Engineered for More Consumption

In the case of toothpaste, I would say the push for consuming more is in the advertising. They always show a toothbrush loaded up with four times as much as necessary with the artfully pointed ends with one end folded back to cram even more on.

I have long thought that the manufacturers of shaver cartridges are guilty of this. I guess many of us who like to shave with a blade accepted back in the day that two blades may offer a very slight improvement over one. But 4 blades? Really?

That reminds me of this skit about the mach 20 razor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjAZnGeBcgg

Woah! That to me is the best improvement ever. Much better than the multi-blade razor. I had a real problem with cutting my chin until I found one of these beauties. No more nicks in the morning now. It certainly hasn't increased consumption. I use my blades longer now than I did before I got one of these. (I go for at least 1 month per blade) I do doubt that that concept would work as well on your single blade razor. You need the stability of a row of blades to allow this to follow the contours of the chin.

I've had my beard for so long, I can't imagine not having one. It is a part of me now. No one, or thing, influenced me except the fact that I wanted to grow it.

I trim my neck with a AA battery powered shaver. I was not influenced by any marketing gimmick, or deep seated neurosis to go with battery power.

I would admit that two was a definite improvement over one, and there was a small improvement with three blades, but they are up to five now.

I've been happy with the Mach 3 version and see absolutely no reason to go any higher than that. It really boils down to the quality of the blade material, a good sharp grind, and the blade holder with glide strips for lubrication and rubber slats to help stand up the beard.

I used a 5-blade Gillette razor with the ball joint for several years, until a friend gave me a Schick 2-blade "throw-away" razor. I find the Schick gives me a more comfortable shave, and lasts at least as long as the much more expensive Gillette. The greater comfort is especially noticeable on those occasions when I've gone more than 24 hrs between shaves; the 5-blade pulls a LOT more on the longer bristles.

I admit to falling prey to this advertising. For a few years even. When I went to buy my $25 dollars for a few replacement heads I noticed the old standard 2 blade razors on the bottom shelf. Five for $2. I asked myself why I had stopped using them. Not coming up with an answer, I went back to using the simple, two bladed razors. Works fine for me. I try to forget how much money I wasted on what I didn't need or really want.

They are reducing the size of items. For example, toilet paper is getting smaller.

"A reader wrote in to a columnist at the Los Angeles Times saying he has noticed a roughly 26 percent reduction in the surface area of his toilet paper.

"The old standard for a single sheet of tissue was 4 and 1/2 by 4 and 1/2 inches, a nice square," the reader wrote. "Some tissue companies have changed the length of the sheet to 4 inches, with a width of 4 1/2 inches, no longer a square.""

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/01/26/youre-going-to-have-to-spare-more-than-a-square-toilet-paper-is-shrinking/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b8416b2f64dai

And I see the "Party Size" potato chip bags in the store and realize there must be a lot of people without many friends...

Candy bars and cookies are easy to shrink in size, a little bit at a time so that the consumer, like the frog in slowly warming water, never notices the difference.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3037688/Shrinkflation-sneaky-firms-making-favourite-products-smaller-NOT-shrinking-price.html

Q. What's 100 feet long and 4 1/2 inches wide?

A. A roll of toilet paper. Any bum knows that.

I'll say. I was in Walmart the other day and counted 24 different varieties of Colgate toothpaste. We need that many choices.

I get every last bit out of those tubes though. I put the tube in the vanity drawer with the end tip sticking out, and hold the drawer closed while I pull it through, mashing every last bit to the end of the tube. When I can get no more out, I cut the tube off with scissors near the outlet end and swab the last serving out with my toothbrush. Nothing left behind. I think some of the strategy with certain packaging is to get you to throw out the last 10% because you can't get it out.

Wow.

I don't go quite that far but I do use something flat to push the paste to the end.

I just flatten the tube and roll it up tightly from the bottom end

Unroll the tube, flatten it so all of the toothpaste is in the conical shaped top, then bend the flattened part in two, and twist until you can't get any more.

Yes casper71 ...something along the lines of pressing the rolled up tube against the knob of the tap to push the all the toothpaste out of the dome (I have got old fashioned T bar knobs) ---but your idea is good for taps with modern knobs that don't have pointy bits.

