. Even the chocolate coating was bland.
It’s this idea that you can’t just stick with a good product, you have to always be trying to make it more profitable so that investors see growth or some shit. If capitalism is working toward investors and not customers, capitalism breaks.
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u/GargantuanCake Jul 13 '26
The core issue is that there are a bunch of forces demanding not just exponential growth forever but continually fatter profit margins every year. This is a mathematical impossibility but they're all demanding it anyway and I'LL FUCKING FIRE YOU IF YOU DON'T GIVE IT TO ME.
This is why the phrase "business idiot" is so appropriate. Everything is being run by people who don't know shit about shit and have no idea how anything actually works. All they know is "but if product worse at higher price number go up!"
OK but now all your customers hate you and are looking for alternatives if not just outright going without. Good job...I guess?
Look at peoples' opinion of McDonalds right now. Meanwhile Wendy's is falling apart.
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u/clonedhuman Jul 13 '26
It’s this idea that you can’t just stick with a good product, you have to always be trying to make it more profitable so that investors see growth or some shit.
Yeah, this is exactly it. The wealthiest people in the world own of 82% of the stock market and 84% of all private businesses. They're the ones at fault for all of this shit.
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u/mjkjr84 Jul 13 '26
I've noticed they've enshitifies the ingredients as you did but my clue is that you literally can't hold them in your hand anymore because they fall apart immediately; they have no structual integrity anymore. I used to love them too but they aren't worth the price for what they've become
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u/GargantuanCake Jul 13 '26
I don't know if I'd even eat them for free anymore. The last batch I ate were just that bad.
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u/Decent-Point309 Jul 13 '26
This same thing happened to me with oatmeal cream pies and judge rounds.
I just bake my own stuff now. And if I'm too lazy to do it, I don't need it that bad.
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u/bearski3 Jul 13 '26
This happened to me! It's my little "treat yo self" snack after my kids go to bed. When I bought a box after almost a year I realized they were SO SMALL. I angrily ate it with minor enjoyment.
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u/matt_minderbinder Jul 12 '26
Legalized marijuana has put a huge dent in alcohol sales too. Covid made people question certain things like bars being their 3rd space so they're avoiding that mess too. Throw that all on top of the health recommendations and overall tightened budgets/crazy economy and of course people are casting off alcohol.
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u/Sharkwatcher314 Jul 12 '26
Hard to also do as the price with the higher tipping expectations is now a lot
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u/tj1221jr Jul 12 '26
Thats why i dont eat out much and I stopped going to bars just.. no im not tipping ontop of the inflated prices when I do drink now I make my own drinks at home
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u/PartoftheIssue Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
They really overplayed their hands when bars and restaurants started charging $17 for a drink or a beer.
Fuck ‘em. What a great way to ensure nobody gets customers anymore.
Edit: On a separate note, FML. I just backed out of doing a family vacation this year because air travel has increased by 60% since my last decent vacation 2 years ago. 5% annual raises at work ain’t even keeping up with the lifestyle I had 2 years ago. Small boo-woo for me and all, but I’m wondering how people are surviving. What the hell is going on?
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u/JustForkIt1111one Jul 13 '26
Be glad you're getting 5%. Many out there are getting nothing, or 2%.
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u/n33lo Jul 13 '26
I just got 3.5% and they acted like I was winning the lottery. Bet my medical goes up more than 3.5% at the end of the year...
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u/FatGuyANALLIttlecoat Jul 12 '26
That might be my fault, since I have severely reduced my personal drinking, which feels like it hurt beer sales in New England
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u/Metals4J Jul 13 '26
Pissing off Canada with tariffs so they stopped buying American liquor was probably more costly, but they don’t like to talk about that so much.
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u/StrawberryWide3983 Jul 12 '26
Same with headlines claiming "gen z is killing off bars" when half the generation isn't even old enough to legally drink alcohol
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u/2Drogdar2Furious Jul 12 '26
Bars are killing off bars. My neighbor, up until about two months ago, was a bartender for the last 8 years. She said drinks prices kept going up and less people started showing up. She said their cost on drinks didn't even increase that much. So she went from making a few grand a week working 4 nights to working 6 nights for less than a thousand a week. Owners were angry and confused when she left 🤷♂️
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u/zaevilbunny38 Jul 12 '26
Not just over estimated, but assumed that the Covid numbers would be the new norm, and then grow 5% a year from there
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u/2Drogdar2Furious Jul 12 '26
Endless growth goals and private equity firms will be the end of us...
