"Consumerist" news and stories

File this under "durrrr:" Some items on Dairy Queen's new "Sweet Deals" menu will actually cost 8 percent more than buying individual items off the regular menu, reports Consumerist. For example, a grilled chicken wrap which costs $1.39 on the regular menu costs $3 for two on the "Sweet Deals" menu, which was presumably created in response to the recession. That's $0.11 more for each chicken wrap. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it does make you wonder whether this was a deliberate on the part of Dairy Queen to squeeze a few extra cents out of customers who aren't exactly thinking about multiplying chicken wrap prices in the drive-through lane. $0.11 times several thousand per day does add up quickly. Or maybe I'm just being paranoid because my savings account interest rate has dropped for the fifth time in four months...

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As many of you know, the products we regularly buy at the grocery store have slowly been shrinking over the last year or two. Peanut butter jars, yogurt cups and tubs of ice cream are all now smaller than they once were, while the price points have remained the same.



Häagen-Dazs, the original purveyor of premium ice cream, recently announced that they too would be reducing the amount of ice cream in their packages, going from a standard 16 ounce pint to a slimmed down 14 ounces. However, instead of going about this reduction quietly, as other companies have done, they're broadcasting the news. You see, they feel that they are protecting their high quality by reducing the contents of the cartons by "a few spoonfuls."

Starting in January 2009 (so you may already be seeing these reduced cartons on the shelves) the pint will shrink and the 32 ounce cartons will change to 28 ounces.

[via The Consumerist]

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Back in the early nineties, Taco Bell offered a pretty terrific bargain menu. It was such a deal that whenever my sister or I had friends over to spend the night, my mom would get take-out beans and rice, tacos and burritos, managing to feed a crowd for less than $10 (this was before we were aware just how much nasty stuff that food contains). The one problem with our local 'Bell was that they almost always screwed up our order, so she'd take me with her to count out the order and ensure that nothing was missing before we drove home. There's nothing worse than sitting down to a take-out meal and discovering that something is missing.

This afternoon, Consumerist reported on one of those disappointing moments. Jarrett had gone to McDonald's to pick up his regular Two Cheeseburger Value Meal. Upon returning home, he discovered that one of his hamburgers was missing the meat patty. It had everything else, ketchup, pickles, onions and cheese, just no meat. How disappointing!

What's the worst take-out or fast food gaffe you've experienced?

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Over the last few months, the intrepid editors over at Consumerist have done an outstanding job of tracking the trend of smaller sizes for the same price. They call it the Grocery Shrink Ray and they've seen it hit everything from coffee, to peanut butter to yogurt (it also strikes non-edible products such as toothpaste and contact lens solution).

One of the debates that occurs around this topic of shrinking package sizes is whether it would be more honest for companies to simply raise the prices on their products instead of charging the same for a smaller amount. In the face of rising costs, Turkey Hill Dairy has decided to succumb to the dreaded shrinking size trend for their ice cream packages, as prices for ice cream's have risen dramatically in recent days. They announced this size reduction with a heart-felt letter penned by company President, Quintin Frey that was posted on their blog.

On the other side of the coin is Hershey's, who announced recently a price hike of 10-11% across their entire product line. This comes on the heels of a 13% increase last February.

These days, rising prices are an inevitability. Do you prefer to experience it through higher prices or lesser amounts for the same price?

Imagine for a moment that you went to a local bakery and got a loaf of your favorite raisin bread. When you get it home you find small rocks are in the mix. Would you accept five bucks as compensation from the bakery?

That's what one customer in Somerville, Massachusetts did. As reported by The Consumerist, Michael Snyder originally asked for five more loaves of the raisin bread, but the bakery offered $5 and he took that. Apparently the raisins were from Chile and used an older production method that makes it easier for debris to get into the raisin supply. The bakery sent back the rest of the raisins.

There has been no talk about any injuries from the rocks, so I assume everyone is fine. I also suppose that things happen and you just need to be able to take things in stride, but five dollars? What would you do in a similar situation?