I agree. It's all about profits. Wall Street has this obsession with profits and they need to continue to increase or the value of the stock will go down. So, how can profits continue to increase?

1. Become more efficient.

2. Reduce wages.

3. Reduce raw material costs.

4. Reduce management pay/bonuses.

5. Increase prices.

Decreasing product packaging size is analogous to #5.

One doesn't see investment in capital equipment to increase productivity at any significant rate as in the past, but rather a recent $1 trillion dollar stock buy that, again means more money for Wall Street, big business and the wealthy. Not so much for the rank and file.

If Wall Street and the high and mighty had their way, we'd be doing everything with nothing and they'd get all the money in the economy.

And the rich and entitled would think that was the way it's supposed to be.

Investments in capital equipment are also to reduce labor. Many times it's skilled labor that takes the cut ($30/hr and above). So those folks now need to be retrained and if they're lucky, they can find a job that pays $20/hr. Otherwise they're in the minimum wage +$3 pool.

I think we're lucky to have lived in a day where we saw our country in top form. I remember hearing Bill Clinton, speak about the importance of local corporations. What stuck with me was when he said that local corporations care about their local community. They can't rape the land and employees, because there will be nothing left of the local economy. Unlike large centrally located corporations that don't care what happens in small towns across the country.

When I was in college, my dad had lung problems and passed away. My mom hadn't worked (at a regular job - she worked plenty watching us kids and taking care of our home) for 20+ years. She didn't know about my dad's finances and where invested. He didn't have a 401K plan. His employer had a pension (not very large) for him and my mom could collect on his social security. My uncle worked at the same steel mill my dad did and he had a talk with the owner (the owner built the company from scratch and seemed to be a good man). The problem was that my dad passed away a couple days from his birthday and as such, he wasn't able to collect as much on his pension and health insurance. My uncle asked the owner what could he do for my family. He then told my uncle not to worry. He changed the date of my dad's death to help my family!

That was a little over 30 years ago. You would think it could never happen in this day and age and maybe so, but I have another good story to tell.

I was visiting my next door neighbor on Saturday. He told me that one of his former bosses (owner of the company) had promised to start a 401K account in his name. It's been years since my neighbor worked for him and he forgot about the promise for his retirement account. Well, to his surprise, he received a letter in the mail telling him that he had $93K in a 401K. He called Fidelity to confirm and sure enough, it was there.

My message is that small corporations can care, because they don't have the Wall Street managers chasing every red cent. There's a place for big business - in the past it was called a monopoly and the government required regulations such as getting the okay for a price increase, limits on profits and requiring them to provide services (utilities).

Okay, I'm off my soap box. Carry on!

Things do seem to be getting smaller....

These cleaning products don't seem to last as long....

One that annoyed me the other day was a trip to our local hardware giant for some Stainless 3/16" screws and nuts. I normally get this stuff from the local engineering supplies but they're closed on Sundays

The items came in separate packages which is not a problem in itself but what peed me off was the 10 screws in one pack and only 8 nuts in the other.

Forced over-consumerism??

I notice this at the local big box hardware I visit too much. They price the bags all the same, so "contents may vary in number."

Same problem if you buy them by the piece.

Just came back from there, again:

3/8"-24 nuts $.12.

3/8" flat washer $.14.

3/8" lock washer $.20.

Who, ever, would have thought that bikes made in China have 3/8"-24 TPI axles?

A nut is cheaper than a washer of the same size!!!???

It must be that they sell a lot more nuts than washers!

"Who, ever, would have thought that bikes made in China have 3/8"-24 TPI axles?" What is surprising about that? The original that they copied was made in the US.

I bought stainless steel bolts, nuts and washers two weeks ago.

6mm nuts = $0.89 for two

6mm washers = $0.89 for six

6mm bolts = $0.89 each

7 mm nuts = $0.89 for two

It was just shy of $10 for four bolts, 8 nuts and 6 washers! Small size parts at that!

That's about the same per unit price as I paid for non-ss hardware.

Yes, it is convenient.

Even if you buy a pack of 100 (mild steel) on-line, and pay $.04 each, and if you only need 6........................................................... ?