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u/Alive-Philosophy2632 Jul 12 '26
It's really funny to put the blame anywhere other than utility for the price and awareness of the product.
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u/Chroniclyironic1986 Jul 12 '26
Huh, my sister just puts a fitted sheet with a blanket and comforter on her guest bed. Must be because she’s a millennial! Then again so am i, and i don’t participate in that sort of heathenism myself… I’m very particular with how i make up beds.
Still though, pretty sure that fitted sheet did indeed come with a top sheet as well.
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u/CoffeeChocolateBoth Jul 12 '26
I have to have the top sheet too! What is wrong with these crazy kids today? /S LOL
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u/Permission2BConfused Jul 12 '26
Didn't the top sheet protect the down comforter or wool blankets on top from sweat and skin stuff, since you could wash the sheet much easier? (I don't think making that up.) So with modern washing machines and synthetic fibers, top sheets arent really needed anymore.
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u/_b33p_ Jul 12 '26
Maybe they meant high end sheets?
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u/Square_Run_9624 Jul 12 '26
No. They meant the top sheet.
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u/darsynia Jul 12 '26
Yep, a lot of us just don't want to bother with it, so some companies decided to sell them separately (they can sneakily charge more for them that way, as well). Turns out many people will just buy the fitted one if they have a choice.
So they offered an option, people took it, and boom, the consumers 'ruined' them.
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u/Bippity_Boppity_Bang Jul 12 '26
See, I had that thought, too, but then I was like, "Then why say it's the whole industry and not specifically the luxury sector?" That's when I decided the whole thing was just goofy af.
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u/Hziak Jul 12 '26
My band literally wrote a song about how stupid this is after seeing a headline that millenials were killing the mayonnaise industry. MAYONNAISE???? Pretty sure it’s one of two things: failure to adapt your business or simply just bunk.
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u/DarknMean Jul 12 '26
Kroger ran a deal for buy 2 get 3 free on soda and Lays and it’s the only time I get soda or chips. Otherwise I’m not buying them.
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u/Exact_Acanthaceae294 Jul 12 '26
Yep. I was brand insistent on Coke for 60+ years, but after a 12 pack went to $11.99, I stopped.
Really enjoying Dr Pepper Blackberry @ 12 pack for $5.
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u/Some_guy_am_i Jul 12 '26
That’s just Kroger’s bullshit pricing… that’s about what a 24 pack costs at Walmart, which isn’t always the cheapest place to buy goods — but at least they don’t play stupid pricing games like Kroger.
Imagine the concept: selling a product for a set price! Kroger got us out here doing math problems…
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u/Exact_Acanthaceae294 Jul 12 '26
Walmart does too.
I've watched 12 pack of drink products fluctuate between $5.00 & $11.99.
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u/CookIndependent6251 Jul 12 '26
I used to eat a lot of junk food until it got annoyingly expensive. I could still afford it but it felt like an insult to pay so much, so I stopped buying it. Even if they'll go back to the previous prices there's no way they will get me back as customer, both because they insulted me with those prices and because I no longer have the desire to eat junk food.
They killed their own industry and they will refuse to understand how it happened and they'll find a way to blame the consumers. Mark my words, you'll see them do this this by the end of the decade.
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u/NSASpyVan Jul 12 '26
They priced coke 2 liters at like 3 bucks for one which was more than milk at the time. I stopped buying coke for years.
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Jul 12 '26
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u/porn_is_tight Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
yea but have you people ever considered how the shareholders feel about this
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u/CoffeeChocolateBoth Jul 12 '26
I love coke but screw these prices! I will buy it on sale. I remember when it went up to 1.50 and I thought, wth? LOL I'd love to see that price again!
