Why does cereal cost so much?

[bored1]

I just got back from my bi-weekly visit to the grocery store as its my weekend with the kids................I dont understand why a box of processed grain costs so much..........Heck for that matter whats up with the price of Processed American Cheese???????

 

[greybeard]

supply and demand.........

yea, what's up with that? My favorite is bottled water....now there is a racket............It all comes down to what the market will bear............capitalism at it's best.......or worst

greybeard

 

[Texan]

It's the cost of advertising

There was some "investigative report" about this a year or so ago. At the time, there were accusations of "price fixing" by the major manufacturers. After the report, the prices came down some. But the report also said that advertising accounted for the major part of the high cereal prices.

My wife ran a little experiment several months ago. You probably know that Quaker makes "copy cat" versions of most of the more popular cereals. They are sold in plastic bags at a fraction of the price of the advertised brands. My wife saved empty boxes from several major brands and refilled them with the copy cat Quaker cereals. Our three (still at home) boys never noticed the difference. Since then, we just have large canisters of the Quaker cereals in the kitchen.

 

[bored1]

Re: It's the cost of advertising

There was some "investigative report" about this a year or so ago. At the time, there were accusations of "price fixing" by the major manufacturers. After the report, the prices came down some. But the report also said that advertising accounted for the major part of the high cereal prices.

My wife ran a little experiment several months ago. You probably know that Quaker makes "copy cat" versions of most of the more popular cereals. They are sold in plastic bags at a fraction of the price of the advertised brands. My wife saved empty boxes from several major brands and refilled them with the copy cat Quaker cereals. Our three (still at home) boys never noticed the difference. Since then, we just have large canisters of the Quaker cereals in the kitchen.

Those wiley Quakers!!Advertising..........Never factored that one in there....Makes sense!

 

[patient1]

Yes, even when farm prices are high, there's not a nickel's worth of grain in a box of cereal. These days, the value of the grain is even less. I used to boycott it. I agree, advertising is a big, or biggest part of it.

Transportation is another issue. A box of cereal is bulky. Trucks can't carry many tons of it at a time. This raises the costs everytime the cereal moves from the manufacturer, to the distributor, to the store.

It's noteworthy that one namebrand transports railcars of grain from Iowa to Pennsylvania, where the cereal is made for this region. The reason they use one source, & don't use local grain is so that all of the brand tastes the same everywhere in the country.

 

[RhumbRunner13]

Supply and demand.

"yea, what's up with that? My favorite is bottled water....now there is a racket............It all comes down to what the market will bear............"


More like.......What the idiots will pay!!!

RhumbRunner

 

[Krypto]

I'd imagine there's at least two reasons. One being that people pay it. They'll charge what the market can bear paying, you keep buying, they'll keep selling for as much profit as they can get away with. Secondly, I'd bet half the people buying these cereals are in there 20's and 30's and ate this shit when they were kiddies. Now they can afford buy box after box. Anybody rememember the shelf of cereal in Seinfeld's apartment? It made it cool suppose, nostalgic-like.

Hell, Idunno. Buy the kind Texan referred to, myself.

 

[alexandraaah]

If you really think about how many servings you get out of your cereal box, there are things that cost far more. If you break it down it's probably about .50 a serving....if that?

I dunno, all I do know is that whenever I go to a bar I think nothing of dropping at least $20, not including the must-have burrito before going home. So I have to keep myself in check when I think to complain about the price of groceries.

But that's just me.

 

[lovetoread]

Ok,I admit it,I buy those cereals and pay the high price. But my kids eat cereal every morning and its up to them what brands and type they want.

I like the bagged cereal,but its a pain in the but to use those plastic containers that you put it in to keep them fresh,especially when the kids cannot open them up.