Speaker 1: Now really.
Speaker 2: Really now, really well.
Speaker 3: And welcome to really know really, Jason, Alexander and Peter
Speaker 3: Tilden remind you that your heart will never shrink if
Speaker 3: you subscribe to our show. And speaking of shrinking, every
Speaker 3: Seinfeld fan knows what shrinkage is, but in real life,
Speaker 3: shrinkage is a phenomenon that's happening all around us and
Speaker 3: it affects everyone all the time. It's when companies secretly
Speaker 3: sell us less product for the exact same price, or
Speaker 3: even at an increased price. Over the past forty years,
Speaker 3: one in every three supermarket products have stealthily increased in price,
Speaker 3: and that means we're all getting much less of actually
Speaker 3: paying more.
Speaker 2: Really, no really.
Speaker 3: Edgar Dwarfski is known as mister Consumer and has been
Speaker 3: a consumer advocate for over forty five years. He joins
Speaker 3: Jason and Peter to highlight the selling scams and to
Speaker 3: explain how many companies have pre did a national, if
Speaker 3: not global shrink flation. And now here are two guys
Speaker 3: you always give you less for more, Jason and Peters.
Speaker 4: So this episode you've been waiting for this, You've been
Speaker 4: waiting for this because you I think your favorite episode
Speaker 4: of Seinfeld was where we kept yelling shrimp shrinkage.
Speaker 5: There's shrinkage.
Speaker 4: There's lots of shrinkage, and this episode is a lot
Speaker 4: of shrink in real life shrinkage.
Speaker 1: One in three supermarket products have been shrink flated over
Speaker 1: the last four years, which means less product in the
Speaker 1: thing in the can.
Speaker 5: At the same price.
Speaker 1: And then you wonder, also, did the price has ever
Speaker 1: come back? What happens with you?
Speaker 5: I can answer that for you. Yeah, the price has
Speaker 5: never never come back.
Speaker 1: Now also you're you're at such a point now with
Speaker 1: pushback from the public that in France there's a supermarket
Speaker 1: chain that is now actually labeling stuff that has been
Speaker 1: shrink flated, so the public knows because they feel obligated
Speaker 1: to let people know.
Speaker 4: I think that'd be great on the bunk and now
Speaker 4: with thirty percent less product, Yeah.
Speaker 1: But more guts, more guts, less product made with more love.
Speaker 1: But because it's kind of sneaky when they raise prices,
Speaker 1: we get it, but when they put less product in
Speaker 1: and they do it in a way where either they
Speaker 1: indent the bottom of the thing, whether there's air in
Speaker 1: there or you don't know. So we wanted to get
Speaker 1: on somebody who not only knows about it, but he's
Speaker 1: considered the world's foremost expert on shrink plates.
Speaker 5: Yes we do.
Speaker 4: A consumer advocate for over forty five years, Edgar Dwarski,
Speaker 4: also known as Mister Consumer, founded Consumer World in nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety five. It's public service company highlighting the latest consumer
Speaker 4: news and scam alerts and ways to save money. He
Speaker 4: was a former Massachusetts attorney assistants Attorney General and consumer
Speaker 4: Protection was a consultant for the Federal Trade Commission.
Speaker 1: This is a big and before we say hi, he's
Speaker 1: standing there. The thing is when you got a consumer
Speaker 1: reporter who's not in and about making money, and I
Speaker 1: know that this was a lot of this was funded
Speaker 1: by you.
Speaker 6: You don't live.
Speaker 1: Big, but this is really from your heart and you
Speaker 1: don't see many people like that, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about that com on.
Speaker 5: So let's welcome Edgar warskif to our show.
Speaker 2: Thanks, thanks for having me. Guys really appreciate the invitation.
Speaker 1: So before we get into products and some that are
Speaker 1: inflated worse than others and skinflated, which means the ingredients
Speaker 1: or wordered down or whatever, why did you get into
Speaker 1: what called to you to do? Something that's not thankful.
Speaker 1: You don't make money doing this.
Speaker 4: I'm guessing he was taking. He was abused. He was
Speaker 4: an abusion. Something happened. He thought he bought a thing.
Speaker 4: It was less of a thing, and it was a crusade.
Speaker 5: Was born right here? Am I anywhere near right?
Speaker 2: I actually majored in marketing as a college student, and
Speaker 2: some of my jobs were in market research. But I learned,
Speaker 2: you know, creating questionneers, listening to consumers. I cared more
Speaker 2: about the consumers that I cared about the manufacturers. You
Speaker 2: know that hired me to do the questionnaires. And if
Speaker 2: you do something you love, you don't have to get
Speaker 2: paid for it, or believe me, I get paid buck gis.
Speaker 1: And by the way, it's less buckused than even you
Speaker 1: look like like, let me.
Speaker 4: Take a moment for the non Yiddish speakers.
Speaker 5: Means nothing, zero, not a.
Speaker 4: Silch ziph nine shine means.
Speaker 1: So you do it from your heart and you not
Speaker 1: only I got the newsletter and I've gone to consumer World.
Speaker 1: You should see how many articles he puts out. And
Speaker 1: I think you still every Monday put out the top
Speaker 1: shrinkflation items. A couple of top shrinkflation items to look
Speaker 1: for correct.
