The Lipton Instant Mashed Potatoes with Knorr Beef Gravy Mix Kit and its purchasers

[dantheman]

*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose *
The marketing ploy is twofold. First, that you’re paying a great deal more for unnecessary special re-packaging of food substances that individually are among the cheapest convenience foods known to man. The big box of instant mashed potatoes costs about $3.00 and the packet of instant gravy mix is about 79 cents.

There are zillions of convenience foods that are less expensive than this. Heck, I can buy an entire meatball sandwich for less. So there.

You always pay for packaging, for one thing.

But that’s not a marketing “ploy” - all that you’ve mentioned is just marketing, plain and simple. It’s easier for some people to buy the kit than it is to buy the things separate. I don’t see anyone getting fooled here, and if they do, it’s their own fault - it’s the price they’re paying for the convenience.

But–it’s just the whole idea of the “kit” that I find silly. Just plain silly. And that’s the second half of the ploy–this is obviously just the next logical step in food marketing aimed at the Tired ‘N’ Hungry Working Parent.

It’s probably aimed more at the Starving College Kid than anyone else.

But waitaminute. You began this entire thread because you found it silly?!?! SILLY? Good Lord, I thought “silly” rants went in MPSIMS. How is this deserving of a Pit rant?

I think it’s another in a series of items that don’t really fill a market niche or need–they’re only offered as impulse item “food-as-toy” or “food-as-entertainment”, like Go-Gurt. It isn’t about “eating”, it’s about “playing with the gadget”. Pop open the cute little lids, etc.

Hey, I happen to like Go-Gurt, as long as it winds up being cheaper than the spoon stuff. Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with having fun with your food, nosir.

Because if they stopped and thought about it for a minute, they’d make a quick trip down to the Instant Mashed Potato aisle, and then swing by the Gravy Packages on the way out, and if they grabbed a handful of gravy packets, and got the big box of mashed p., they’d be set for at least five or six meals, instead of “just for tonight”. And a lot cheaper, too.

Not necessarily. First, you’re talking about buying two things instead of one - if the person’s concerned about convenience, he or she isn’t gonna wanna buy two when one will do (unless it’s way, way, more expensive and/or tastes like crap). Second, there are also plenty of people who don’t want to have mashed potatoes for five or six meals. They’ll buy their meals for say, two weeks at a time and mix and match various potato combinations. So nyah, nyah.

I thought instant Lipton iced tea in a can was silly, too. What, you can’t buy a big jar of powdered “stuff” and mix it in a glass as needed?

You mean they have the liquid iced tea in cans, too? No mixing? Awesome. I want some.

[wring]

dan I have no problem w/her rant 'cause you see every single new fangled ‘aimed at the stupid’ item that gets marketed bumps other ‘aimed at the non stupid’ (ie me) folks higher up on the shelves. and I can’t reach 'em.

dang nabit.

and my tall teenager moved out of the house.

So, I’m relegated to the cereal-in-a-bag things and the you’re too stupid to read the directions so we’ll draw pictures items.

:mad:

[dantheman]

Cereal in a bag? Instead of a box? Oh, the humanity!

Besides, wring, being a lawyer you know darn well they don’t put those pictures just for the stupid people; they put them to cover their asses just in case anyone, stupid or no, does a dopey thing.

[wring]

{pssst - I’m not a lawyer}

and no matter why they put those pictures on there, I still can’t reach half the damn stuff out there and why do they continue to put the four pack of toilet paper on the top goddam shelf anyhow!?

[dantheman]

Because tall people don’t have to crap as much as short people.

{Sorry about the lawyer thing - I must have thought I read that somewhere.)

I doubt there’s a rhyme or reason to why some things get put in certain places, anyway.

[Dangerosa]

I did the “Thanksgiving in a Box” a couple of years ago. Not from Wal-Mart though (ugh). From Byerlys (for anyone local to the Twin Cities) which is an upscale grocery store.

I’d had my baby the end of September. I also had my son who was a year old. Baby and I still weren’t sleeping. My mother in law was driving me insane. So Thanksgiving in a Box.

Cooked turkey that needed to be warmed up. Dressing. Real mashed potatoes. Gravy. Rolls. Green Beana Almondine. Cranberry sauce - not out of a can, but real chunks of real cranberries. Sweet potatoes cooked in brown sugar. Pumpkin pie. Can of RediWhip Directions to warm everything through. It was really good. Highly recommend it for the Thanksgiving impared.

(I cook. Pretty well. And Thanksgiving is one of the easiest meals to do. But that year I didn’t want to do it).

