Eles aprenderam com as empresas brasileiras, miutas das quais são multinacionais. Nestlé, Carrefour, Danone, Nilza, Lacta, e muitas outras rezudiram o tamanho das embalagens, mas não o preço dos produtos. Ao contrário, muitos ainda aumentaram.
A engenharia de enganação dos alimentos e outros bens de consumo é o supra-sumo da sutileza: não mudam o formato das embalagens, e criam fundos falsos para disfarçar o recipiente menor.
A tecnologia brasileira da enganação do "seminovo", (a dos preços terminando em 99 foi importada dos EUA pelo mundo todo), das falsas características dos produtos, das promoções com inúmeras condicionantes, representadas por asteriscos, que remetem a textos de pé da página ou dos rótulos, virtualmente ilegíveis, está lá, nos EUA, Europa, Ásia.
Vejam este pote de "Skippy": foi criada uma concavidade no fundo, que reduz a capacidade sem alterar a forma visível. Com isso o contéudo cai de 18 onças para 16,3 onças, ou cerca de 10% menos manteiga de amendoim. A esperta companhia americana Unilever mudou os potes, criando a ilusão de que se está comprando a mesma quantidade. Isso é imoral.
Não apenas isto, pois é algo que irrita os consumidores, que não são burros. É muito chato ficar comparando preços e pesos de embalagens nas prateleiras dos supermercados.
As multas que o goveno brasileiro impõe às empresas que agem assim são compensadas de longe pelos ganhos extras que elas obtêm.
E para quem não pensou nisso, vale dizer que embalagens menores aumentam os custos de transporte, manuseio, venda e armazenamento. As antigas embalagens econômicas eram exatamente o oposto: ofereciam mais por um custo proporcionalmente menor.
Querem uma sugestão, senhores industriais? Reduzam seus bônus milionários e mordomias, cortem parte da distribuição dos dividendos, mas tentem enganar os clientes. Já existem duas empresas fundadas por nativos do Equador e de Gana, na África, que produzem chocolates com cacau colhido por eles, sem atravessadores e industriais gananciosos e desrespeitosos no meio do caminho.
É preciso acabar com essa cultura de enganação, preços a 9,99; automóveis usados chamados de "seminovos", muitos vendidos por preços do tipo $19.990. Agora, é preciso reclamar. Eu sempre reclamo.
It is hard to spot what happened this year in the peanut butter aisles of local supermarkets.But a careful look at the jars of Skippy on the shelves may reveal a surprise. The prices are about the same, but the jars are getting smaller.
They don't look different in size or shape. But recently, the jars developed a dimple in the bottom that slices the contents to 16.3 ounces from 18 ounces -- about 10% less peanut butter.
The only way to know you are buying less is to look at the weight on the label and recognize it's lighter than before Unilever, owner of the Skippy brand, switched out containers.
Across the supermarket, manufacturers are trimming packages, nipping a half-ounce off that bar of soap, narrowing the width of toilet paper and shrinking the size of ice cream containers.
Often the changes are so subtle that they create "the illusion that you are buying the same amount," explained Frank Luby, a pricing consultant with Simon-Kucher & Partners of Cambridge, Massashussetts.
To shoppers it may seem like getting less, but companies say cutting quantity is a common way to avoid raising prices.It's an age-old dilemma for manufacturers juggling prices, container sizes and profits -- at the same time coping with rising prices for ingredients and greater competition on supermarket shelves.
At international food giant Unilever, "we have chosen to reduce package sizes as one of our responses" to rising commodity and business expenses, said spokesman Dean Mastrojohn. He said the new smaller sizes are clearly marked on labels.Shoppers understand the manufacturers' dilemma but also say they feel deceived at times.Kathy Yukl of La Crescenta says she's tired of going to the store and finding dimples in the bottoms of jars -- she buys Skippy only when she has a coupon.
She is annoyed that containers that once held half a gallon of ice cream, or 64 ounces, now have only 48 ounces. And she's frustrated that cereal boxes are shrinking."What these companies don't realize is that their chronically deceptive marketing ploys tell us loud and clear that we absolutely cannot trust them for anything," Yukl said.Other shoppers agree. "I think the whole thing is deceitful, and yes, it does irritate me, and I do feel they are tricking the consumer," said Bill Stone of Long Beach. "This practice, however, has been going on for many years and apparently the manufacturers feel it is to their advantage to try to slip these changes by the customer rather than announcing it."Asked whether the new packaging is deceptive, Mastrojohn said only that the lower weight is clearly listed on the package.Unilever also changed the shape of its Breyers ice cream containers, reducing the contents to 1.5 quarts from 1.75 quarts.
Competitor Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream did the same, shortening its carton.Reducing the size of the Dreyer's and Edy's Grand Ice Cream cartons was not an easy decision, spokeswoman Kim Goeller-Johnson said.
"We understand that consumers don't like to pay the same price for a smaller container," she said.But the division of food giant Nestle had seen large increases in the cost of milk, cocoa, sweeteners and energy during a period when the average price of ice cream had "not really changed much," she said."We looked at raising prices to cover these costs, but at some point it just doesn't make sense to raise prices too high. . . .
The ongoing feedback from our customers is that they aren't ready to pay $7 or more for a carton of ice cream," Goeller-Johnson said.In June, Kellogg Co. reduced the weight of many popular cereals -- including Cocoa Krispies, Corn Pops, Apple Jacks, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks -- an average of 2.4 ounces per box to offset rising grain and energy expenses.
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