Speaker 2: Well, every Monday there's a newsletter with in twenty five
Speaker 2: or thirty consumer news stories. I didn't write most of them,
Speaker 2: and maybe quarterly i'll do a list of items that
Speaker 2: have shrunk, or as you'd say, have we're skimping on
Speaker 2: a product where you're getting you know, less oil in
Speaker 2: the salad dressing than used to get in the substitute water.
Speaker 2: That's what skimplouse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well he should. I mean I've seen him. I've
Speaker 1: seen a whole to each other, and you watch, you want,
Speaker 1: you can see the levels right there before we get
Speaker 1: to certain products. I just had read an article in
Speaker 1: preparation for this saying that the worst offenders of this
Speaker 1: are dollar stores or the inexpensive stores.
Speaker 6: Is that seam accurate to you?
Speaker 2: Well, what I found is dollar stores have products made
Speaker 2: especially for them. Someone sent me a picture of some
Speaker 2: Campbell's chunky soup and the regular size is eighteen point
Speaker 2: four ounces or something like that, and then there was
Speaker 2: a sixteen point one and they said, look at this shrinkflation. No,
Speaker 2: the sixteen ounce one especially made for the dollar stores
Speaker 2: so they can charge less for it. Most consumers don't
Speaker 2: realize they're really getting less for their money at the
Speaker 2: dollar store buying the smaller size.
Speaker 4: And am I correct that in better financial times when
Speaker 4: these companies are doing a little bit better, they never
Speaker 4: turn around and go, oh, we're doing good, now we
Speaker 4: can lower the pro I mean, is there ever a
Speaker 4: true price reduction?
Speaker 5: Once a price is gone.
Speaker 2: Up, sometimes prices come down. You'll see specials, you may
Speaker 2: see a loss leader. But people often ask, well do
Speaker 2: you ever see the big product again? Well, sometimes they
Speaker 2: shrink the product so much they have to bring back
Speaker 2: a larger size, but it's never at the original price,
Speaker 2: and they give it a fancy name, like potato chips.
Speaker 2: You always used to have a one pound bag of
Speaker 2: potato chips. Then they became fourteen ounces in thirteen and
Speaker 2: twelve and eleven and ten. Then they bring back a
Speaker 2: new one. Oh look, party size and it's sixteen ounces again.
Speaker 2: Probably get double the original price.
Speaker 6: Whoa boy?
Speaker 1: So if party size and also new and improved is
Speaker 1: nonsense a lot?
Speaker 2: Well, it's funny you mentioned before, are we ever going
Speaker 2: to see something on a label that talks about getting
Speaker 2: small size? We always see new and improved. My fantasy
Speaker 2: has always been, are we going to see a starbars?
Speaker 2: This says, look twenty percent less instead of twenty percent more.
Speaker 1: R Wow, but new improved it brings us back at
Speaker 1: a bigger price. With new and improved. Do they have
Speaker 1: to prove that it's new and improved in any way
Speaker 1: or no.
Speaker 2: It's typically viewed as puffing to say that the product
Speaker 2: is new and improved. Hopefully it really is true. They've
Speaker 2: done something. I mean, for years, Sharman, the number one
Speaker 2: toilet paper brand, used to say, oh, it's now softer
Speaker 2: and it's fluffed. And I had asked them at one point, well,
Speaker 2: you know, the original Sharman had six hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: sheets on a roll. They're now down. If you could
Speaker 2: find single rolls of Sharman to fifty five sheets on
Speaker 2: a roll ninety percent less. Let me actually show you
Speaker 2: a product. This is like a toy. You can see
Speaker 2: the dollar bill is here to show this is maybe
Speaker 2: an inch and a half more than a dollar bill.
Speaker 2: If you could find a product like this today, it
Speaker 2: would have fifty five sheets on a roll compared to
Speaker 2: the original six hundred and fifty. But what did they do?
Speaker 2: They came out with Mega size and then super megasize,
Speaker 2: and now there's a Mega XXL size. That's four hundred
Speaker 2: and forty sheets on Sharman, so it's still two hundred
Speaker 2: less than the original.
Speaker 4: My god, So when it dropped from six hundred defined
Speaker 4: to fifty, didn't the consumer go hell no oh.
Speaker 2: If you did it all in one fell swoop. But
Speaker 2: we're talking about think of back to the days of
Speaker 2: mister Whipple in the nineteen sixties. Ladies, Please don't squeeze
Speaker 2: the Sharman right over the years, so it went down
Speaker 2: to six hundred and five point fifty and five hundred
Speaker 2: and four hundred and just slowly, maybe every six months,
Speaker 2: maybe every year or two, so you don't catch it.
Speaker 2: And that's what's so sneaky about shrink flation. Look at
Speaker 2: the product and it looks about the same size as all.
Speaker 1: Let me do the pushback and advocate. Just give the
Speaker 1: company's point of view, he Edgar. Patroleum products costs more,
Speaker 1: the processing costs more, labor benefits, labor costs more, real
Speaker 1: estate costs more, electricity costs more. We couldn't do this
Speaker 1: and keep a profit. Is that legitimate or is it
Speaker 1: legitimate to say fifty percent of that? But they still
Speaker 1: keep their margins, and the margins have gone up over
Speaker 1: the years.
Speaker 2: Well, it's legitimate that they have, you know, increased costs. Absolutely,
Speaker 2: do they pass it on to consumers in a straightforward way.