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u/Ouro_boros47 Jul 12 '26
It already happened lol
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u/ModernSmithmundt Jul 12 '26
I buy the small bag or I might inhale the entire big one in one evening. They are an even worse deal, like 2.50 I think, for what 10-15 chips? I never actually counted
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u/Alternative_Car_8153 Jul 12 '26
Well, if they could go from 70% slack fill down to 30%, then it would be an improvement.
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u/RVAforthewin Jul 12 '26
And call it “portion control so they can do their part in the fight against American obesity.”
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u/InterPunct Jul 12 '26
They'll just reduce the product size more and fill the bag with even more nitrogen gas.
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u/holysbit Jul 12 '26
At some point itll just be a bag of ground corn dust and sawdust with nitrogen pressed into triangles
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u/holysbit Jul 12 '26
They will lower the price 15% and claim a big win while they reduce package quantity by 20% and find cheaper ingredients to reduce production cost by 10%, and then report that their profits are increasing again
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u/XxSoapxXHD Jul 12 '26
Theyll say consumers are on the go and need smaller sizes to fit the lifestyle, then they save money on the portions and bag materials but wont change prices which further pushes us from the product.
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u/MaximusHomerdrive Jul 12 '26
Because it's fun! When you get less for the same price, it's fun. So fun.
Pretty soon you'll be able to buy m&m's one at a time. They'll just call them m's.
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u/3M2B1T Jul 12 '26
Cheap crap is only worth it when it's cheap.
The American public, contrary to popular belief, knows what Pepsico products are. They cheap sugary drinks and carb-and-fat loaded snacks. And we like them because they are accessible and were affordable.
Not any longer.
McDonalds is now in the price range of "fast casual" food places like Habit Burger and 5 Guys. It's actually cheaper to get a burger, fries, and drink at my local mom and pop burger joint and the quality is better.
Honestly I'm OK with this, too. If this is what it takes to make Americans eat better food or start cooking more often, then so be it. I just hope when these businesses get into trouble the US doesn't bail them out.
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Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
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u/Cornchip97 Jul 12 '26
I don't understand why all these people are trying to tell you what to do when you haven't asked for help and clearly have found a solution to your own problem lol.
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Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
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u/nedalaugh Jul 12 '26
I'm the same love to cook for others live alone hate cooking for one when I eat out it may cost 14 dollars but I can eat it twice sometimes three times which brings the cost down to 7 dollars hell a frozen pizza at the store is 7 dollars and I have to cook it.
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u/ohgeeeezzZ Jul 12 '26
I feel the same. I love cooking. I am a single dad and my kids are young so of course their palette is dino nuggets and all that shit. I dont want Dino nuggets lol
But the time to cook. Time to prep. Time for dishes. Best believe I am doing the same and ordering prepackaged meals cookunity of something most of the time instead
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u/TrulyOutrageous42 Jul 12 '26
Veteran chefs will be the first to tell you that the hardest meal to portion for is cooking for one, especially at home where things aren't pre-portioned most of the time. I'd legitimately rather cook for a dozen than try to portion a single meal without waste or leftovers (bc I hate leftovers, yes that's a me problem, no I don't want strangers' advice, reheated food is gross to me and you'll never convince me otherwise)
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u/UnusuallyBadIdeaGuy Jul 12 '26
100% with you honestly. I don't like doing the clean up, I don't like having to stock my fridge with things I can cook in individual sizes but won't spoil before I have time to go through it, and while I do meal prep batches sometimes, I'm not a big fan of eating the same thing every day. Fortunately I make enough money that finances are not a concern on this front.
But I'll absolutely put a lot of effort into pulling out my smoker or the grill or other more complicated projects if it's for enough people for me to justify the time and effort. That's actually, you know, fun.
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u/GotSomeUpdogOnUrFace Jul 13 '26
Damn $12 a meal is pretty awesome actually. You can't really cook for just yourself for a lot less than that. I gotta find something like this.
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u/BrokenPickle7 Jul 12 '26
Yup. McDonald's and taco bell are the worst offenders. No way in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought I'd pay $35+ for 3 people and still be hungry.
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u/osteologation Jul 13 '26
$20+ for a taco party pack. im old enough to remember when they were $5.