I was really upset about the prices. It's at our local OSH. Their prices are high, but they're down the street (about 3/4 mile away) and I didn't want to drive to Home Depot (6 1/2 miles away).

I agree, it's a lot to pay for convenience.

And, for better or for worse, I tend to buy a lot of hardware in bulk sizes, especially if it is something I think I will need again in the not too distant future for just those reasons.

Now I have to store all this stuff.

Maybe I should have just paid more and only buy what I need at that time?

I do believe some products are designed (I'm not sure "engineered" is the correct term) to trick consumers into more consumption. My example is the trend for concentrated laundry detergents that are all over the place. I appreciate the idea of not paying for added water that my laundry won't notice but with higher concentrations of surfactants comes a need for more precise measurements to get all of those laundry loads claimed on the bottle.

I had the same annoying experience with sliced ham just last night. Not my usual brand, rolled up in a way that made me wonder how much is really in this package, then opened and... bottom of the stack!

Another one is liquid hand soap packaged in a dispenser - which delivers a huge blob of soap and/or squirts half of it on the wall or the counter instead.

I think a better example is the packaging of Brats QTY-5 vx Brat Buns Qty-6. That must be a marketing collusion between the two companies. Essentially you have to buy six packs of Brats and five packs of buns to even out.

I agree, yes, it's all marketing strategies to get the consumer to buy more. That's why they put gimmicks and snack items on display at the checkout. The recommendation is to never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach because you'll end up buying more food items than you actually need and it is recommended to plan out your dinner schedules in advance so you'll only buy what you need to satisfy your plan.

I have come across a manufacturer who makes one time use Vials of EYE DROPS .

Now your Doctor prescribes say 2 drops in each eye.The average volume of a drop is 0.05 ml. The vials contain 0.7 ml whereas for one-time use you need say 4-6 drops means 0.3 ml maxumim. Naturally the balance 0.4 ml is a waste as he manufacturers of such drops says not to use next day once it is ooened. And secondly how can we store the open vial as it has round half bottom ?

Why can't they make smaller vials say 0.25 ml instead of 0.7 ml ?

Anybody can guess the reason.

S.K.Patel

This is called the free market. Any company wants to make money for their owners i.e. shareholders , i.e. you and me. If there is any 'blame' (and there shouldn't be) it is the consumer who buys the item. If you don't like the packaging ..don't buy it! Believe me, if it doesn't sell the packaging will change. I love the free market.

What I pick up is rather reducing parcel sizes so that you get less for your money. Ice cream that used to come in 2litre containers - first dropped to 1.8litre, now 1.5litre, someone else posted chocolate sizes getting smaller too... So I still just buy one a month, it just doesn't last as long. But you sometimes get to a point where you have to buy two of whatever you needed. Seeing this with food a lot, less so with house cleaning stuff. So, caveat emptor - look at the sizes and be awake and vote with your feet!

Sometimes hardware shops only stock small things in containers of 100 or so. Now, I'm only a DIY man when survival forces me to, so do I really need a 100 rivets/nuts/wall plugs/whatever?

A five pound bag of sugar is now four pounds. Twelve ounce beer bottles range from 10 to 11.5.

Lynn,

I used to buy "pony" bottles because they never got warm before they were empty.

I haven't bought a bag of sugar in ... ummm ... okay, so I never bought a bag of sugar, but I remember it being 5 lbs. Now it's 4?

You piqued my interest, so I took a look at the beer in my fridge. 12 oz and 22 oz. That's good news!

I thought about something I really enjoy; microwave popcorn. I could swear that the bags are getting smaller, so I checked. I have an old bag that says 3.5 oz. I have another that says 3.2 oz. And another that says 2.75 oz. The 3.5 oz bag is really old - it's called Kick Yo Ass popcorn and I keep it for a gag. If someone wants to show off their bravery, I have this bag of popcorn and a bottle of Dave's Insanity. Both are habanero and though they have great flavor, it's really hot.

The next time you go to the store ask Stella how big her bottles are.

You're right! Stella has shrunk their bottles!

I'm a fan of Sam Adams (for regular beer) and Lagunitas for the heavier stuff. I also love Belgium Ales and a lot of those IPA's. Oh yeah and Ales too, especially the Red Ales!