Speaker 2: Many shoppers say they would rather pay more than have
Speaker 2: the sneaky backdoor price increase where they do it in
Speaker 2: kind of a steaky, surreptitious way.
Speaker 1: Well, how about store brands when you so when you
Speaker 1: see that happens, and you go, I'm not choosing to
Speaker 1: buy into this too much. I'll go with the store brand.
Speaker 1: Is a store brand generally cheaper and more product.
Speaker 2: Well, the store brand is generally cheaper, and it tends
Speaker 2: to be the last one to change and downsize. Years ago,
Speaker 2: when and Skippy went from eighteen ounces to sixteen point three,
Speaker 2: you mentioned in your intro, how did they do it?
Speaker 2: The old jar looked the same as the new jar. Well,
Speaker 2: they put an indent in the bottom of the jar,
Speaker 2: so it looked to be the same size. So the
Speaker 2: kind of masters at packaging tricks. Cereal, for example, Kellogg
Speaker 2: Cereal Special k RedBerry came out. It said it's announced
Speaker 2: and a half or so less than it was before.
Speaker 2: The new box is taller than the old one.
Speaker 4: Is this is this more or less limited to supermarket items,
Speaker 4: or is this happening you know, in big electronics and
Speaker 4: and appliances and cars. Is it is in it across
Speaker 4: the board shrink flesh or is it just the sort
Speaker 4: of small daily products we find on.
Speaker 5: The shelves Well we.
Speaker 4: Is it across the board shrimp flesh or is it
Speaker 4: just the sort of small daily products we find on
Speaker 4: the shelves.
Speaker 2: Well, we tend to see most in health and beauty
Speaker 2: aids in supermarkets. But someone just posted today a story
Speaker 2: about home depot having some certain type of wire and
Speaker 2: they had the wire from four years ago in the
Speaker 2: wire today and they showed it was a narrower gauge.
Speaker 2: So it really can be across the board. See, and
Speaker 2: a lot of times we don't know with skimpflation, where
Speaker 2: the manufacturer reformulates the product, we don't know what percentage
Speaker 2: of cleaning ingredients are intied. For example, it's not on
Speaker 2: the label. So how would you know if they took
Speaker 2: out some of the expensive cleaners in there and substituted
Speaker 2: something else. You have no way of knowing.
Speaker 1: Well, I also read somewhere that they shaved like bars
Speaker 1: of soap. They'll shave the corners they're round off the
Speaker 1: corners to shave size, and you won't so it's not
Speaker 1: obvious when you're holding the bar that it's smaller.
Speaker 6: Is that accurate.
Speaker 2: Well, they've changed the shape of bars. They've put a
Speaker 2: curve in it. The bath sized bar used to be
Speaker 2: five ounces. You're lucky if it's three point nine ounces
Speaker 2: these days, tuna cans. It was seven ounces to start with,
Speaker 2: then it was six and a half, and then six
Speaker 2: and five and a half. In the current you know,
Speaker 2: tuna is five ounces. Let me show you kind of
Speaker 2: the history of ice cream. This is Briar's ice Cream,
Speaker 2: one of the big brands, but other brands like Eighties,
Speaker 2: did the same thing. Used to buy a half gallon
Speaker 2: of ice cream sixty four ounces, then they took out
Speaker 2: a cup, made it fifty six ounces. Then they took
Speaker 2: out another cup and made it forty eight ounces. And
Speaker 2: we're paying as much, if not more, today for ice
Speaker 2: cream than we used to.
Speaker 5: Did They still call it a half gallon.
Speaker 2: Now they don't call it a half gas. But I
Speaker 2: mean here, when you have them lined up, you can
Speaker 2: see a little bit of a difference. Yeah, But in
Speaker 2: the store, unless you have that last package of the
Speaker 2: old size right next to the new package of the
Speaker 2: news size. You can't tell the difference, so the change
Speaker 2: over time is very subtle. You buy a four roll
Speaker 2: pack of toilet paper, it looks like I always did
Speaker 2: same thing with paper towels, but you're getting much less.
Speaker 4: And is this commpletely legal that these companies do not
Speaker 4: have to report what they're doing to the consumer.
Speaker 2: It is absolutely kosher as long as they list the
Speaker 2: net weight or the net count on the package. It's
Speaker 2: up to us, as good consumers and sharp shoppers to
Speaker 2: pay attention. Shame on us if we don't pay attention.
Speaker 2: And that's really one of my tips. You have to
Speaker 2: get to know what the size of the products is
Speaker 2: you normally buy. If you're just someone who goes to
Speaker 2: the store, grabs the product, rose it in your cart.
Speaker 2: You don't pay attention to the fine print, you're going
Speaker 2: to get snuggered.
Speaker 1: When you see new streamline bottle, easier to grip or
Speaker 1: whatever that can also be a giveaway.
Speaker 2: Correct, correct, Well, I thought this gatorade is thirty two ounces,
Speaker 2: this one is twenty eight, So you lost half a
Speaker 2: cup between the two. Would you necessarily notice? No? What
Speaker 2: did they do? They tapered the middle of this bottle,
Speaker 2: and when I asked them, why did you do it,
Speaker 2: they said, well, we wanted to make the bottle easier
Speaker 2: to grip. Well, give me a break. Did they really
Speaker 2: get a ton of consumer complaints? But said, gee, slipper
Speaker 2: have a hard time holding this big bottle, please make
Speaker 2: it smaller.
