Processed food companies will tempt you to spend

With all the uncertainty in the economy people are cutting back. More than 35 million people have filed for unemployment and consumer confidence is super low. If you’re on the Keto Diet or you’re low carb be aware that the big processed food companies are going to do everything they can to get you to spend your money with them.

Executives are looking back at the last major recession for tools to keep customers from swapping their brands for cheaper ones from rivals. Nestlé SA—the world’s biggest packaged foods maker—is rolling out new, more affordable pack sizes, while Oreo cookies owner Mondelez International Inc. MDLZ -1.38% is narrowing ranges to focus on core products. Kellogg Co. K 0.82% is exploring marketing to convey how many meals a single box of cereal can provide.

Wall Street Journal

They are going so far as to tailor their promotions to your paycheck cycles. They have a lot of very smart people that study consumer behavior to get you to part with your hard earned money.

PepsiCo Inc. tailored promotions to paycheck cycles, pushing large multipacks of snacks near the start of the month and smaller packs later on after finding that brand loyalty dwindled with cash.

Wall Street Journal

They are going to mess with pack sizes to make things seem more affordable when most likely it will cost you more for less. They’ve been doing that for years. It you examine a typical bag of coffee beans you’ll see you’re most likely buying a 12 oz. package instead of the 16 oz. package it used to be years ago. It looks the same when you pick it up and 4 oz. is difficult to detect but it’s a strategy they’ve employed for a long time.

Nestlé plans to roll out single-serve sachets of its Maggi chicken seasoning in Indonesia for the first time, to appeal to shoppers with little to spend. In parts of Europe it will sell one-kilogram bags of the seasoning, which are cheaper per serving than the 200-gram or 500-gram packs currently sold.

“We are leaning in by doing multipacks, big packs, 10% free, which we weren’t doing with the same intensity before Covid, and which is what we will do more and more post-Covid,” said Wayne England, who runs the food business for Nestlé.

Hershey Co., HSY -0.41% whose SkinnyPop and Pirate’s Booty snack brands last month lost share to cheaper products, said it is also evaluating pack sizes to ensure it has enough entry-level priced items.

Wall Street Journal

Your best option is to cook for yourself at home. Stick to snacks that are high in satiety and low in carbohydrates. Things like cheese and nuts are excellent to curb any hunger. Low fat or fat free yogurt with strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, or blueberries is far superior to that bag of chips or popcorn.


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