# Things done to products to meet public expectations **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 2, 2011, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089 "2011-06-02T15:34:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/21 "2011-06-02T21:15:05Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Is this the same as ‘pureed’ or is it another food term I don’t know? You just [run the beans through a cat](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2306/does-civet-come-from-tortured-cats). ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/22 "2011-06-02T21:21:55Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Bottlers will not switch to the plastic bottle even though, the plastic bottle costs the same to produce as glass. Results in less breakage and loss and lower distribution costs due to less weight. To be fair, switching to plastic bottles would cost them a whole lot in replacing all their bottling equipment. And, as you said, beer drinkers don’t like it. Is it any surprise that bottlers don’t want to do something that: - costs us a lot of money up front. - annoys our customers. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/23 "2011-06-02T21:36:42Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Beer in a glass bottle vs. a plastic bottle. > > Beer is actually kept colder longer in a plastic bottle. Plastic is a better insulator than glass. But consumers, especially in the US, resist beer being sold in plastic bottles, because of perception. The glass bottle feels colder on the lips of the drinker than a plastic bottle, so the drinker perceives that the glass bottle keeps the beer colder longer, which is false. It’s not only perception. Part of it is reality. Often I reach into the refrigerator at the convenience store for a 20-oz plastic bottle of Coke, and the bottle doesn’t feel as cold as the metal cans of Coke or the glass bottles of Snapple. My brain tells me that this is because plastic is a better insulator (= does not conduct heat or cold well) and that’s why I can’t feel the coldness of the soda. So I buy it anyway. And half the time it is a mistake, because the soda itself is really not so cold. They must have put those bottles into the refrigerator recently. That’s why I prefer glass bottles and metal cans: because they are a reliable indicator of the temperature of the contents. ---
**Author:** ![TerpBE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc8723/32.png) [@TerpBE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TerpBE)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/24 "2011-06-02T21:41:39Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Is it any surprise that bottlers don’t want to do something that: > > - costs us a lot of money up front. > - annoys our customers. Just wait until the cable companies buy out the beer companies… ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/25 "2011-06-02T21:53:15Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > To be fair, switching to plastic bottles would cost them a whole lot in replacing all their bottling equipment. And, as you said, beer drinkers don’t like it. > > Is it any surprise that bottlers don’t want to do something that: > > - costs us a lot of money up front. > - annoys our customers. Most companies don’t just look at up front costs. Governments behave that way but most companies don’t. They look at the net present value of the cash flows. Carbonated soft drink companies made the switch decades ago and it was a profitable one. The primary reason beer companies have not switched is because of consumer preference. ---
**Author:** ![randomface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@randomface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randomface)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/26 "2011-06-02T22:06:30Z")
The permeability of plastic compared to glass also makes a difference for beers. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/27 "2011-06-02T22:10:06Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I once worked for a company that made telephone switching equipment, and desk-top business phones. There was a steel weight added to the handset, to make it “feel” like a quality product, the theory being that light handsets felt cheap. > > If you’re at work right now, pick up your phone handset. It should weigh almost nothing, but I’ll bet it feels nice and solid and heavy, right? [This](http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f44/JoeyJoeyPP/phone.jpg) certainly qualifies as one of the most unproductive things I’ve done for the Dope while at work. I just wish I had taken the weight out to see how big of a difference it made, but I put a couple of gouges around the edge doing it once and didn’t want to make any more. Either way, I never would have guessed that was in there. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/28 "2011-06-02T22:23:47Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Boxed cake and pancake mixes. > > It is entirely possible to turn milk and eggs into powder, thus cake mixes could truly be “Just add water” and be perfectly good. But consumers felt like they weren’t truly cooking the cakes, and felt a lot better about having to add milk and eggs. > > (Yes, Aunt Jemima does have a milkless/eggless mix, but it can be really hard to find.) I first heard about this on a documentary about psychology and advertising. Specifically a firm started IIRC by Freud’s son in law. His company was hired as consultants to advertisers and manufacturers. The instant mixes weren’t selling and they couldn’t figure out why until they started using focus groups of housewives. Housewives felt guilty using the cake mixes, like they weren’t really being good homemakers The egg was almost a symbolic act by the housewife–she was putting herself into the product before serving it to her family. ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/29 "2011-06-02T22:25:10Z")
Margarine is white as a finished product, the butter color is added to make it seem more like the butter it is replacing. This led to a near holy war between the dairy and margarine interests within the US and Canada from the late 1800s to as late as the 1960’s with margarine being outright banned in Canada until after WW2. It also made for some amusing [cross-state entrepreneurism](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hta3SdhLMfg/SeJwTqYOCWI/AAAAAAAABhQ/-h9oWtfs31Q/s320/Shenandoah+Bike+Tour+125.JPG) . ---