Speaker 6: Wow?
Speaker 5: Does the average consumer? This is interesting?
Speaker 4: I think I'm probably your worst nightmare because I am
Speaker 4: a sort of a you know, I need towels, grab
Speaker 4: it off the shelf. I don't really look as much.
Speaker 4: But does the average consumer notice this?
Speaker 5: A and B care enough to stop the trend?
Speaker 2: I think more and more consumers are noticing. For decades,
Speaker 2: I call this downsizing. But maybe seven or eight years ago,
Speaker 2: the term strength inflation came about and the media really
Speaker 2: glommed onto that. And because of it, there's been so
Speaker 2: many stories about products shrinking. Consumers awareness of it really
Speaker 2: is increasing. And when you read comments, you know, on
Speaker 2: my website Mouthsprint dot org, when I showcase you know,
Speaker 2: half a dozen or dozen items, people really are getting angry.
Speaker 2: Many people say I'm going to switch away from the
Speaker 2: name brand. I'm going to switch to another brand that
Speaker 2: hasn't done it, or, as you mentioned before, the store brand,
Speaker 2: which tends to be the last one to change. So
Speaker 2: there is anger out there, but has that anger translated
Speaker 2: into companies changing how they do business. Money talks louder
Speaker 2: than consumer.
Speaker 1: So there hasn't been enough pushback to brands. Brands are
Speaker 1: not suffering from this yet or are they? To people
Speaker 1: At a certain point say I am switching brands, and
Speaker 1: then these companies actually see it and it hurts them.
Speaker 2: Well, the trouble is then the competitor switches to the
Speaker 2: smaller size also, so now there's equilibrium, and where am
Speaker 2: I going? Everyone's doing it? Where is there for the
Speaker 2: consumer to go? There isn't They used to be time
Speaker 2: you buy Oreos a sixteen ounce package and then they
Speaker 2: went down to fifteen point something and now I believe
Speaker 2: it's like thirteen point something for Oreos. If you don't
Speaker 2: pay attention, you really don't realize you're getting less for
Speaker 2: your money. One other nasty trick they're doing that we
Speaker 2: mentioned before, like Potato Chips putting the name party size
Speaker 2: on it. Breakfast Cereal you have large size, family size,
Speaker 2: giant size on the top of cereal, and if they
Speaker 2: conditioned people to buy by size name. You're not paying
Speaker 2: attention to the net weight. So you know, wife says
Speaker 2: the hobby go to the store and get some you know,
Speaker 2: family sized cheerios. Well, he sees the word family, grabs it,
Speaker 2: puts it in the cart, and you don't realize you
Speaker 2: may be getting a ball or two less in every box.
Speaker 2: That's how they get you. That's kind of the latest
Speaker 2: trick in their in their playbook.
Speaker 1: So, Edgar, before we move on, I got to ask
Speaker 1: you started out when I guess a lot of networks
Speaker 1: had consumer reporters. I remember Philly they had a consumer
Speaker 1: guy and they were always balled and went out and
Speaker 1: busted somebody who ripped somebody off or whatever, and it
Speaker 1: was entertained. It was entertainment and was also the legal
Speaker 1: part of it whatever. And then that started to diminish.
Speaker 1: And now you're like one of the last men standing.
Speaker 1: And Jason and I were talking about this ahead of time.
Speaker 1: You know, thankfully you do exist, and you got the
Speaker 1: news letter and you got mouseprint and all of that.
Speaker 1: But I don't see new I don't see any kids
Speaker 1: coming up today saying I want to be a consumer advocate,
Speaker 1: which is kind of like a whistleblower. You going against
Speaker 1: these big companies, and as they consolidate, they get a
Speaker 1: lot more powerful and they consue you. They can make
Speaker 1: life miserable for consumer advocate. What's happening in that field?
Speaker 1: Is there a national consumer Advocate get together that we
Speaker 1: will have end of the year. Do you mentor anybody?
Speaker 1: Do you see where that's going as far as protections?
Speaker 2: Well, well, actually the Consumer Consumer Federation of America has
Speaker 2: an annual conference, but we are all aging. I used
Speaker 2: to be a member of the Massachusetts Consumers Coalition, which
Speaker 2: were all the local consumer groups in the state, and
Speaker 2: there were some young guys in their twenties and I
Speaker 2: was so happy to see them there and I said,
Speaker 2: you know, you guys are the future of the movement.
Speaker 2: You know, all of us are getting older, we're going
Speaker 2: to be retiring, you're going to be taking over. What
Speaker 2: do they do? They went and took other jobs. So
Speaker 2: it's really tough, and particularly with the change in administrations.
Speaker 2: I don't think you're going to see an active Federal
Speaker 2: Trade Commission. I don't think you're going to see an
Speaker 2: active Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or FCC. So we've lived
Speaker 2: kind of a charmed life the past few years, with
Speaker 2: you know, click to cancel no more, you know, fake reviews,
Speaker 2: all these different initiatives by the consumer agencies. I think
Speaker 2: they're going to be muffled, and that really is unfortunate
Speaker 2: because we're all consumers. We do deserve protection from those
Speaker 2: who would take advantage.
Speaker 1: Of And if you go shopping, you're buying thirty items
Speaker 1: and third or half of them are shrink flated, look
Speaker 1: at what your buying power has worse.
