I hate it when a company tries to make me for a fool. What follows is why I don't trust American business. I don't trust any businessman for as far as I can throw him. He has to prove himself.

Check out this bottle of bleach. Read the label. For $2.67 cents you get 3.78 quarts, or 121 oz, or 3.57 L. What you are not getting is one full U.S. Gallon. Got that burned in? Let's go to the next pic.

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Here is a whole shelf of the same bleach. Plus there is a different bottle on the shelf, too. Just to look at these two bottles of bleach sitting side by side you might think the bottles are the same size. I'll answer your question: They are not the same size. But they sure do look like the same size, don't they? Lets go to pic #3

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This pic with both bottle side by side shows that:

1) the blue label is concentrated and Whitens, Disinfects and Deodorizes.

2) the green label is a cleaning bleach that kills mole and mildew. It Cleans, Disinfects, and Deodorizes.

And they both kill 99.9% of common household germs.

But let's look at something else in pic #4

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Check out the label. Both bottles are of the same 6.0% concentrate of Sodium Hypochlorite. SH is the active ingredient. It is the stuff that you smell. It is the stuff that will burn holes in your clothes. Other ingredients make up 94% of the product. This other product is water. You know. Water. The same stuff that comes from your kitchen faucet.

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Here is another pic of the green bottle. You should notice two things.

1) The price is only $1.77 per container.

2) The container is larger. The green label is a full US gallon. And for less money. But most people will not pay attention.

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This one is on Walmart since both bottles Great Value branded.

God bless America.

You could be talking about Mary Hudson of Hudson Oil Company. When gas prices went wonky in the 1979-80 oil crisis, she started playing with the pumps and got caught. It put her out of business.

I'm retired

Both bottles contain the same percentages of ingredients. Nothing is watered down and I still save 90 cents. Plus I get more product for going "green".

If you want a challenge in comparison shopping hit the toilet paper isle.

Some big fluffy roll will have less paper than a tight roll. The dances the toilet papers do to keep you from figuring out how much you are getting for your dollar is almost comical.

Manufacturer cuts 20% of product but leaves price the same. That is a 30% price increase.

And the government tells me inflation is under control.

You are correct. It is only a 25% increase in price. Not 30% as I stated.

They downsize because the average consumer mostly looks at the price and not the size.

And the size change can be hidden with some clever packaging. Like the plastic coffee containers with the molded in handles that take up so much space.

16 oz of bacon is slowly being replaced with 12 oz packages.

But a gallon of milk is still a gallon, so far.

And a quart of oil is still a quart.

And every time the maker of Snickers comes out with a “new” larger candy bar at a little higher price, not long after the bar starts getting smaller again. But the price stays the same new higher price.

And now the candy bars are being sold as two smaller bars inside the package with some extra air filling open space.

I’m too old. I have not been able to bring myself to pay $1.50 for a candy bar. Forget $2.00.

OK. Before I talk about bleach again I would like to talk about antifreeze for your car.

It used to be when you bought a gallon of antifreeze you were buying a straight gallon of antifreeze.

100% undiluted antifreeze will not do what it is supposed to do. It has to be diluted with water. For the professional auto mechanic this was not a problem.

But for Joe Suburb, buying a gallon of antifreeze met locating another container to make up the proper ratio of water-to-antifreeze mix. When Joe finished his job he now had to find space to store the unmixed antifreeze and any mix he might have left over.

Now, when you go to the parts store you buy a premix of water and antifreeze. Called 50-50 it is ready to pour. No muss. No fuss. Of course, Joe is going to pay a bit more for the convenience but avoiding the hassle-factor makes it a good trade off.

Now, back to bleach. A real long time ago in one of my college business classes we had a guest speaker. He was the CEO of Purex Bleach Corp.

After he prattled on for awhile I asked him how did he differentiate his product from the other brands. And I finish my question with, “after all, bleach is bleach”.

He acknowledged that beach was bleach and that he hoped I would like him enough to buy his product instead of the competition’s bleach.

He went on to say that they had tried different things to stand out from the competition. They tried selling a concentrated bleach with 12% of the active chemical instead of the normal 6%.