**Author:** ![Rain\_Soaked](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@Rain\_Soaked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rain_Soaked)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/30 "2011-06-02T22:31:43Z")
[Cheddar Cheese](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1284/why-is-cheddar-cheese-orange) ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/31 "2011-06-02T22:44:57Z")
> [@TerpBE](#): > > The Jitterbug - a cell phone targeted to the ~60+ demographic - emits a dial tone when you open the phone and have a signal. Seniors apparently didn’t feel comfortable making calls unless they heard the dial tone first. I will admit that it took me a couple weeks to get used to that myself. It just did not seem right to enter a string of numbers then hit dial. Now it is strange to use the old phone at my moms, which is an old pushbutton phone, or the one in the basement that is an ancient dial phone. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/32 "2011-06-02T23:01:09Z")
The exhaust system of a modern car could be made to be almost silent. For sedate sedans it normally is. For sportier cars they design them to make a noise like the muscle cars of the 60s. Back then, noisy exhausts really did add performance (or said another way, back then creating a quiet exhaust sapped performance). Nowadays performance cars really could be almost silent too, but the buyers expect them to sound “powerful”. Hint guys: noise is wasted energy. It doesn’t cause power, it subtracts from power. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/33 "2011-06-02T23:06:04Z")
> [@jk1245](#): > > Margarine is white as a finished product, the butter color is added to make it seem more like the butter it is replacing. I’m not sure if it’s the case everywhere, but I recall hearing that in Wisconsin, selling yellow margarine was illegal for a while since it was causing confusion with butter (and we are the dairy state). The margarine manufacturers sold it with a little dye packet so the consumer could dye it yellow on their own when they got home. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/34 "2011-06-02T23:22:17Z")
> [@Rain\_Soaked](#): > > [Cheddar Cheese](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1284/why-is-cheddar-cheese-orange) In Australia, Cheddar cheese is always pale yellow, more or less the same colour as other common hard cheeses. It’s been that way as long as I can remember. I’ve always assumed orange Cheddar was strictly an American thing, but Cecil’s column suggests it started in England. So which is the odd one out? Yellow or orange? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/35 "2011-06-02T23:32:45Z")
The most divine frozen food ever, mac and cheese and chicken chunks and bacon (by stouffers, since discontinued :() had a “serving suggestion” picture on the front of the box that featured tiny chunks of tomatoes. A couple years after I started eating them, they started including the chunks of tomatoes because I guess people kept complaining that they weren’t in there. ---
**Author:** ![Crawlspace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Crawlspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crawlspace)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/36 "2011-06-02T23:50:09Z")
Corks used to close wine and champagne bottles. Screw tops have been perfected so that they can hold the wine in, keep the air out, allow for the bottle to be stored standing up, are easier to open, and eliminate the risk of cork taint. They are the better sealing method. But everyone “knows” screw-tops are for cheap swill, so we’re stuck with corks. ---
**Author:** ![YaraMateo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/58f4c7/32.png) [@YaraMateo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaraMateo)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/37 "2011-06-03T00:23:00Z")
> [@medstar](#): > > A few years ago, food companies were producing tomato ketchup(catsup?) in colors such as blue or green instead of the traditional red. I didn’t think much of it and apparently no one else did either. I only see red ketchup for sale nowadays. I had breakfast at an ex’s house. He put that kethcup on his eggs because he had a younger sister would wouldn’t eat regular anything. She was a little bitch. His mother see this and goes “Purple ketchup on eggs?! :mad: That’s disgusting! :mad:”. I’ll never forget that little rant. How she claimed the sight of it mad her sick. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/38 "2011-06-03T02:17:22Z")
> [@Crawlspace](#): > > Corks used to close wine and champagne bottles. Screw tops have been perfected so that they can hold the wine in, keep the air out, allow for the bottle to be stored standing up, are easier to open, and eliminate the risk of cork taint. They are the better sealing method. But everyone “knows” screw-tops are for cheap swill, so we’re stuck with corks. According to [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13413140&postcount=14) in a previous thread, those perceptions have now been successfully inverted in Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/39 "2011-06-03T02:35:38Z")
Have none of you ever been to a sports stadium in your lives? There _certainly_ is beer sold in plastic bottles. As for cheddar, I make it a point to procure the harder-to-find white cheddar whenever I want to make a pizza (I cut it with mozzarella). Yellow cheese on a pizza just looks wrong. It makes me thing “cheez product” or something. ---
**Author:** ![thelabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/40 "2011-06-03T03:30:32Z")
Perhaps it started me on a long life as a skeptic but back in the 50’s Gaines Meal added something to their dog food to make it a ‘‘meaty’’ red. Well the stools came out the same ‘‘meaty’’ red. I suspect it was iron oxide. Dogs have limited color vision. Yet today, many dog foods have color and shapes designed to appeal to people. For those that fear artificial color, there are dog foods without it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089.md?page=3)