Not a big fan of Stella and now that they shrunk the bottles, I'll opt for others.

As a note, at our local English Pub, they usually serve Pints or 12 oz pours from the tap (they have lots and lots of good stuff on tap). I went there a couple days ago and I noticed there's 8 oz pours now! Not cool!

The OP Asked:

What other examples of engineering for increased consumption can you think of?

Obsolete but Not Replaced

I would like to suggest that there is a stealthy version of engineering for increased consumption which has become profoundly manifest into our lives over time. Specifically, corporations involved in cash cow endeavors simply fail to move on when demographics and technology make older paradigms absurd. Because of their economies of scale and their meddling(lobbying) and collusion with government they frequently enjoy what amounts to a monopoly against competition and against consumers which they use to effectively resist change to available and better technology. Because this happens over considerable time they get away with it(like boiling a frog.)

This phenomenon is most harmful to the general welfare in the industries which involve huge economies of scale and/or wide geographic investment. You can recognize it when you notice a large bureaucracy which has for its administration such oppressive and voluminous regulation that everyone agrees that the massive corpus of regulation is understood by no one in its full breadth. Good examples of where you can observe it include commercial construction, residential construction, power generation and distribution, freight transportation, human transportation, entertainment, mass communication, telephone communication, banking, financial services, insurance, and now in online commerce and social media. I am sure that many will point out that it is public acceptance of new tech which often delays full availability of the best tech and that is true to some extent. I am sure that capital investment inertia will serve as another rationalization for delay. It is very clear to me that public education significantly does delay deployments. What I am attempting to uncover and excise is every one of those many cases where none of these excuses individually or even all of them collectively are adequate to explain why we cannot do it yet or do not have it available yet, or why it is unavailable to me. I contend that in many cases better technology is intentionally obstructed and, if possible, prevented because of politically entrenched economic interests. As I get older, my patience erodes.

A Glaring Demographic Example

In the early 1900s, there were many cities with streetcars. Before Henry Ford most people could not afford an automobile of their own. They were forced to ride a horse or a streetcar to commute. Streetcars often drew their power from the street they traveled either from the rails or from an overhead wire to which they connected with a pantograph style connector. You can see these in Europe and in Russia today in great numbers. If the human traffic flow is dense enough that the vehicle is typically occupied to capacity on any specific route, then that mode of transportation is extremely clean, cheap, and efficient since the electric streetcar does not transport the weight of the fuel in addition to the weight of the passengers. Streetcars are a poster child for economies of scale. And they were available so long ago most people can't remember them.

In the US, cities have grown enormously since the frontier days and we are gridlocked with internal combustion cars traveling the same routes 5 if not 7 out of the 7 days in a week with people habitually wasting hours of commute time. It is hard to overstate the foolishness of continuing this practice. People and even politicians are aware of this wholesale squandering of resources. Tax expense for commuter trains and all sorts of public transportation are constantly forced upon the people with varying degrees of success once spent, mostly pathetic. Americans are not eager to share their bathtubs nor their vehicles with strangers. We have been able to switch electric power on the kilowatt scale(automotive) for a very long time with contactors(relays improved with electronics) and more recently with IGBTs(FETs driving monster bipolar transistors), NFETs, VFETs,... Wifi and newer wireless communication could easily handle microtransactions to sell power slurps to individual cars from the roadway, only energizing short track segments for specific slurps. Individual, private electric cars could carry people to their destinations without carrying around energy storage. Is that what we expect next on the horizon ? Of course not, the automobile industry wants to keep selling hybrids until it can get to full electric, self-driving, battery toting cars. Why, because they want to sell you the costly batteries and unnecessary tech and cry about how lithium and cobalt are in short supply as they raise the price they charge you. If we got together and funded the roadway power slurping implementation they might be cut out of the really big bucks which will be prodigally spent on batteries and electronic autonomy. Batteries are heavy and there is no compelling reason to use them for high density travel. If your roadway fills up with cars such that you mostly are constrained below the safe speed whenever you travel there, then the roadway should deliver the energy. What do automakers say about this huge, unnecessary carbon foot stomping down most urban roadways in order to carry those heavy batteries ? They will blame it on the people who refuse to share their seat and breathing space with the parasite vectors who will get to ride the train for free. Will they or the politicians who fund the underprivileged disease vectors' trip with your tax dollar be riding the train ? Only when the cameras roll or when donkeys fly ! Note that I have nothing against the underprivileged and I devoutly intend to keep it that way at least as religiously as the politicians secretly do. I do recognize that corporations and politicians will raise the price of private automobiles and taxes until us "elitists" who currently comprise the proletariat are shoved down where we belong into the ranks of the underprivileged. These trends plus brainwashing by public education are major thrusts toward the sugar coating of socialism which is clearly bearing fruit in colleges and universities across the US. Feel the Bern.