Speaker 4: I'm also wondering, you know, I'm not pushing back on
Speaker 4: your concern at all, Edgar, but I also wonder why
Speaker 4: if I, I mean, if I'm making a product, and
Speaker 4: sure I want to, I want to increase profit to the.
Speaker 5: Greatest extent I can.
Speaker 4: But even if you know, federally I'm not regulated to
Speaker 4: do certain things that I know are best for my
Speaker 4: customer base.
Speaker 5: Am I really just so.
Speaker 4: Unconcerned about my customer that I'll take every advantage of.
Speaker 5: Them I can. Do you find that there is just
Speaker 5: no sense of.
Speaker 4: Ethics, you know, to the towards the consumer and the
Speaker 4: customer base that easily flaunted.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's hard to call it unethical, is it
Speaker 2: sneaky for sure. The trouble is everyone does it. It's
Speaker 2: a copycat industry. One toilet paper brand downsizes, another one
Speaker 2: follows suit. If one peanut butter gets smaller, another one
Speaker 2: does it. One brand of cereal if Kellogg's does it,
Speaker 2: General Mills follows. Any number of times when I've asked companies,
Speaker 2: why did you do it, I'll say, well, a competitor
Speaker 2: did it, So we're just kind of following the trend
Speaker 2: in the market.
Speaker 5: That's what my mother would say.
Speaker 4: If the competitor jumped off the roof, would you jump
Speaker 4: off the road?
Speaker 6: Here's the deal.
Speaker 1: That's what my mother would be to defend them from
Speaker 1: a standpoint of are they ripping us off? So I'm
Speaker 1: the company and I go my costs go up, I
Speaker 1: have to launch new products that don't always work. That
Speaker 1: I got a build in failure and all that, and
Speaker 1: I got to deliver profits. Because I don't deliver profits,
Speaker 1: I'm screwed. So if we're not going to sell a
Speaker 1: product because we have to raise the price and our
Speaker 1: competition hasn't, they're going to buy the competition.
Speaker 5: So choice more.
Speaker 4: If I if I say to a consumer, you can
Speaker 4: pay the same price and get less, or I'll give
Speaker 4: you what you're used to getting, but I need to
Speaker 4: charge you thirty cents more. And here's why. Why wouldn't
Speaker 4: the consumers say okay?
Speaker 1: But just because some doing, some can't afford it. So
Speaker 1: there you go.
Speaker 4: I mean that's sure, but right now the choice isn't
Speaker 4: on the table.
Speaker 5: It is what seems to be the result.
Speaker 1: It's going to be interesting. Do you think this will continue?
Speaker 1: The trimplation goes on for average just it's worse now
Speaker 1: in some respects. Do you think it's going to keep going?
Speaker 2: It's going to keep going. And if you have two seconds,
Speaker 2: I will tell you the folklore of how it started.
Speaker 2: Back in the nineteen fifties was the time of nickel
Speaker 2: vending machines for candy. All all of a sudden, the
Speaker 2: chocolate manufacturers told the vendors, oh, you know, we're gonna
Speaker 2: have to raise our prices. Well, they said, what are
Speaker 2: we going to do? The vendors said, because our machines
Speaker 2: take a nickel, we can't make the machines take six cents.
Speaker 2: So someone came up with a brilliant idea, Oh, we'll
Speaker 2: make the chocolate bars a little smaller. So you're talking
Speaker 2: about since at least the nineteen fifties, So what's that
Speaker 2: seventy five years? Happy anniversary.
Speaker 6: Wow?
Speaker 1: So one last question, are even the gluten free and
Speaker 1: the organic people doing this? Is a you know, is
Speaker 1: a vegan? Is a vegan product? Less of what I
Speaker 1: don't want?
Speaker 2: It is across the board. Actually, a consumer reporter here
Speaker 2: in Boston said, you better go to Whole Foods because
Speaker 2: you know they're shredded mazzarella. It used to be eight ounces,
Speaker 2: and I think it's now only six or seven.
Speaker 1: So oh yeah, oh yeah, consumer world dot org is
Speaker 1: the place to go. And what's the mouseprint one? Mouseprint
Speaker 1: and mouseprint dot org, which I love. And as soon
Speaker 1: as you see that, you go, how many things have
Speaker 1: I signed in my lifetime that I haven't read?
Speaker 5: Oh my god?
Speaker 4: Every time I click on an Apple product, I go,
Speaker 4: well that's a kidney.
Speaker 1: Check out his website and it's fascinating to thank mouseprint
Speaker 1: dot org two. And thanks for coming on here, Thanks
Speaker 1: for doing what you're doing.
Speaker 2: Well, great, thanks for having me guy.
Speaker 5: A pleasure, sure, a pleasure.
Speaker 6: So it's just hard.
Speaker 4: It's just we may have gotten the we may have
Speaker 4: gone a little shorter. With it, we might be did
Speaker 4: we shrink? Did our episode shrink?
Speaker 5: Did we do enough? Are we getting forty percent less
Speaker 5: the same price?
Speaker 6: Edgar Dorsky forty percent less?
Speaker 1: Well, it's kind of a simplistic idea, but I think
Speaker 1: most people either they well they're stinicare because they're pushing
Speaker 1: back everywhere. And as he went off, he just said
Speaker 1: in Europe, yeah, wors the product.
