Customers do not like price increases, which is why many manufacturers prefer to save on content. It comes to the same thing, but is not so easily noticeable. The Hamburg consumer center takes a close look and regularly chooses the “sham package of the month”.
The “gypsy sauce” is a classic, but the name is no longer in keeping with the times. The Homann company has therefore revised its sauces, in response to “popular requests”, as it says on the website. The sauce is now called “Paprika Sauce Balkan-Art”. But that’s not the only change: since the relaunch, the pack has only contained 400 instead of 500 milliliters – and the price has risen at the same time.
The bottom line is that the price per ml has risen by 88 percent at Kaufland, for example. The new recipe doesn’t really seem to justify the higher price: Homann now does without the sweetener sodium saccharin, instead it contains more sugar. When asked by the consumer advice center about the reasons for the sharp price increase, the manufacturer said that we ask “for your understanding that we limit ourselves to a direct dialogue with our end consumers when answering product inquiries”. So the consumer advocates quote from such an answer to a consumer: Their own market research has shown that consumers prefer smaller sizes for sauces, it says. The taste of the sauce has not changed. However, market research has probably not shown that customers are willing to pay more for less sauce.
Illustrated series of mold packages
The consumer center in Hamburg has already denounced many well-known manufacturers as sham packaging of the month. The chocolate Santa Claus and the smiley bunny from Milka were just as much among them as the pasta sauce Miracoli or muesli from Dr. Oetker. Milka manufacturer Mondelez also criticized consumer advocates for moving away from the 100-gram standard size to 93, 87 or 81-gram bars and for shrinking some 300-gram bulk packs to 270 or 280 grams.
Once a year, the consumer association has five candidates vote on the sham packaging of the year. The classic spaghetti from Miracoli received the negative award for 2019. Our photo gallery shows more sham packs from the past few months.
++ Here you will find sham packaging from the industry that is still on supermarket shelves today ++
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