He said the market did not appreciate the 12% product because consumers did not read the label, thereby using more bleach than necessary. But the worst outcome is the customers were burning holes in their clothes.

So there you have it. With bleach and antifreeze we pay more and pay for moving water because we don’t want to be bothered with taking the time to mix something from it’s concentrated form.

Sort of. It is a long story. Send me a PM if you would like to hear all about

I seem to recall reading about Walmart not doing so well in Germany.

Sort of like the labels on a pack of cigarettes, All the facts are there: SMOKING WILL KILL YOU. "Ahh...yeah, I'd like two packs of Marlboro and a Powerball ticket".
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It all goes to, or goes back to, marketing. In very late 70s and early 80s, generic goods started hitting the shelves. You could buy no-name products in black and white boxes. The stuff sold well but was discontinued.

What the market researchers discovered was that the wealthier segment of the population was the people who were buying the generic products.
The other side of the coin was the poorer part of the population was buying the brand name products because they felt a small status bump in that they could afford to buy Libby's canned corn instead of just canned corn. They did not want to be seen at the checkout with their carts loaded up with black and whites. Since the poorer people were buying the brand names there was no point in giving the wealthier people who could afford to pay more a price break.

Discounted house brands have not gone away, but the B & W labels did not stay around very long.

The sobering thought is that the economy depends on those who do not care about getting the best price---even when the service for the product is not part of the equation. So Clorox lives to fight another day

If everybody was a price chiseler no one would make any money. The only reason some companies exist is that there are a lot of suckers to sell to (sort of like me and pinball machines and the parts to fix them ).

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This is why American silver and gold coins have/had ridges along the sides. This was to keep people from filing a little bit off of the edges.

Some of those single moms were housewives with a family with 4 or 5 kids and then her husband died.

Don’t tar them all with the same brush.

You bring up some excellent points. The only three reasons to buy stock in a publicly traded company are:

1) that it is a young company in a new industry that is growing and you get a share of that growth. (Computers: Microsoft-1986, Apple-1980 ).

2) A company that has found a new way to do business and crush the competition ( Amazon).

3) A mature company in a mature industry that pays dividends, even if it has to borrow money and take on debt to pay you that dividend.
( Railroads. Breakfast cereal. Razor blades. Car tires. ). Apple's growth phase has past and it now pays dividends.

The pressure for a public company to grow, or pay dividends, has to be enormous. And sometimes/ many times the customer get lost in that shuffle of raising prices and smaller packaging. The company may tell you that you are its most important asset---right before it lays you off. Layoffs are good for the company's stock price. ABC announces 1000 layoffs; ABC stock was up 2% on the news. ABC CEO gets year end bonus of $6 million for company performance.

Some companies even resort to (Oh, bite my tongue for even thinking this) cheating.

Witness Beech-Nut Nutrition in the 1980s .

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/14/business/beech-nut-is-fined-2-million-for-sale-of-fake-apple-juice.html

" The Federal indictment, announced a year ago, charged that Beech-Nut and other defendants had intentionally shipped adulterated and misbranded juice to 20 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and five foreign countries with the intent to defraud and mislead. The pleas covered acts committed from December 1981 to March 1983.

It said that the product that Beech-Nut had been marketing as 100 percent apple juice was actually made from beet sugar, cane sugar syrup, corn syrup and other ingredients, with little if any apple juice in the mixture. Prosecutors said at the time of the indictment that the bogus apple juice cost about 20 percent less to make than real apple juice."

Beech-Nut is not an isolated case of corporate malfeasance.

More recently, consider GM and its faulty ignition switch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_ignition_switch_recalls

" The company continued to recall more of its cars over the next several months, resulting in nearly 30 million cars worldwide recalled[2] and paid compensation for 124 deaths.[3] The fault had been known to GM for at least a decade prior to the recall being declared."
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Cheating the customer is not new. I laugh when the politicians start braying about how we have too many rules and regulations. And how we need to get rid of these regulations that are a drag to the economy. The regulations were put in place for a reason. Sometimes the reasons have been lost to history.

https://www.history.com/news/food-fraud-a-brief-history-of-the-adulteration-of-food

" During the 18th and 19th centuries, as the United States shifted from an agricultural to an industrial economy and urbanization disconnected people from food production, the debasement of food for profit became rampant. Milk was often watered down and colored with chalk or plaster—substances which were also added to bulk up flour...