Speaker 4: I just think it's an insant. Like you know, for me,
Speaker 4: I would never know. Am I counting the chips and
Speaker 4: the pringles? Can I don't know?
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but when I opened them, when I opened that
Speaker 1: family pack of chips at home, and I'm looking down,
Speaker 1: like at the Chilean miners, they're way down there.
Speaker 6: Where do the chips start? Way down?
Speaker 1: You start to go, wait a minute, this is this
Speaker 1: is less. And again I don't think a lot of
Speaker 1: people begrudge the companies because I guess they figure doing
Speaker 1: business is harder, it costs more, they got to pay time,
Speaker 1: whatever that is. On the other hand, I think the
Speaker 1: pushback is big because it is it does appear sneaky
Speaker 1: and because the prices.
Speaker 4: Never go back, that's right. The thing is, you know, honestly. Yeah,
Speaker 4: trust me to be a big boy.
Speaker 5: Tell me.
Speaker 4: You know, hey, guys, our costs are going up. We're
Speaker 4: going to give this to you. Two ways can buy
Speaker 4: exactly the same product, but it'll be a little more
Speaker 4: for those of you that can't afford more. We're going
Speaker 4: to give you a little all right, but I'll push
Speaker 4: back and then well and then you know, you go, Okay,
Speaker 4: we're in a relationship.
Speaker 1: But I can push back right now. Sure all of
Speaker 1: our items are marked, We have the weight on the item,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I guess what.
Speaker 6: Look at the way you paid. Look the weight and paid.
Speaker 6: You can see it. It's not like we're hiding that. No,
Speaker 6: but of course we made the.
Speaker 5: Nobody's reading the weight.
Speaker 6: Level the cereal box I saw.
Speaker 1: I saw an example of that where there's like less
Speaker 1: and the box looked like a mountain the Chrysler building.
Speaker 4: Well, I should also point out that a little. And
Speaker 4: I don't want to potential. I mean, but some of
Speaker 4: the cereals, you know, where it's sugar with an oat.
Speaker 6: If you're not getting that extra two cups of might
Speaker 6: not hurt.
Speaker 5: I didn't want to name names, Captain.
Speaker 2: But.
Speaker 6: We know they're sugary.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, you know.
Speaker 6: But that's up to me.
Speaker 1: That's my responsibility what I want to eat, And it's
Speaker 1: right there on the box right now to Tony.
Speaker 5: Whoever Tony's gun isn't Tony gunn No, I don't.
Speaker 6: I don't know.
Speaker 5: He's still there, don't know. Yes, he's still there on
Speaker 5: the frosted plates.
Speaker 4: The reason I asked if it's just supermarket stuff is
Speaker 4: because you know, I buy and eat a lot of garbage,
Speaker 4: unless if it wouldn't be so bad.
Speaker 5: But if they did that.
Speaker 4: To me on a car and they go with one
Speaker 4: less part. You know what I was thinking of the
Speaker 4: whole time. I thank god I have a fountain in
Speaker 4: my head of Jerry Seinfeld material and he used to
Speaker 4: do this bit about the Sert's commercial now with two
Speaker 4: drops of reds and then we go two drops of redsin.
Speaker 5: Nobody is what the hell retsin is? There's too drops?
Speaker 1: We now have more of something you've never heard of,
Speaker 1: and you weren't sure if what was there before, which
Speaker 1: is insane, right, I thought that was so brough By
Speaker 1: the way, The point is, I don't know what age
Speaker 1: it now has wretched? Yeah, yeah, right, you know what,
Speaker 1: He's smart because we had a word guy on. Obviously
Speaker 1: the way they present it must be, must be. Why
Speaker 1: would they put it in here? And by the way, they
Speaker 1: didn't skimp us in each in each mint?
Speaker 6: Wow? Yeah wow.
Speaker 1: The new Toyota Prius now with Retchen does it work
Speaker 1: on everything?
Speaker 6: Does it work on everything?
Speaker 1: Docs, Tiders, Khaki bands Due three featuring reds and with
Speaker 1: a pocket for your retsin? Can you we have to
Speaker 1: have David look up, well, Lauren, look up, look up
Speaker 1: rets and and see if it even exists?
Speaker 6: See what?
Speaker 1: See what comes up when you're putting the words redsin?
Speaker 5: What?
Speaker 6: What? What is it?
Speaker 5: Does it show a picture?
Speaker 6: Do you squeeze an animals? Get it? What is it?
Speaker 6: What is it?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 5: You definitely squeeze an animals? Again that question?
Speaker 6: Yeah, we never think of here's an episode.
Speaker 4: Really when he when he came out with that bit,
Speaker 4: I thought, that's the most brilliant observation because I used
Speaker 4: to watch those commercials and.
Speaker 5: Go I follow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but Retch, let's see if there's a retson answer.
Speaker 7: I have an answer. Retsin is a trademarked ingredients.
Speaker 5: In shirts, SERTs.
Speaker 6: It's a trademarking green in shirts. It does what that.
Speaker 7: Gives them their signature green flex and helps combat.
Speaker 6: Bad Okay, it gives it.
Speaker 7: It is a mixture of partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, copper,
Speaker 7: glucinate and flavoring does.
Speaker 4: Okay, surely nothing and it suggests the word retsin.
Speaker 5: They took those things.
Speaker 1: But but it so it gives it to green sprinkles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it helps with your breath and whatever. So it is
Speaker 1: the item that is the breath fighter.
