this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2024
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AssholeDesign
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This is a community for designs specifically crafted to make the experience worse for the user. This can be due to greed, apathy, laziness or just downright scumbaggery.
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I cant decide if this is mildly infuriating or very infuriating. Wow, the fact someone thought this was a good idea. No, fill the goddamn thing. Nobody needs a quarter amount of deodorant. What a waste of packaging.
I was trying to think of an ergonomic justification, but probably they want to sell x amount of deodorant paste at $y price and to fill the thing and still charge that much would make the stick more expensive than they wanted.
Shitty, thanks capitalism.
Yeah, don't get caught in the trap of trying to defend them lol, it's a waste of time
I hate to spoil a good consciousness raising party but it’s still useful to understand why companies do this stuff:
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raising prices leads to more backlash than anything else
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when costs go up, wholesale prices (per unit of product) must go up to match or the product becomes unprofitable
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redesigning the package to fit the smaller amount of product requires very expensive retooling whereas dialing down the amount of product is basically free
You might say “why do they have to be profitable at all?” But then why would they even bother making the product if they weren’t?
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It's known as shrinkflation. Companies want to make more money. Simply asking the customer for more money is hard because we're all well aware of the price we've been paying for something, plus they have to sit on a shelf next to a competitor who might not have raised their price. So instead most products will reduce what you get instead.
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You get 45 grams according to the package. It's more cost effective for them to just put it in the same packaging as the regular sized and just change the label rather than shut down and change the production line to accommodate the smaller size.
I get that, but from an environmental point of view, this is an absolute travesty.
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And of course the fact this obviously creates the illusion there's more product and therefore can trick customers it's just a happy accident, right?
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That doesn't change the fact its misleading. Not everyone walks around with a god damn scale, knows the average weights of deodorant off the top of their head. The average person is going to look at this and assume its full and that's how the manufacturer wants it.
ackshually if you get out your scales and do a little homework..
no. fuck you.
So you, I dunno, read the label where it shows the net weight, and compare it to other similar products nearby on the same shelf? Hell, most store shelf pricing has price per unit on it now, so you can compare prices pretty directly. Yeah, I get that it's not completely consistent where that's implemented, but it's far and away better than the days of "price gun sticker on item and that's it."
Which boils down to 'make sure you look hard to see how they are trying to trick you'
And, in that scenario...you blame the people who don't catch the trick as opposed to the corporation trying to trick people.
The case is clear, you can see how much is in it. How is that deception? And yes, you should read labels. That's what they're there for.
If you were comparing it to something similar and it was different you'd have a case. Not with this particular product though.
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Not everyone is like you and doesn't understand how weight works.
If you're going to complain about something, at least attempt to understand it before bitching. Otherwise you just look lazy.
Could also be a function thing too. My travel deodorant has an amount that is 3 times smaller and it kinda sucks to hold.
Yes they even have to consider things like accessibility for disabled. It's not all trickery. Not to say shrinkflation isn't a problem I don't want to ruin the circle jerk but not everything fits.
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Looks like the amount you get from buying it at a Dollar Store. I've had a similar issue when I forgot deodorant on vacations in the past.
that's terrible
Secret's small enough for a 3-1-1 bag but made to rip you off through shrinkflation.
It's cheaper to put less product in the same packaging than it is to put less product in different packaging. You are paying for the product, and I believe there is a "net wt" shown. That's (supposed to be) for the product alone without the packaging. If you were to buy a greater amount of product in the same packaging, it would cost more, and you would complain about that instead.
Same with chips (crisps if you're outside of FreedomLand). The extra space in the bag is to prevent crushing, and is often filled with nitrogen or some other relatively inert gas to extend freshness. The product is sold by weight of the product.
In this case, it's deceptive. If the packaging used to contain more product, you could reasonably assume the same package would contain the same amount of product. This is shrinkflation. If you're going to raise prices, just do it. Don't try and trick people, because many will notice and get pissed off.
Are you seriously implying that you check the net weight of every single product you ever purchase, especially ones You've purchased regularly in the past?
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I get the sense that a LOT of people are idiots and just make the observation that “big bag, lot product” instead of simply looking at the net weight… it’s on EVERY label ffs!
Yea these poor companies artificially inflating their product containers to provide a sense of more product within while stating the actual product amount in 6 pt font at the bottom of the packaging are getting a bad wrap! Sure the net weight is provided and without comparison to another package it's difficult to ascertain exactly what that weight equates to but that should be on the consumer and not the poor company trying to deceive you into thinking you're getting more than you paid for!
When will the consumer finally accept how dumb they are and apologize to these conglomerates?!
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Get salt sticks. They last for years.
Coming from someone who's friend did this...no....no they don't. Not even remotely. You just got used to your stink, and people typically aren't assholes enough to say anything about it to you. It's about as effective as using a magic crystal to ward away the smell. Hell, the salt stick even smells like an armpit after the first 2-3 times you use it.
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Well they are sold by weight so you know what you're getting if you pay attention.
I've switched to spray deodorant, which I'm sure hides just as much shrinkflation but seems more efficient.
I use crystal deodorant, and I'm nearing the "end" of what I can actually use, but there's probably another 9 months worth of actual deodorant left (this stuff lasts YEARS).
There's no way to actually remove the last half of it without breaking the dispenser.
Like with yours, they put this in a clear container, so it bothers me every time I use it.
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The ones I see online are 73 grams in the same container. Where was this purchased? And yes of course they ought to have put it in a squatty travel sized container. But this one is not the standard amount.
The great irony is putting it in a squatty travel sized container is probably more expensive, and doesn't save nearly as much plastic as you would think.
Having to set up an entirely new production line just to make smaller containers, or retooling your existing production, would likely incur a significant cost.
On the plastic front, the overwhelming majority of plastic in something like that deodorant is in the base, lid, and "pusher" system. Making it shorter only removes a small section of the least-plastic-dense portion of the whole thing.
They could make a smaller one, but the only real benefit would be show & portability, and it would probably come at a premium per ounce
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