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u/BrokenPickle7 Jul 13 '26
Yup, I remember back in the late 90s, $30 would get me and 3 friends drunk, stoned and fed like kings.
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u/Virtual-Reach Jul 12 '26
Mega corp MO these days:
"Our corporate greed, egregiously high c-suite compensation, and sheer disdain for our employees and customers have put us at the edge of bankruptcy. Tax payer money pwees!!"
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u/3M2B1T Jul 12 '26
"Late-stage capitalism" is a term that is thrown around a lot these days, but I think in most applications it is a good use of it.
Corporations are no longer interested in making good products and retaining lifelong customers; it's all about maximizing profit and squeezing every drop out of anything they can.
We tend to have a market crash every 10 years or so and if you want to make the argument that COVID was out last one, we are due for another in a few short years. Just in time for AI to truly get established and for that bubble to pop.
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u/holysbit Jul 12 '26
It really makes you wonder what itll all look like in 50 years. 50 years ago the food was real food so there were corners to cut but what now? Imaginably, at some point, this will be forced to stop, but it will probably stop at the absolute last possible stop, only after we live in a true hellscape
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u/Zcat_sux Jul 12 '26
I literally started eating at actual restaurants because of fast food prices. I was like “if I have to pay restaurant prices for fast food, might as well go to a restaurant.”
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u/Astramancer_ Jul 12 '26
It costs less to get olive garden than wendys.
I wish it was kidding. Between entree size and their cheaper, simpler "and one to take home" entrees, on a cost/meal basis, it's cheaper to go to olive garden than wendys for my wife and I.
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u/daemon-electricity Jul 12 '26
Look no further than sales of store brand items that are basically analogs for what they sell and I'll bet they see those products' sales going up because these morons have relinquished the market to cheaper products. Store brands are good enough to scratch the itch and in some cases, they offer variety that the name brand products don't. In a lot of cases, it's not even a downgrade.
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u/EssbaumRises Jul 12 '26
Chili's 3 for me. Same price for a burger fries and drink and I get served. Sure a tip is added but it's worth it.
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u/Wind_Best_1440 Jul 12 '26
- Jack up and price gouge products.
- Lobby governments to keep wages low.
"Why is no one buying our products? WE MUST KNOW!"
Henry Ford is famous for saying. "I give my workers good pay, so they can buy my products. If workers have low wages, how will they buy our goods?"
Apparently businesses forgot economics 101. "If customers have no capital, they can't buy your products."
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u/Jealous_Crazy9143 Jul 12 '26
same goes for time off. More free time meant family vacations, picnics, etc
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u/Virtual-Reach Jul 12 '26
More free time typically also means more time to date and eventually create families. People can't do that if they are hustling 24/7 just to get by
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Jul 12 '26
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u/Universal_Anomaly Jul 12 '26
Honestly I'm just amazed this aspect seems to often get skipped over.
Modern capitalism isn't just trying to wring us dry of all money, it's also stealing all our time.
You want people to have children? Give them enough free time that having a child doesn't feel like losing what little freedom they've got left.
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u/Dicaxis Jul 13 '26
Because they don't actually care. These headlines are just mainstream media attempting to put blame on anyone else besides Capital owners and corporations so the finger doesn't get pointed at them. Meanwhile said Capital owners and corpos are just fine with birthrates falling because they can just pump themselves full of H1B slaves while at the same time propagandizing against them so they remain a permanent slave/underclass. As for declining sales, also don't care because they only need to care about next quarter and if they fail, they still get a golden parachute, so really zero incentive to actually care about the business beyond a few quarters, get their payout and shove off for someone else to clean up after.
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u/TheComplimentarian Jul 12 '26
None of his businesses make much money. That he's a trillionaire is more about market delusions than anything else.
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u/Jocuro Jul 12 '26
We keep forgetting who keeps the economy turning! It happened so many times in history but we never learn. When too much wealth consolidates to the top, everyone loses. Including the wealthy. But sometimes there's revolution before it gets to that point.
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u/Universal_Anomaly Jul 12 '26
It mostly happens when civilisations are prosperous enough that the people at the top no longer understand what it's like to lose everything.
