tinyurl.com/35ddk3 -> consumerist.com/consumer/audio/devoted-customer-upset-jimmy-dean-downsized-sausage-16oz-to-12oz-but-charges-same-price-322223.php
Devoted Customer Upset Jimmy Dean Downsized Sausage 16oz To 12oz But Charges Same Price Enraged by Jimmy Dean reducing the size of their sausage from 16 oz to 12 oz but still charging the same price, Randy Taylor left a voicemail complaint on Jimmy Dean corporate line. Randy has a southern accent and is quite upset with the Jimmy Dean sausage company. He threatens to never buy, and never eat, Jimmy Dean sausage again until they go back to making sausage like they used to. How good an idea is this all-too common price-chiseling if it turns 30-year fans into boycotters?
JKinNYC: Who cares what they weigh, are skinny people the only real consumers now? The man figures it takes 16oz of sausage to feed his family and can no longer get 16oz. One leaves people hungry, the other leaves food to go to waste.
I suppose that as a native Southerner I should have been upset at the perpetuation of redneck stereotypes, but I really laughed my head off. I think my favorite part is the last 10 seconds, where he stops talking to the voicemail but continues to curse a blue streak to one of his sons.
You go to the donut shop and pay for a dozen donuts but they only put 9 in the bag, would you complain or just keep walking. So why consumers stay quiet when their Sausage weight gets cut by 20% is beyond me.
The sizes he quoted for his family wasn't something that is unusual this day and age (200lbs for a grown man can't be far off the average). Cutting down the serving size by 25% is a huge amount (a bit more than the 45oz to 4oz of soap). I would love to hear if Jimmy Dean were to actually respond to this guy.
I'll just switch to another brand since it's easier than recalculating every other measurement to take into account that I have a quarter less sausage in the pack.
that image looks about as Southern and traditional as Kelloggs Pop Tarts. The complaintant needs to write off Jimmy Dean as a lost cause and find a new sausage brand.
I don't eat that crap since i'm from NY and like northern style food but that man's complaint is valid and I see it happening more and more with food and other stuff these days.
If there was sausage to be had in our house, that is what we got. This product downsizing happens all the time, I just never notice it. Pretty soon a gallon of milk will be only about 3 liters.
I'd like to ask every complainer for these reduced-size-but-same-price issues whether the company they work for has increased their prices or reduced the quantity of their product in the last few years. The software my company makes costs more than 5 years ago. Whether its gas prices, inflation, increased rent - whatever - prices will go up. If a company CSR for this company says, "we increased our price" then they pretty much told the truth and there's nothing further to say. Only when you get a lame answer like, "It's still just as tasty as the bigger size" or "it helps you not become a fat redneck as quickly," should anyone have a problem with this.
He did say he's willing to pay more if they kept making the 16 oz. Or maybe he could take the hint and eat less fucking sausage. Here's a fun tangent: Back in the good ol' days, people in the south were malnourished because they couldn't get enough food. Now they're malnourished and fat, thanks to things like Jimmy Dean sausage.
If you need to raise prices, fine, but don't scam the consumer. I thnk what is really atrocious is the jump in profits the company stands to make. If they put a 25% increase on a package, for an approximate $4 sausage roll, it would increase the price by $1 and result in the loss of a ton of business.
Now it's 12 ounces for the same prices of what was once 16 ounces? Maybe cut 1 ounce, but not 4 Luckily I live near Austin, TX, and am able to get Meyer's Elgin Sausage in pretty much every supermarket.
dugn: I'd suppose the bigger issue here is that they reduced the size by a full 25% and are still charging the same for the product. Maybe a 5% reduction or less wouldn't bring such a raging phone call from Mr Randy Taylor. Who knows though, he seems rather passionate about his sausage.
I just listened to the audio again and the end of it really is comic gold: "... Poor fella, he's in Texas and doesn't know about Meyer's. Wish I had a way to get in contact with him to save him from his sausagey hell.
Can size didnt change though so the consumer didnt notice. His complaint is valid 12oz doesnt work for him and in the JD board meeting I am sure it went like this. flunky#1: "Well if we take that 4 ounces away from 3 packages then we are making a 4th package and profits on a 4th package we never sold before." flunky#2: "Ok but what about people who have come to depend on a single package meeting their needs, I mean heck look at the hundreds of recipes out there for a 16oz package. What about a family of 4 each member getting 4oz(before cooking) of sausage, now they will all only get 3oz(before cooking)." flunky#1: "Boo hoo, so then they will have to buy another package?
He wasn't unreasonable, he even was willing to pay more for the 16oz package. He's got a real family to feed, and that wimpy 12oz package doesn't get the job done.
I may be one of those weird people from up north that he seems to dislike, but I totally agree with his sentiment. I don't mind paying a little more for the bigger size, but why stop offering it entirely? Of course, being a goofy northerner, I am a vegetarian, but I apply the same philosophy to non-meat products as he does to meat-products.
Regardless of his scio-economic status, most consumers are too ignorant to appreciate how much a small percentage adds up over the long run. In fact I bet they have a whole group of people deciding just exactly how much they can reduce a package size before people notice. Maybe if more people were like this guy companies wouldn't be so quick to screw over us consumers.
Oddly enough, there are 6 servings in a 16oz roll, so cutting down to 12oz would result in only 45 servings, not enough to feed the "family of 5". A nice marketing ploy by Jimmy Dean to get us all talking about their "delicious" products? And man, that guy does say delicious in a very special way.
If I have a recipe that calls for 16 oz of sausage and Jimmy Dean has reduced the size to 12 oz, then I will just use 12 oz and figure that I will be better off for it. I'm not going to have 3/4 of a package of sausage getting freezer burn because they want to play with the package sizes.
I would say the the profanity could have been left out and specially when it comes to the GD word. As for his opinion between people from the North and South that war is long behind us and there shouldnt be dividing factors brought up between the two. I have lived in Texas all my life and some of my good friends are from the North. As for the downsizing of Jimmy Dean Sausage, buy another brand. Owens is everbit as tasty to me lets see if they follow the Industry on downsizing. I eat breakfast with six firefighters and we dont cook near as much as they do. theres nothing wrong with complaining but he cuss words could have been omited.
I guess there has been an increase in the cost to produce Jimmy Dean and it came down to increasing the cost of the 16oz package or reducing the amount of product. EVERYTHING is going to cost more or you are going to get less.
Think about it, 16 oz of Sausage for 5, is a bit over 3 ounces for each person. Most restaurants serve at least a 4 ox Patty for breakfast. Just because you are 200lbs, does _not_ mean you are fat.
Because a southerner will actually stand up for what they believe while a northerner simply goes insides locks the door and hibernates thru winter. Anyways, yes it's Bush's fault, hell you can blame all the previous presidents too for placing so much exclusivity on oil as the only fuel. Oil prices control the market, yes even a competitive market because everyone everywhere uses oil(ie factors in the cost of production shift the demand curve in our out). If we keep voting in the presidents who do not plan to develop an alternative fuel quickly oil will always have this big of an impact on price.
mthrndr: The yogurt category is notorius--I was l...
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