Speaker 6: I guess sure.
Speaker 4: But on the industry how but where do they get
Speaker 4: the fun name Retsen?
Speaker 1: And by the way, I come from an advertising background
Speaker 1: where you have to sit and compete. Let's go around
Speaker 1: the now shirts table. Guys, what do you think Bigger, lasts, longer,
Speaker 1: guarantees good breath.
Speaker 6: How what do you got now with now? With retsin?
Speaker 1: Know in the industries claiming the Retsin thing, Well, nobody
Speaker 1: knows what it is. Hal guys were going with it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we all and we all flocked it. It sold well, yeah,
Speaker 4: sold still upsirts. I'm still thinking and it has rats.
Speaker 6: Why wouldn't I buy it?
Speaker 5: Of course? David Google, they're now shorter, David Google on, well,
Speaker 5: I've cut off my feet.
Speaker 8: But actually, Jason if you do, in fact have some
Speaker 8: SERTs lying around.
Speaker 5: They're valuable two things.
Speaker 8: One you could sell them on eBay because they were
Speaker 8: discontinued in twenty eighteen. Yeah, but you have to mark
Speaker 8: on the sale not for human consumption, because they've actually
Speaker 8: banned the ingredients that were dumb come on rets it?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 9: Really no, really, so the new one, we should watch
Speaker 9: it no longer new and improved, and we can say
Speaker 9: new and improved, new and improved with.
Speaker 6: Wow. I didn't know that.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 6: Yes, holy crap. The thing they promoted as the cell.
Speaker 5: Got them, got them taking off the market.
Speaker 1: I say, allegedly use the word that we haven't don't
Speaker 1: want to be served for that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was. It has not been allowed to be
Speaker 5: sold in food in.
Speaker 8: The United States since since twenty eighteen. So there ago
Speaker 8: now no more reds and no more asserts. I guess
Speaker 8: that there's a stink on it ironically.
Speaker 6: Really no, really, that's huge.
Speaker 4: I have to learn to really respect the expiration dates
Speaker 4: of things too.
Speaker 5: I don't really I.
Speaker 6: Don't trust something.
Speaker 1: I don't trust all the tapio coupogans a month, month, month,
Speaker 1: two months. Yeah, certain stuff you don't risk it, but
Speaker 1: other stuff you go, come on you you know, it's.
Speaker 4: Like I'll buy a sliced Deli meat and I didn't
Speaker 4: get to it for a week and my wife goes throw.
Speaker 6: It out, and I go, this, you do what your grandfather?
Speaker 6: What did your grandfather? What did your grandfather do?
Speaker 5: What did he do?
Speaker 6: Yeah? You smell it, You smell you smell it, and
Speaker 6: if it.
Speaker 1: Smells even kind of close to what it should be,
Speaker 1: you go, right, all right, have you ever Okay.
Speaker 5: If it's mild body odor, it's still.
Speaker 1: My grandfather actually saw my grandfather would take like a muffin,
Speaker 1: it would have mold on.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Should I go wow, Yeah, I've done that to a bagel.
Speaker 4: That piece was moldy. The rest of it's fine.
Speaker 6: You don't know what's hard.
Speaker 5: Then I nuke it, and I go, what's going to
Speaker 5: survive the nuke?
Speaker 6: You don't know what other colonies are breeding in there.
Speaker 5: It's it's just that it's pencil.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 1: Really, And you're worried about skimflation and you're eating bagels.
Speaker 1: Bagels they've grown mushrooms on them. It doesn't matter two
Speaker 1: for one now with mushrooms. So fruit fruit until.
Speaker 4: It's like unless if fruit falls apart in my hand.
Speaker 4: If it doesn't do that, I mean this dietegrates when
Speaker 4: you figure it out.
Speaker 1: Oh man, wow, how is a banana left in your
Speaker 1: house a banana?
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, yes, it has stages because versus
Speaker 4: the banana in the bowl.
Speaker 6: Yes. Yes.
Speaker 5: Then when it's when you go, it's going to get
Speaker 5: some spots. Then you put it in the fridge.
Speaker 6: See that's what I freeze it. I put in a freezer.
Speaker 4: Put it in the fridge for the spots. When the
Speaker 4: spots meld into one brown banana freezer. Now you open it,
Speaker 4: you take the skin out, you wrap it in seran. Actually,
Speaker 4: you slice the mushy banana. You slice them the mushy
Speaker 4: banana in half. You put peanut butter in it, and
Speaker 4: then put the other half back on, wrap it in soran,
Speaker 4: and freeze it.
Speaker 6: You're taking a mushy oh dead banana.
Speaker 4: Once it's frozen. Once it's frozen, it's not mushy anymore.
Speaker 1: You take but you take a banana you wouldn't eat,
Speaker 1: and put peanut butter on it to bring it new life,
Speaker 1: bring it.
Speaker 6: Back, give it my banana life. How many people here
Speaker 6: have ever heard of that?
Speaker 1: Nobody anything else that goes to you.
Speaker 5: What you've been to my house?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 5: I don't want to.
Speaker 4: I don't want to even I've got coffee in my
Speaker 4: You don't take it black, do you?
Speaker 6: I don't want to go there. I don't want to
Speaker 6: know what you.