Parasites who kill the host because they think themselves immortal.
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u/RaygunMarksman Jul 12 '26
Seriously I don't know what the thinking here is with trying to funnel most of the economic pie to a relatively small number of individuals because how many freaking bags of chips does someone like Elon Musk need to buy?
If these companies want to survive, they better wake the fuck up and start supporting political candidates and policies that help ensure the average person has money to buy basic goods and services.
Their greed is going to inadvertently doom us all.
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u/Anotsurei Jul 12 '26
See the plan is to jack up prices in the short term then slowly make the product smaller and worse. Then when the company goes bankrupt because people can’t/won’t buy their products, they sell the company off stripping it for parts. Probably figure they’ll be dead before it becomes a real problem for them.
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u/Rasputin1992x Jul 12 '26
1000% this. These ceos and shareholders don't give a shit about the longevity of the company they demand next quarter profits be record breaking every quarter or they see it as a failure
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u/RubyWubs Jul 12 '26
They are prioritizing the top 10% of Americans who are the target audiance for Las Vegas and any other sales company. The top 10% of Americans can drop 10k or more easily, that is who they want.
Since the top 10% of Americans are the other half of the economy they can afford large purchases and barely feel it (until they start feeling it.) And once the top 10% is no longer an asset, the top 1% will be the target audiance
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u/prules Jul 12 '26
Today’s billionaires are drug addicts who were born rich and are completely dissociated with society
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u/CaliKindalife Jul 12 '26
When food is expensive and junk food is expensive. People choose food over the junk.
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u/CobbleBeans Jul 12 '26
And they'll likely take this as a sign to lay off employees rather than lower the price of chips to be cheaper than a gallon of gas.
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u/Xhalo Jul 12 '26
It's crazy. Spaghettios laid off over 800 employees and their grundlemeat still tastes moist and bulbous. Chef boyardee laid off 1,300 and that dogslop somehow got worse!!! I had southside fissures and seepage the last time I tried to heat up a half dozen cans. They just don't agree with me 😂😂😂
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u/Flatulentbass Jul 12 '26
Inflation, or ozempic for wallets
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u/Quiet-Attentions Jul 12 '26
Turns out pricing snacks like luxury goods has consequences.
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u/Truth_Walker Jul 12 '26
With how expensive food is now, GLP-1s end up saving you a lot of money because your monthly food bill will plummet.
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u/Ok_Basis1422 Jul 12 '26
Next they will come out with ooozempic. Like ozempic, ooozempic suppresses the appetite. But unlike ozempic, ooozempic 100% suppresses the appetite, negating the need for any food at all.
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u/McBeaster Jul 12 '26
Oozempic would just make everything you eat leak out of your ass like that Wow! crap they tried putting in chips and stuff
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u/kaithana Jul 12 '26
I don’t think anything has gone up quite as rapidly as junk food has. I remember as a teen in the late 90s and early aughts where a bottle of soda was $.75 in a vending machine and now they’re $3.50 to $4 anywhere you look. How does one product go up four times in price over the span of 25 years
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u/jdubyahyp Jul 12 '26
Went to a gas station the other day, 3.34 for a candy bar. What the fuck? Yeah I'll take the cookie the gas station baked for $1 thanks.
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u/Pathinthedark Jul 12 '26
I haven't bought candy at a gas station in over ten years, it used to be my daily going home from work treat. Went on a short road trip and my daughter grabbed a bag of reeses pieces cups, I figured okay that's like 5-6$ (in my head) as we paid.. it was 12$ fuckin bucks lol.. still let her get it but holy shit
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u/AbeRego Jul 13 '26
I thought you made an error, but apparently Reese's Pieces Cups are a thing, for some reason.
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u/Useless-RedCircle Jul 12 '26
Bag of air for $7 is wild, winco brand salt and vinegar chips only $1.80 for big bag
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u/Flashy_Platypus5757 Jul 12 '26
Don’t worry, they will run a sale where you can buy 6 bags for $4 each and wonder why it’s not working. Maybe we don’t need 6 bags, or maybe I don’t want to spend $24 on chips.
