• wellee@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    51
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    7 months ago

    I cant decide if this is mildly infuriating or very infuriating. Wow, the fact someone thought this was a good idea. No, fill the goddamn thing. Nobody needs a quarter amount of deodorant. What a waste of packaging.

    • Chocrates@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      7 months ago

      I was trying to think of an ergonomic justification, but probably they want to sell x amount of deodorant paste at $y price and to fill the thing and still charge that much would make the stick more expensive than they wanted.

      Shitty, thanks capitalism.

      • wellee@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        7 months ago

        Yeah, don’t get caught in the trap of trying to defend them lol, it’s a waste of time

        • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          7 months ago

          I hate to spoil a good consciousness raising party but it’s still useful to understand why companies do this stuff:

          • raising prices leads to more backlash than anything else

          • when costs go up, wholesale prices (per unit of product) must go up to match or the product becomes unprofitable

          • redesigning the package to fit the smaller amount of product requires very expensive retooling whereas dialing down the amount of product is basically free

          You might say “why do they have to be profitable at all?” But then why would they even bother making the product if they weren’t?

          • Aceticon@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            7 months ago

            Shame that the record profits companies are having aren’t consistent with that “costs going up is what’s pushing shrinkflation” theory of yours but are absolutelly consistent with the theory that they’re trying to get away with increasing their profit margins by reducing material costs (by using less materials) whilst selling at the same price using tricks to deceive human perception of how much product comes in a package.

      • Lemming6969@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        7 months ago

        You can see the design they used is the maximum the plunger will go down without changing what might be a patented shape or making the whole thing larger or the top area smaller to shrink the plunger. It’s still wasteful and deceptive though.

    • MeatsOfRage@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      7 months ago

      It’s known as shrinkflation. Companies want to make more money. Simply asking the customer for more money is hard because we’re all well aware of the price we’ve been paying for something, plus they have to sit on a shelf next to a competitor who might not have raised their price. So instead most products will reduce what you get instead.

    • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      7 months ago

      The fact that someone thought this was a good idea is not the problem.

      If someone else bought this more than once, and also didn’t bother to call the company seven shades of utter cunts on social media, they’re the problem

      • affiliate@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        7 months ago

        it’s a lot easier for a company to change their behavior than it is to get everyone buying deodorant to be on the same page. this is why things like the FDA exist, for example