...In 1902, Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, chief chemist in what is now the Department of Agriculture, organized a group of volunteers to test the effects of ingesting some of the most common food preservatives in use at the time, such as borax, copper sulfate, sulfuric acid and formaldehyde. Known as the Poison Squad, this group of men agreed to eat increasing amounts of each chemical while carefully tracking its impact on their bodies. The shocking reports garnered widespread attention and, in 1906, Congress passed both the Meat Inspection Act and the original Food and Drugs Act, prohibiting the manufacture and interstate shipment of adulterated and misbranded foods and drugs. It wasn’t until 1958, however, that manufacturers were required to conduct the testing necessary to prove a substance’s safety prior to being introduced to the public."

Koen12344, that is a great question. Your next assignment for class will be to examine the evidence and present your conclusion to the class. Your answers will be due by Monday next week. This project will represent 20% of your grade for the semester.

Class is dismissed. Have a good weekend.

This is a gallon of milk.

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This is a quart of milk. There is no mistake to what you are buying.

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This is a quart of Evaporust

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And this is a gallon of Evaporust

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No, I am sorry. I got them mixed up.

This is the gallon of Evaporust

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And this is a qt. of Evaporust.

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Well now, I'm not sure. I keep getting them mixed up.

It is time for the smell test. And it is all in the packaging.

Amazing ain't it? I'm sure there is no intent to deceive. Maybe.

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Here is an ad for 32 oz. of Evaporust at Amazon.

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And here is an ad at Advance Auto Parts for 32 oz. of Evaporust.

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Notice anything different?

Like maybe the label on this container looks like the label on the gallon container.

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Now, here is Big Brother and Little Brother.

BB measures 10" tall at the cap by 7" wide by 4" deep.

LB measures 8" tall at the cap by 5" wide by 2" deep.

If these two bottles were proportionate LB would be a little bit shorter and a little bit "fatter".

But the "taller" configuration makes you think you are getting more than you really are. And this is if you
are buying locally and off the shelf.

I don't really want talk about buying online, but how do you think I wound up with this quart bottle?

I was not paying attention, for sure. And it is my fault, but....

And this qualifies as one of those "screw me once your fault. screw me twice my fault" deals.

It will not happen again. I have been learned !

There are so many deceptive packaging tricks. Snake oil salesmen are still alive and well.

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I have used vinegar with success on light weight rust. I have also had success using a molasses/ water mix. And i have had success using electrolysis. But I found out for some of the rust removal, Evaporust is hard to beat.

Sounds like you are paying dues for nothing. Are you all willing to risk voting for a strike?

You are correct. The error is mine as I stated. Let’s call it clever marketing.

Don’t forget Eddie Lambert and Sears.

Also, KKR which loaded up Blockbuster with debt it could not service.

Would you consider that pharmaceutical company that bought the rights to that old line medicine that was selling for about $1.00 per pill and then jacking the price 7000% and sticking to all those people who need this drug as doing good business? Do you support that kind of action?

What about the Epipen allergy medicine that has boosted it price over 400% in a few short years as doing right by its customers?

And then, when challenged by Congress, it acts all magnanimous and talks up how it offers discounts?

Are you good with that?

No self respecting CEO, COO, or CFO will work without legal representation and contracts which include mega-golden parachutes no matter how much they ran the company into to the ground.

But you expect the lower level employees to work without any kind of representation and with at-will agreements.

You should reconsider.

Down the street from me a few years ago some old 4-plexes were being taken down. I salvaged some 2x4s for a project. The are god honest 2”x4” and that is how you used to buy them. And this is after the planer smoothed them out.

When I get home I post you some nice comparison pics so you can see what you could buy to what you now are stuck with buying.

Oh, you mean like Bernie Ebbers or Worldcom and his cooking of the books? Bernie founded the company and worked his way all the way up.

Or how about all the honest and forthright leaders of Enron like Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling?

All of these guys were making some great rules that screwed over employees and shareholders.

Surely you have not forgotten Bernie Madoff and how his ponzi scheme...excuse me....hedge fund wiped out a lot of peoples’ retirement accounts.