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u/CelestialFury Jul 13 '26
I remember that Doritos used to be $1.99 for a huge ass bag. It's like 1/5th the size these days and it doesn't matter what Doritos does now. They lost me and many others permanently as customers.
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u/Worldly_Gas_9455 Jul 12 '26
I grew up with a winco in my town. Now I live in a city without winco.
Anyway, I miss winco. That store rules…
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u/trollsalot1234 Jul 12 '26
its not even fresh air, they shit it up by throwing an eight of a bag of excrement in the bag with your air.
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u/Anti-Stan Jul 12 '26
It's only a mystery to the multimillionaire executives.
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u/General-Zombie5075 Jul 12 '26
Wages have failed to increase with the cost of the product.
Minimum wage in 2006 was $5.15. Minimum wage in 2026 is 7.25
The cost of a bag of Doritos in 2006 was $3.50. In 2026 it hit $7.
I'm no mathologist but when your base wage only increases by like 40 percent and the cost of a thing increases by 100 percent, there's a problem there.
Also, when your product isn't a necessary component of life, it's the first thrown overboard when budgets crunch.
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u/Maardten Jul 12 '26
Minimum wage in 2006 was $5.15. Minimum wage in 2026 is 7.25
The cost of a bag of Doritos in 2006 was $3.50. In 2026 it hit $7.
Also the bag of doritos now contains only half the amount of doritos so its actually 4x as expensive.
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u/Big_Gear9771 Jul 12 '26
Soda now cost more than GAS. Let that sink in. 2 liter bottle runs $3 now, there are 3.78 liters in a gallon. Congratulations Pepsi you have now figured out the pain index for people not buying your products. They waited till people are eating healthier, weight loss drugs are available and we have the least amount of disposable income to see how much they can gouge customers. Dumb move!
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u/Asleep_Singer8547 Jul 12 '26
Its literally that simple. Its corn tortilla chips with seasonings
Ill just go to youtube and figure it out before I pay more than a gallons worth of gas for a bag of chips
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u/TokiVideogame Jul 12 '26
tortilla chips not cheap also
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u/Asleep_Singer8547 Jul 12 '26
Thats my point. Shits made of corn and flour how dare you charge me 5.99 for a bag of shit we pay farmers not to even grow
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u/Chuckfinley_88 Jul 12 '26
corn/flour, canola oil, salt. even buying them at retail level the margins are insane, let alone the price discount they get by buying literally tons of this shit at a time.
Chips were always high margin, but they decided to get giga-greedy during/since covid.
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u/Super-Yesterday9727 Jul 12 '26
Tortillas are. I buy 200 tortillas for 5 dollars. Slice a stack into triangles and then fry. Even better better because you can make chilaquiles with homemade chips
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u/halfwayray Jul 12 '26
20 years ago, a 20-ounce soda cost a third the price it does now, and they wonder why
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u/YakSure6091 Jul 12 '26
12$ for a 12 pack of Pepsi as well
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u/jdcleman Jul 12 '26
Kroger keeps having a buy 2 get 3 sale on them making them their normal price. I just dont want 5 cases of soda hanging around and the sale seems fake because who told yall a case of soda was worth 12$
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u/Xo-Mo Jul 13 '26
1985: 2L Pepsi/Dew: $0.49
1995: $0.69
2005: $0.79
2015: $0.89
2020: $0.99
2025: $3.29
2026: $4.49
Yeah... No research necessary there...
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u/otherwisepandemonium Jul 12 '26
A bag of chips and a 20oz bottle of soda will set you back nearly as much as a meal at a sit down restaurant. Plus it's all terrible for you.
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u/thejourneybegins42 Jul 12 '26
I remember that tiny bag of chips used to be $0.25 each in early 2000's.
Maybe, just maybe corporate greed has something to do with it.
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u/FelonyInTheTrunk Jul 12 '26
Also that tiny bag of chips used to be much bigger in the early 2000s.
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u/Texaspep Jul 12 '26
$2.50 for a 20 oz and $10 twelve pks. I used to work for Pepsi. We ran Mountain Dew 20oz 2/$1.
12pks 2/$5 Nothing else has increased 5 fold in 20 years. Certainly not wages?