[Charlie_Tan]

*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose *
**<snip> I think it’s another in a series of items that don’t really fill a market niche or need. <snip>
I thought instant Lipton iced tea in a can was silly, too. What, you can’t buy a big jar of powdered “stuff” and mix it in a glass as needed? **

Wll then, if it doesn’t fill a market niche or need, it’ll go away.

And I don’t want to mix my ice tea when driving down the highway. At home - I make it from real tea.

[Jojo]

Do you have to boil potatoes before you mash them? Or can you bake them and then mash them?

Is there any difference? Which is nicer (generally I prefer baked potatoes to boiled potatoes though both are nice)?

Would it be possible to mash the raw spuds first and then cook the mash? What would that taste like?

Could you build a house out of potatoes and live in it with a potato family?

[blowero]

*Originally posted by Fenris *
**You had pre-salted peanuts? And a hammer??

We would have killed for a hammer.

We only had a small pile of salt, peanuts in the shell and our bare hands.

Fenris **

You had hands?..

[Batsinma_Belfry]

Plain instant potatoes are nasty, but some of the flavored kinds are pretty good. My favorite is Loaded Baked Potato flavored.

There’s a new line of food kits called “Homestyle Bakes”, it consist of 2 cans of stew and a packet of biscuit mix.

And…

Hamburger Helper has jumped out of the skillet and into the oven, with the Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes kit.

[Creaky]

I’d buy it. I hate to cook. I even hate to heat up Pop Tarts. I already use the pre-made Tuna Salad Kits; why the hell not?

[Mighty_Girl]

People who don’t LOVE to cook! Baby Budha is weeping.

;(

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

I’ve never seen anybody argue against such a trivial rant quite so passionately.

Look, Dan, I’m sorry you evidently feel personally threatened by my admittedly less-than-earth-shattering rant against the Lipton Instant Mashed Potatoes with Knorr Beef Gravy Mix Kit and its purchasers. I don’t care how many convenience foods you wanna buy, okay? Go ahead, you have my permission.

Sheesh.

[Fenris]

*Originally posted by blowero *
**You had hands?.. **

No. We had to carve artifical hands using only our toenails.

Fenris

[dantheman]

*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose *
**I’ve never seen anybody argue against such a trivial rant quite so passionately.

Look, Dan, I’m sorry you evidently feel personally threatened by my admittedly less-than-earth-shattering rant against the Lipton Instant Mashed Potatoes with Knorr Beef Gravy Mix Kit and its purchasers. I don’t care how many convenience foods you wanna buy, okay? Go ahead, you have my permission.

Sheesh. **

I’m not arguing against anything passionately. You’re the one who made the “trivial” rant. If you didn’t want anyone to argue against it, perhaps you shouldn’t have posted it.

If you didn’t care about other people’s opinions on it, maybe you should have kept quiet about it.

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

Okay, fine, whatever. :rolleyes:

time for meds, dude

[Bad_News_Baboon]

*Originally posted by Fenris *
**No. We had to carve artifical hands using only our toenails.

Fenris **

wow.

I always wondered what it would be like to have feet…

[dantheman]

Wait a minute. You began this thread complaining about this kit. People have chimed in from both sides - some think it’s fine, others are as aggrieved as you. Why are you electing to get all huffy with me over it?

It’s a trivial rant. It does not affect you personally, and it has a marginal affect on the rest of civilization. Sorry if I don’t get your huge problem with the kit, but perhaps if you dropped the sanctimonious act for a bit, you’d see this is much ado about nothing.

As for me feeling personally threatened, I’m sorry you have that impression - but I’m certainly not. As I said in my first post in this thread, it just seemed like some food snobs were refusing to let other people buy the foods they want to buy. As was said by others in this thread, the kit fills a market niche. You don’t like it, don’t buy the thing. Enough people don’t buy it, it’ll go away.

Get over yourself. It was a lame rant, and some people called you on it. Deal with it, and move on.

[Fenris]

*Originally posted by Bad News Baboon *
**wow.

I always wondered what it would be like to have feet… **

Well, clods of dirt, really. We stood on 'em with our stumps. We called 'em feet to improve our self image and to make us look taller. Carving wooden hands with them was quite the trick.

Fenris

[Siege]

In defense of the poor, defenseless, premade, ready to bake cookies in my refrigerator, I live alone. The recipe I have for chocolate chip cookies makes about 60. If I make that recipe, even halving it, one of two things will happen: a) a certain number of them will go stale before I can eat them; b) I will eat them all before they go stale, thus increasing my weight, thus increasing the odds that I will continue to live alone, not to mention attendant health risks. That said, when cooking for friends, potlucks, etc. I do cook from scratch. It’s nice to have the option of having fresh, warm, chocolate chip cookies available, though.