My father owned a corner grocery store. There used to be lots of corner grocery stores. My grandfather owned 3 of them (did not operate them but rented them out). His 3 rented stores were located within a 4 block area. Did I say there used to be lots of them?
My father could have been rich if he had known how to properly price his Cheez-Its.
I don’t mean to be critical of him but he sold his boxes of Cheez-Its for 19 cents. If he had sold them for the $3.14 they are being sold for today, his family could have been wealthy.
I guess he did alright because he did put my brother and me through college and we owned a 1951 Desoto but I always wished he had not traded in his 1941 Packard.
I am certain that all of you see the absolutely unassailable logic of my premise that he was Pricing Maximization Challenged, so now I will get into today’s Foolishness..Or Is It?.
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Cheez-Its used to come in one flavor. It was called Cheese Flavored. Some called it Cheez-It Flavored. Today we are covered up in different flavors or varieties of products that once came in one color, one size, one flavor, etc.
Today “they” (whoever “they” are) keep pumping out different versions of their products and we keep buying up their “new” offerings. I once heard an acquaintance of mine say, “I have 2 laptops but I don’t have a blue one”. (You probably think I made this one up but I did not...Or did I?)
Back to Cheez-Its...
Cheez-Its now come in many different flavors, sizes and combinations. My local Publix has darn near an entire aisle devoted to Cheez-Its. If you are intending to purchase Cheez-Its during any visit to this store, it can be a dizzying and confusing experience. Here is what I saw the other day...
The Original Flavor (but it was hard to find), White Cheddar, Scrabble Junior, Colby, Mozzarella, Baby Swiss, Italian Four Cheese, Reduced Fat, Reduced Fat with Cheddar, Cars, Big (original) and Big (Monterey Jack), Hot & Spicy, Pepper Jack, 2 different DUOZ (2 flavors in one box), Cheddar Jack, Whole Grain, Snack Mix, Snack Mix Double Cheese, 12 Pack Boxes of Small Bags and Various Larger Family Size Boxes.
And Sunshine’s Web Site tells me they come in many sizes:
6 ct/3 oz, 2 oz vend, 4.5 oz, 2 ct/24 oz, 3 oz, 2 ct/9 oz, 9 oz, 21 oz, 13.7 oz, 7 oz
I feel fairly certain that the Cheez-Its Rep is constantly browbeating my Publix Manager about getting more shelf space so he can win that trip to Hawaii his wife is browbeating him about winning.
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Now for the Endangered Species part of the above subject of this Foolishness...Or Is It. It has to do with Politics.
In Politics, historically, there have always been two kinds of Politician. There was the Honest Politician and there was the Dishonest Politician. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which one is the Endangered Species.
Would I kid u?
