Fruzio Frozen Smoothie Mix - Shrinkflation = 33% Price Rise

netwalk on 26/03/2023 - 19:04
Last edited 26/03/2023 - 20:42

I know it's everywhere and we're in the midst of a "cost of living crisis" however I can't believe how blatantly suppliers are ramping up prices and hoping no-one will notice.

Every week or two my Wife and I purchase a couple of 1kg bags of Fruzio Smoothie Mix from our local Pak'nSave in Whangarei. The price is invariably $10.79/kg.

This evening we went in and picked up a couple of bags for the trolley to find they are now 750g for the same price. Only because the bag felt a bit off did I even notice; identical packaging except for the weight now being 750g.

Even if inflation is running at 10% this is a 33% price increase overnight with every possible effort made to hide it from consumers. This is, in my opinion, bordering on fraudulent and deceptive marketing.

Luckily there were a handful of 1kg bags left on the shelf which we picked up however it makes a mockery of the claims by supermarkets to be keeping prices down for consumers. I doubt the bags will ever return to 1kg and in a week or two they will be on a "massive discount" of 750g for $9.99 or some similar rubbish. Why do we put up with being treated like idiots?

/rant

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Comments

  • CheapAzChips on 26/03/2023 - 22:56
    +1

    Totally. It does seem wrong. I'm sure there are lots of people creaming it in most industries, and we have way more inflation than we should, way more than Australia in most areas, for example.

    Case in point: fruit and veg. I started writing that as a comment to this thread and it morphed into another whole tangential forum post!

  • Drcspy on 27/03/2023 - 07:14

    "This is, in my opinion, bordering on fraudulent and deceptive marketing."

    I do agree and it's rife. Many years ago I noticed a similar thing and it wasn't common then. I bought a 4 pack of JD & Cola and it wasnt' till I got home with it that I noticed they had reduced the Alcohol content from 8% to a miserly 6%. I was incensed. I lived in the country and wasn't about to take it back anyway as I had a bottle already open lol so i wrote them a letter asserting that this could possibly contravene the 'Fair Trading Act' among others because the buyer wasn't made aware of the change and when picking the product from the store in a chiller with frosted glass was unlikely to even notice. I got stuck into them. Anyway a couple of weeks later I got a letter in reply, (amazing !), and they included a very nice hard cover BBQ cook book featuring Jack Daniels as an ingredient of the dishes lol. But the lesson was learnt and I began to notice from then that this kind of practice was becoming common. As we all know now it's pretty much endemic. The cereal box which suddenly and without any advisory notice now holds 3/4 of what it used to but the box size hasn't changed and nothing else has except the quantity which is in small writing on the box. And as you OP noticed the 'Smoothie Mix' packet suddenly lost a lot of it's contents. It's a very sneaky way to raise prices. And very deliberately done to deceive people into buying products.

  • Stoffel on 27/03/2023 - 08:52

    You need a Why Knot up there. I've been buying frozen berries from them for the last two years and the price has changed little

  • kiwical on 27/03/2023 - 09:13

    Do you think there is a possibility that the supermarket didn't realise? Or did realise but updated pricing not filter through to the display? I've found that when you find these things it's always good to actually ask in store. Hard to keep track of so many thousands of lines if a manufacturer has changed the quantities. The trick would be to refer to the grams on the price label. You likely might find it still says 1kg…………

    EDIT: online it is currently saying $9.99 for 1kg on "extra low" promo.

    • Alan6984 on 27/03/2023 - 11:43

      The supermarket will definitely know, as the barcode will have to be different, so they will need to amend their orders.

      They might not have any choice in the matter per se though - the manufacturer changes something, and they either take it or leave it (much the same as us as consumers of course).

      They will be looking at their margins though, so as long as they make the same (or more), and the number of packs sold doesn't significantly drop, the supermarket will be okay with it. If volumes drop and their return per metre of shelf space drops, they will be offering the manufacturer the option to reduce prices (increase margins for the supermarket) or drop the line and they'll fill it with the new highest return (again, all the same options we have too - we can just move to a competitor product, or a different supermarket in the extreme).

      The best way to respond, if we aren't happy, is to buy something different, or don't buy it at all.

      • Sickman on 27/03/2023 - 19:31

        The supermarket will also have to update the weight for their self-check out.

  • DanRedman on 27/03/2023 - 09:27

    I had noticed this as well. I was wondering why all of a sudden that the berry bag wasn't lasting me the week it usually did to make my smoothies. It's so frustrating as there is no way I am going to buy two bags, but now there isn't a 1kg bag option.

  • kiwijunglist on 27/03/2023 - 10:36
    +1

    It's lucky you don't have to buy nappies….

  • akrotohur on 27/03/2023 - 21:01

    It's happening throughout the supply chain, not just the supermarkets, everyone along the supply chain is clipping the ticket. That's why the inflation is much higher than the official numbers. I just stop buying anything that I believe is too expensive now.

  • flembots on 28/03/2023 - 19:52

    You should check out the frozen fruit at Reduced to Clear (by the Caltex/Spotlight). Pretty sure that's all $10/kg still.

    • netwalk on 29/03/2023 - 07:51

      Thanks for the heads up. Love Reduced to Clear but never looked at their frozen fruit, always distracted by the biscuit isle! Will go this weekend to check it out.

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