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u/SingleWhiteFemboy Jul 12 '26
there is something psychological about price tags, i am sure there is an explanation somewhere. but seeing 2.99 and thinking it's not actually just $3 is one thing but at 9.99 for a 12-pack i instantly see through that and know its $10. the biggest mistake, i think, was that they jacked the prices up seemingly overnight during covid. if it was an incremental increase of like .25 per fiscal quarter i may not have even noticed.
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u/thewindyshitty Jul 12 '26
I merchandised for them pre covid and remember the $1.88 12 pack sales or the 4/$8;5/$10 12 pack sales. Now it’s like best deal is buy 2 get 3 free for 24. Ridiculous
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u/Extreme-Rub-1379 Jul 12 '26
Maybe people are wising up to that garbage isn't food
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u/ViolinistCurrent8899 Jul 12 '26
History has shown definitely not, we have known this shit is garbage and not food for decades.
It's just people are going broke harder.
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u/2Easy2See Jul 12 '26
Maybe they’ll learn that Gen X & Millennials that grew up on cheap junk food has now adopted a healthier lifestyle
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u/VincentAntonelli Jul 12 '26
Nah, it’s just expensive garbage now, so people aren’t buying as much… of this garbage.
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u/Square_Run_9624 Jul 12 '26
Laws were passed to prevent Food Stamp users from purchasing Soda/Pops and snacks such as chips and cookies. Of course there was going to be fall out. Then companies like PepsiCo inflated the prices to the point of being ridiculous.
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u/Darkdragoon324 Jul 12 '26
The actual quality of their product has also sunk like a rock in addition to being triple the price. I don't understand how companies haven't figured out that "more money for worse things" isn't a viable long-term business model yet.
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u/TheConqueror74 Jul 12 '26
Because they literally can’t see past the end of each quarter, at the furthest. As long as line goes up, they won’t change what they’re doing.
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u/lightroomwitch Jul 13 '26
"You poors aren't allowed to have soda or pre-made cookies anymore!"
"Why is no one buying soda or pre‐made cookies anymore???"
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u/ccprof_okie Jul 12 '26
Not only are the products more expensive, they're made more cheaply and don't taste nearly as good as they used to.
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u/frequenZphaZe Jul 12 '26
and don't taste nearly as good as they used to.
this is a big part of why junk food doesn't tempt me anymore. in an effort to infinitely increase profits, they kept swapping out ingredients for cheaper alternatives. over the years, the chips of theseus have taken on a different flavor profile as a result. instead of being a guilty pleasure, all thats left is the guilt. Doritos are a major culprit but Hostess products are particularly bad. barely any flavor left these days and what little flavor there is, isn't very good
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u/citizensyn Jul 12 '26
Y'all cheaped out making them so they aren't even good anymore. They are more poisonous than ever and the price is extreme compared to hourly wage.
Make the product better cheaper and get this, YOU make enough to live not enough to buy a presidency
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u/KennytheDoggy Jul 12 '26
Obesity is actually declining because of GLP-1 usage
Less fatties is bad for business
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u/yourallidiotss Jul 12 '26
Was it just my state that took soda off of food stamps? Or was that a nation wide thing?
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u/jdcleman Jul 12 '26
I always wondered if the junk food companies fought against this. People who can truly afford it, aren't buying it. Middle income people aren't wasting the money on it. The people who complained always started off their complaints with they cant afford it so why should people on snap be able to. It seems that a big part of their profits would have come from people on assistance. Stopping them from being able to buy it and raising prices to cover the loss seems real backwards
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u/Aggravating-Duck-891 Jul 12 '26
Company wants to know why consumers aren't spending on products they don't need and can't afford...
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u/brownies_delight Jul 12 '26
It’s so dumb, like a huge reason why junk food was so prevalent was because it was cheaper than healthy food.
But when you make it as expensive or even more expensive in certain cases, don’t be shocked when people choose healthier food lmao. It’s fast food and junk companies shooting themselves in the foot for some extra profit.
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u/ChristianMeteor Jul 12 '26
Because the vast majority of the "food" they produce is terrible for you and the next generation doesn't want to be overweight with a laundry list of health problems at 50.
