Downsizing the Dollar.

A friend recently purchased a 1976 Sears catalog at a rummage sale, thinking it would be a hoot to see how prices had changed in 30 years. Expecting things to seem ridiculously inexpensive compared to current rates, he was surprised, and perhaps a bit disappointed, to find prices almost exactly the same then as they are now.
And yet, the two of us agreed that the dollar does not go as far as it did in the 70s. What makes the difference?
The price is increasingly being paid in reduced quantity and quality, I fear. From the materials used to the way things are put together, corners are cut, and the consumer pays just a little more for just a little less.
Downsizing and reformulating is a popular trick. Many products charge the same for the “new and improved” carton that contains an ounce or two less (Andy Rooney has been tracking the shrinking pound of coffee on “60 Minutes” for years). Other companies begin using cheaper ingredients and components resulting in diminished quality.
Corporate America has switched its allegiance from the customer to the stockholder. It takes a lot of consumer awareness to keep up with the decisions made by ”the big guns.”
Reading labels is a good start--for ingredients, for volume, for just what company produces the product. I am astounded how many Nestlé products there are! (That’s not necessarily a bad thing--just a surprise.)
Remember good ol’ Ivory Snow--”99 44/100 % pure?” That was then. It has not only lost its purity, it is no longer soap. I am splitting hairs, I suppose, but a soap works differently than a detergent--and in some instances, soap is better. Thinking I’d just switch, I picked up the competing brand--turns out it’s made by the same company that owns Ivory.
That brings me to choice. If choice is freedom, then I fear we’re at risk of losing ours. How can we have freedom of choice when eight of the ten laundry detergents at the store are produced by the same company?
I had a similar experience shopping for scissors. Confronted by an array of scissors with brightly colored handles, I set to determining the differences between each pair. While the scissors were all of the same type (hair cutting scissors), there were two different name brands and a hand full of prices. When I got to reading the fine print, I discovered they were, each and every one, manufactured by the same company. The only difference was packaging--and price.
More recently I switched from using a brand of toilet paper. The maker replaced the regular sized six-pack with a six-pack of “giant sized” rolls. The price more than doubled--from $1.99 for the regular six to $4.59 for the giant sized rolls--but the new giant sized six-pack is about 70 square feet less than if you doubled the size of the original. (Yes, that took some math!)
ISo, it’s not enough to be a consumer, one has to be a good consumer. It is up to the responsible consumer to choose the best of what’s offered, and to research alternatives where products are unsatisfactory. Consumers must determine whether the products they’re buying offer good value for the cost. I could argue that a consumer in a market-driven world has the same sort of duty as a voter in a democratic world.
And perhaps that duty even extends to monitoring the company producing those products, being aware of their employment practices, their pollution records.
If we made sure we bought from companies who were good employers and good environmental stewards, the others, by theory, would cease to exist.
I think Americans have forgotten that as customers--the ones with the dollars businesses are clamoring for--they are the ones who have the power to demand quality product for their hard-earned money.