It's not the most obvious hill to die on, and just maybe I'm super-sensitive from being cooped up at home for months on end and feeding on unemployment, but there are some things in life that I just won't stand for, if there is any alternative available. One well-documented example of that on this blog would be my conversion from Sony to Microsoft for my gaming systems back when that whole "PS3 Linux" issue was perpetrated by Sony. Less well documented is my opposition to the whole "product shrinkage" thing that various grocery producers have leaned into in current years... you know, where they come out with a redesign of their packaging to try and hide that they're trying to sell you less product for the same amount of money. It's gotten to the point where, for a couple of examples, I will basically no longer buy a "half-gallon" sized container of ice cream, since they're all 1.75 quarts or less now (shout out to Trader Joe's as the lone exception in my area!), nor will I buy a multi-serving bag of chips that contains less than 10 ounces of product (which is basically all of them now, unless you go for the "Party Size" or equivalent).
The latest offender is Feline Greenies, the dental treats I feed my cats with every meal. I suspected the game was afoot when I saw the new artwork on the front, and noticed the bag seemed a bit elongated compared to what I was used to... and I was right, based on looking things up at Amazon, where somebody still had the old 2.5oz/71g package available for sale, compared to the current 2.1oz/60g packaging. That alone would be enough to make me reconsider whether I was going to go along with things, but then I realized that, at the same time, the price of the package increased from $3 or less to about $4. Yes, it wasn't enough to shrink the package and hope nobody would notice, the price got jacked as well.
Now, looking at Amazon, it might be that the price increase was primarily the choice of PetSmart, the store I bought them at - they've certainly been raising prices otherwise, doubtless to try and make up for people either not spending as much on their pets under current conditions or ordering pet supplies online. However, I'm not quite ready to ditch PetSmart, but I'm more than willing to look into alternatives to Feline Greenies, next time I hit the store.
1 comment:
After one too many price changes at PetSmart, I switched to chewy.com. Their standard prices are less plus they add a 10% discount for setting up auto shipments. But they warn you about auto shipments about three days ahead so you can bump the shipment out if you don’t actually need anything Right then. In all I’m saving close to $0.40 per can of cat food. While I like the idea of brick and mortar pet food stores, the reality is there are only three products I want there, and only one at any regularity. So best pricing on that one product wins out for me.
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