Speaker 4: Whatever the curtain says, whatever it says. If you pour
Speaker 4: the milk in and it doesn't come up in little clumps,
Speaker 4: it was probably okay.
Speaker 5: Don't you think you drank it?
Speaker 1: I'm not flashing back so many scripts I have written,
Speaker 1: and how much monk I've oead of your house? Surprised
Speaker 1: that I'm still alive? Yeah, yeah, you still pall? Yeah, yeah, whatever,
Speaker 1: I totally intolerant. Was that white stuff in my coffee?
Speaker 1: Rotten banana? Rotten banana?
Speaker 5: By the way, also a good use googlehind Thank you
Speaker 5: for that.
Speaker 6: In from you too long about the rest wow retch
Speaker 6: and took him out?
Speaker 5: Yeah, Edgar strike anything else.
Speaker 8: Well, it's just sort of struck me, Jason, that that
Speaker 8: the bagel gets to eat and even though it's green,
Speaker 8: but the banana, the banana gets re shifted several times
Speaker 8: without the consideration of maybe I just eat it.
Speaker 4: No, No, do you ever really just want to pick
Speaker 4: up a banana.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I've never had that.
Speaker 6: I buy them with good intentions.
Speaker 4: I buy them for cereal, and then I don't eat
Speaker 4: cereal that morning. And then the bananas I.
Speaker 6: Have blueberries have been looking at me for two weeks. Right,
Speaker 6: you want to get hard? When is this happening here?
Speaker 6: When is this happening?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And then I ate them in some yogberries and they
Speaker 1: taste it horrible. Yeah, and they're probably bad, but I went, yeah,
Speaker 1: but in yogurt.
Speaker 4: Okay, welcome to my house. Now you're in my house.
Speaker 4: By the way, it's only me in my house. My
Speaker 4: wife throws everything out.
Speaker 2: This is why, this is why there'sous.
Speaker 5: It's trench warfare.
Speaker 6: The sort you put it in.
Speaker 5: I've made it to forty four years. My day was
Speaker 5: stamped when.
Speaker 1: I fixture with you, because I know if you come
Speaker 1: home shopping, you open a fiery put something, and you
Speaker 1: walk out of there, she takes it out immediately.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: But she also she's also the one that leaves a
Speaker 4: thimble of milk in the milk.
Speaker 5: Oh, still good, excuse me, still good?
Speaker 1: Excuse me. Yeah, So you talk about cheap.
Speaker 4: It's not cheap. It's Dana it's not about sheep for Dana.
Speaker 5: She I bought it. It's good, I'll use it and
Speaker 5: I go.
Speaker 4: But you that that you don't have You don't have
Speaker 4: a thimble of milk in there.
Speaker 5: Well, well I have what I have.
Speaker 1: But when I'm squeezing mustard and it's parting and only
Speaker 1: the liquid is coming out, I think it's time.
Speaker 6: Don't you think it's time? David? It's time.
Speaker 1: Another episode of really No Really is out. You got
Speaker 1: an option. You can say goodbye, or you can shmear
Speaker 1: us with peanut butter wrappers and saran wrap and put
Speaker 1: us in the freeze.
Speaker 5: By the way, people will be doing that, I bet they.
Speaker 6: I bet they won't. I bet they will.
Speaker 5: Not write us and tell us.
Speaker 4: I bet they will if you do the three stages
Speaker 4: of a banana's life.
Speaker 10: That's another episode of really No Really. He comes to
Speaker 10: a close, and I know you're.
Speaker 3: Wondering what items are the most profitable for the supermarket. Well,
Speaker 3: I'll mark that answer up for you in a minute.
Speaker 3: But versus, let's thank our guest, Edgar Dwarski.
Speaker 10: You can follow it.
Speaker 3: You're at either of these websites consumerworld dot org or
Speaker 3: mouseprint Dottal and now they answers the question what items
Speaker 3: are the most profitable for the supermarket. Bulk items big
Speaker 3: stores like Costco where you buy twenty four rolls of
Speaker 3: toilets pay for at a time. Sure, the price may
Speaker 3: look like a bargain, but take out your calculator and
Speaker 3: divide the price by the number of roles. Then check
Speaker 3: what a four pack with the same item costs, and
Speaker 3: you may be surprised that buying in bulk is not
Speaker 3: a savings.
Speaker 10: Brand name over the counter medicines are.
Speaker 3: Way more expensive than their generic counterparts comparing gredients, and
Speaker 3: if they seem similar, saved with the gennire.
Speaker 10: Convenience items may cost you big markets. No, you don't
Speaker 10: want to go to several stores if you can get
Speaker 10: everything at once.
Speaker 3: To the market of convenience items like light bulbs and
Speaker 3: greeting cards that would be less at a hardware or
Speaker 3: stationary store. Breakfast cereals are often the biggest shelf in
Speaker 3: the market. Why huge markups for the market huge and finally,
Speaker 3: pre cut fruit and veggie so convenience, all sliced or
Speaker 3: diced or chopped and ready to go in their little
Speaker 3: container butt They are often ten times the price.
Speaker 10: If you had just bought the ingredients and slice it yourself.
Speaker 3: You're paying for the labor, so best bet buy generic
Speaker 3: by Just Foods and buy them the way nature gives
Speaker 3: them to you, and you'll save substantially at your local market.
Speaker 10: Enjoy Really na Really is production of iHeartRadio and Blase
Speaker 10: Entertainment