There is an old saying that when union leaders crawl into bed with management it is the rank and file workers who get screwed.

That is the best advertising bot word connection I think I have seen.

You are correct. But the other guy has a point. You used to be able to pull up to the pumps and say, "Filler up!" or, if you were pinching pennies, you would most likely say, "A dollar's worth of regular" There never was a "please" included.

But now, YOU have to enter your zip code It's cold. Raining. The wind is blowing and YOU have to get out of your car and do it
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I was operating a self-service station in 1977-1978. The industry was in the middle of transitioning from full service to self service. The old ladies were having a hard time making that transition ("There's some thing wrong with your pump. I got gas all over me". **I"m sorry, madam. Send me the cleaning bill for your clothes.).

1977-1978 was also when unleaded was being phased in and regular was being phased out. Regular was 4 cents cheaper per gallon and these kids would come in with funnels so they could put regular into a car designed for unleaded only. I sure do miss that leaded 93 octane gas.

I agree

See post #1.

Is anybody going to fly on a 737 Max after, or if, they are declared airworthy again?

I stumbled onto this YT video by 60 Minutes Australia. It tells a lot more than I have been reading around here. What sucks about the 2nd 737 Max crash is that Boeing knew there was a problem and soft pedaled it.

And then it took a communist country (China) to ground its fleet of 737 Max's before Boeing took any action.

I disagree. The old 737 is a proven platform. Reliable.

The 737 Max was rushed to market with MCAS. I have to think that Boeing's CEO and American's CEO had both eyes glued to the stock price as it is suicide to displease Wall Street.

You are a wise man

http://www.whiteeagleaerospace.com/flight-without-tail/

This baby made it home. Way back in the 60s, when the jet age entered, Boeing made a big commitment to safety. That commiment allowed Boeing to call the shots around the world for 50 years. With the MCAS rush, Boeing pissed all of the good will away. You watch, when the US FAA says it is safe to fly again China will remember Trump and the tariffs and when the US wants China to un-ground its 737 fleet, China is going to roll out the welcome mat with a big old middle finger salute.

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I used to work for Boeing. The Wichita Spirit/Boeing plant is seeing reduced hours.

https://www-1.kansas.com/news/business/aviation/article231365233.html#storylink=topdigest_latest

That's cold comfort to someone who happened to get on the wrong airplane. It is a long ways down.

I was considering having LASIK surgery done to my eyes several years ago. LASIK had/has a 99% success rate. But before the shop would do the surgery on me I was going to have to sign a waver and there would be no insurance. That 1% was not worth the risk to me.

Levi, I stand corrected. You make many good points.

Ah...Kansas just changed its beer laws. Now, all the grocery stores can sell 6.0 point. But it is not really 6.0. It is something that is being called “strong beer”.

But 3.2 has finally gone the way of the goose.

Kansas has strange liquor laws. Grocery stores can only sell beer with an alcohol content of 3.2%. Liquor stores get the sell the good ass kicking beer with a 6.0% alcohol content. But the liquor stores can not sell soda for mixers. So, if you are serious about your alcohol, you bought your beer and booze at the liquor store and then drove across the street to the grocery store and walked past the 3.2 beer as you picked up a 6 pack of 7 UP to mix with your shot of Jack.

Now the law has changed. Grocery stores can sell the good stuff and the liquor stores can now sell 7 UP. Nobody wants to buy 3.2 so it is gone.

In Texas and Nebraska, Walmart sells any kind of booze you can buy. It has sort of killed off the liquor stores there. I mean, you can stop at Walmart and buy your weenies and buns and barbecue stuff for a party. And you can also pick up all your booze, as well. No need to bother with going out of your way to the liquor store.

The mom and pop liquor stores have been fighting this law for years. This year, they finally lost the battle.

Oh no. Dallas County is still plagued with its checkerboard of wet vs. dry sections of the county, AFAIK. Go into Dallas, there were titty bars galore, any kind if drinking establishment you wanted to frequent. But on the west side of Dallas at the Trinity River, it went dry for 15 miles all the way to the Dallas/Tarrant county line.

At least that is the way it was. Maybe someone living in the Dallas/Grand Prairie area can verify.