Big multi-national corporations are, by the way, not capitalism at work. They promote socialism and ultimately autocracy since those political systems harden their entrenchment by making the initial cost of entry into any mature industry effectively infinite. The "big corporations represent capitalism" prevarication is the underlying reason so many are mystified by the seemingly illogical, flagrant and pandemic of Engineering for More Consumption we have today. The environmentalists will tell you, and they are right, that Engineering for More Consumption is a painful and certain path to extinction.

Of course, we could leapfrog this whole commute transportation issue completely, simply by working from home. What do you mean, your employer has withdrawn its highly popular (and objectively measured to have higher productivity) work at home program ??? Well, except for exec's who still can stealthily "work" from home and who's "productivity" was never sullied or jeopardized with measurement ?!!! Wassat, they don't even attempt to explain it and when you pressed they put you on notice for not being a team player !!! Wow, it seems our whole employment system is Engineered for More Consumption. I guess I have stumbled into the biggest, most leveraged example of all in the US. Yep, the regulation tonnage confirms it.

__________________

thewildotter

Where is Joe McCarthy when you really need him ?

OK, WorldWideWidgets, Inc. are you now, or were you ever, a member of the Globalists' Communist Party ? Oh, a founding member of the GCP. Surprise, surprise, surprise (apologies to Gomer Pyle)

Good one JE! Made me laugh!

Hot dogs come in packages of 10

Hot dog buns come in packages of 8 or 12.

So 5 packages of 8 count buns and 4 packages of dogs or

5 packages of 12 count buns and 6 packages of dogs to have no leftovers.

It's a conspiracy

That's why I only buy enough to make either 80 or 120 hot dogs... so I don't waste anything.

When it's time to barbecue, I fill the grill with good stuff. Rib Eye steaks, Salmon filets, a rack of Baby Backs, good hot dogs and maybe some pork chops if I have room. I grill the buns and of course I throw a thick slice of cheddar on top.

No more propane, unless I'm in a really big hurry. Kingsford briquettes! The gas grill sits and collects dust now.

Now I'm hungry!

If you're in such a big hurry that you have to use gas, don't grill. Never owned a gas grill, never will.

Here in AZ I use El Diablo 100% Mesquite charcoal, or actual tree branches cut from numerous trees around where we live.

That's just me.

I've heard that Pecan is a great wood for grilling. I've used Oak and I really like it. The heat is phenomenal and the smoke has such a good flavor.

I'm with you on this one Lyn. Who needs to consume charcoal. Although mesquite is in short supply here in upstate NY.

I can at least cook if the power grid goes down.

That's a nice set up. When's dinner?

We use Hickory back in Ark.

I recall that awesome grill from seeing it here before. Nice work.

I especially like the beer nest at the top.

When you started with "Here in AZ...", I thought you were going to say something like:"I just toss the meat onto my new walkway."

Wrong flavor.

I prefer smoky flavor to stone stone flavor.

Besides it's only 106°F in the shade and my IR meter has a dead battery.

I read dickwarmer! Oops!

If you buy Nathan's or Hebrew National, they come in packs of 5 or 7, depending on the type. I think the best dogs are Nathan's with the skin (hot dogs that snap when you bite them).

Those of us who are over 60 may want to substitute Preparation H for toothpaste in the previous posts. It gives a more personal meaning and maybe a laugh.

Thanks, I'll stick with toothpaste. Never used the other and I'm 71.

Your teeth don't stay as white as you like. You don't get that minty fresh taste, too.