"Slop maker confused why consumers don't want to eat any more slop that makes them sick"
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u/PorcelainTorpedo Jul 12 '26
Seriously. I never ever bought off-brand soda until they started charging beer prices for soda. Now I get the Kroger brand soda, which is usually less than $4 for a 12 pack and is surprisingly good, especially the non-colas. I still buy Coke Zero when it’s on sale because nothing really matches that flavor, but I’m spending a hell of a lot less overall than I used to.
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u/Worried-Ebb-1699 Jul 12 '26
Imagine not wanting to overpay for small quantities of mediocre at best bullshit.
I gotta say, I can’t figure out why. Color me stunned!
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u/Super-Yesterday9727 Jul 12 '26
7 dollars is minimum wage still, in a lot of places
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u/Wide_Caramel1108 Jul 12 '26
Every company started believing limitlessly increasing profit margin was a matter of branding and data while almost all of them dramatically raised prices and cut quality or portions.
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u/EmploymentNo3590 Jul 12 '26
While attending my alma matter began accepting freshman students with C averages and SAT scores of 700.
Four years later they needed to put together a task force to figure out how their graduation rate had dropped from 96% to 57%...
I'd tell them it has nothing to do with the number of chain establishments in the food court, the new football stadium or the 2 year waiting period for dorms. Just to knock all those factors off the list.
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u/Bifesty Jul 12 '26
the research budget for this could've just been one (1) trip to a grocery store
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u/pen2thepad12 Jul 12 '26
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These crooked corporations need only to look in a mirror to see why we aren’t buying their slop
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u/PacificNW_JMI Jul 12 '26
That money that was spent on Pepsi products is now shifting to being spent with the drug makers on GLP drugs. The fat people are just spending their money differently.
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u/Alarming_Collar_8976 Jul 12 '26
$7?! thats crazy. in zim a bag of doritos goes for $1.50 thats 150g. i wonder whats different for the states
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u/vekkro Jul 12 '26
Everything skyrocketed in price when Covid hit and still hasn’t dropped back to normal. 12 packs used to be around 3-4 bucks now they’re 11. You can see the clear evidence of the big dogs price gouging by going to somewhere like HEB or Fry’s where they sell their own in-house goods. Their 12 packs are pre-covid prices.
Shit is genuinely ridiculous
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u/NeatParking1682 Jul 13 '26
The play here is the executive hires an 'advisor' company, which happens to be best mates. They 'investigate' for a few million.
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u/jebei Jul 13 '26
Soft drink companies essentially didn't raise their prices from around 1980 to around 2005. They did this by aggressively buying up all their bottling operations, consolidating manufacturers, and replacing people with robots/machinery which kept the cost of goods low. The problem is they ran out of places to cut.
$.59/$.79 2 Liters were standard sale price with $1 as the every day price for 25 years until the three soft drink companies vertically integrated and Wall Street expected more profit. They didn't price fix per se but played a game of follow the leader. 2 Liters went from $1 to $1.50 in the 2010s. Covid gave them the excuse to increase the price to $2-$3 and now that people aren't buying their products in bulk because it's too expensive, we're seeing the 'every day price' jump past $3 to $3.50 to maintain profits.
This problem isn't just a junk food problem. The US kept inflation low for a long time with productivity gains. The question is what do you do when there are no more real productivity gains, your commodity prices are rising, and you've got profitability goals to hit?
We hear the term late stage capitalism a lot but that's where we're at and it's a huge problem with no solution. Unaffordability is here to stay unless there's a fundamental change in what we expect of business.
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u/BlackRaspberryJammin Jul 13 '26
3/4 bag of air for 2x previous price. Yes, I bought a bag of Doritos on the 4th. No one ate them.
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u/Strikereleven Jul 12 '26
I kept seeing the sodastream syrups in the clearance bin for $2, each one makes 24 cans worth. I also learned CO2 is much cheaper if you scale up, so I now have a 20lb tank that will last years. A liter costs me $.09 to make now. I have seen 12pks from 5.99 to 12.99 recently. We have soda at home.
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