We're apparently gullible enough to pay a premium for watered-down juice

[aerodave]

I was doing my weekly grocery shopping this past weekend, and stopped in the juice aisle to pick up some grape juice (my favorite). Since I’m a sucker for bold packaging, I couldn’t help but notice a new product, Welch’s AquaJuice, next to me. I took a second to make sense of the label’s contents, and quickly came to the conclusion that they were selling a half-water-half-juice product for the same price per ounce as real juice. I instantly, and almost reflexively, scoffed. But then I second-guessed myself. I thought, “There’s no way they’re actually asking us to pay the same price for watered-down juice. There must be something more to it.” I grabbed a bottle, inspected it more carefuly, and sadly confirmed my initial conclusion. Okay, in fairness, they have added some vitamin C. But that doesn’t substantially change the fact that they really are asking us to pay the same amount for half as much product.

I can imagine the conversations in the board room that resulted in the making of AquaJuice. I’m sure it started as a throwaway comment that was somewhere between a pipe dream and a joke.

“Wouldn’t it be great for our profit margin if we could get people to pay us twice as much money for the same amount of juice?”

“Well, what about the same amount for half as much juice…that’s just as good, right?”

I don’t see how anyone could fall for this gimmick…except I always underestimate the stupidity of the average person. If you really want a 50/50 juice and water mix (for the kids or whatever), can’t you just spend your $2.99 on a half gallon of actual juice and mix it yourself? Then you have a gallon for the same price that Welch’s wants you to pay for a mere 52 oz. I suppose the target customers for this product are those people who feel that the convenience is worth the extra price per ounce, even if it’s more than twice as much. I understand that logic at some level; hell, that’s why I buy shredded cheese. But the AquaJuice premium isn’t justifiable, since diluting your own juice is pretty brain-dead easy—compared with grating cheese, anyway.

It’s not just their attempt to market this stupid product that bothers me. It’s the shameless audacity of it. In the past, companies that wanted to cheat customers by stretching their products with water, sawdust, or whatnot would at least have the decency to hide it. Sure, that’s morally wrong in and of itself, but at least you’re not insulting the consumers’ intelligence on top of it. This approach not only presumes that you can trick people into geting less for their money, but that you can convince them that it’s a good idea to do it on purpose.

I always thought the bottled water industry was the epitome of cashing in on the public’s gullibility. I mean, getting folks to pay a dollar or more a bottle for tap water is pure evil genius. But I’m starting to think this juice bullshit has even that racket beat.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@aerodave

I always thought the bottled water industry was the epitome of cashing in on the public’s gullibility. I mean, getting folks to pay a dollar or more a bottle for tap water is pure evil genius. But I’m starting to think this juice bullshit has even that racket beat.

Really? As opposed to Vitamin Water and Gatorade and all that other shit that’s just sugar and food coloring plus water?

[Jack_Batty]

"We’re apparently gullible enough to pay a premium for watered-down juice "

(Honest to Buddha, I thought this was going to be a critique of the new Pit rules)

[iamthewalrus_3]

You can buy the juice from concentrate and mix it yourself at home for less money. This is just furthering that trend. If you don’t think that the bottled already reconstituted juice is a complete ripoff (they’re just selling you extra water), why should it be absurd for the company to make one with a different ratio?

[Blalron]

@aerodave

I suppose the target customers for this product are those people who feel that the convenience is worth the extra price per ounce, even if it’s more than twice as much. I understand that logic at some level; hell, that’s why I buy shredded cheese. But the AquaJuice premium isn’t justifiable, since diluting your own juice is pretty brain-dead easy—compared with grating cheese, anyway.

You have to take into account that any money you spend on “convenience” is additional time you have to spend at the workplace/office.

It takes, what, 30 seconds to pour a half gallon of water, and a half gallon of juice into a jug? If you’re paying an extra dollar for that thirty seconds of “convenience”, you’re time would have to be worth at least 120 bucks an hour for that to be economical!

[Jimmy_Joe_Meager]

@aerodave

In the past, companies that wanted to cheat customers by stretching their products with water, sawdust, or whatnot…

I hate sawdust in my juice. :mad:

[Lurking_Quahog]

I find it terribly ironic that the advertisement that I see under the OP is for Fiji Water. Affordable luxury. Convenient water delivery.

I’m still pissed that I had to spend $1.39 for an Aquafina in the cafeteria just so that I could have an empty bottle at my desk that I can fill up at the water fountain twice a day. Tastes the same to me.

[Turek]

@Tomczyk

I’m still pissed that I **had **to spend $1.39 for an Aquafina in the cafeteria just so that I could have an empty bottle at my desk that I can fill up at the water fountain twice a day. Tastes the same to me.

emphasis added

HAD to?

Save your bottle from the day before and refill it.

[Dan_Norder]

How about 100 calorie packs… You pay more money for less food for the convenience of having food pre-proportioned in round numbers. Take some cheap sandwich baggies, a regular package of foodstuffs, and check the calorie info on the box.

[Swallowed_My_Cellphone]

@Turek

emphasis added

HAD to?

Save your bottle from the day before and refill it.

I usually just get a glass from the office kitchen.

Related to the OP, last time I went home to visit family in the U.S. I found it difficult to buy the foodstuffs I wanted generally because they were cut with all sorts of stuff. We eat a lot of yogurt, but we actually had a hard time finding yogurt that was just yogurt (milk ingredients and live bacterial cultures). Almost all yogurts we could find had gelatin, which we don’t eat. We wanted buy guacamole, but most of what we were finding in the supermarkets was half sour cream.

[Borborygmi]

@Tomczyk

Tastes the same to me.

Tomczyk, you look like you’ve been drinking WAY too much grape juice. Have you considered watering it down?

[badbadrubberpiggy]

@Swallowed_My_Cellphone

I usually just get a glass from the office kitchen.

Related to the OP, last time I went home to visit family in the U.S. I found it difficult to buy the foodstuffs I wanted generally because they were cut with all sorts of stuff. We eat a lot of yogurt, but we actually had a hard time finding yogurt that was just yogurt (milk ingredients and live bacterial cultures). Almost all yogurts we could find had gelatin, which we don’t eat. We wanted buy guacamole, but most of what we were finding in the supermarkets was half sour cream.

Gelatin is often added to make the yogurt thicker - especially for lowfat & fat free yogurts. But I don’t like it either, I think it makes the yogurt sort of…jiggly. Some brands use pectin.

Next time, try a Trader Joe’s if your family is near one - they have several styles of plain yogurt that are just yogurt. Actually, the also sell guacamole that’s just avocado, spices and jalapenos, too.

[Turek]

According to homeopathy, you can water it down infinitely and still get all the beneficial effects.

[Bryan_Ekers]

Heck, what’s the deal with those soup ads where the wife scoffs at the husband’s desire for condensed soups (as opposed to overpriced ready-to-cook water-added soups)? “What are you, a kid?”

[Rhythmdvl]

Nothing, absolutely nothing will beat the Alka Seltzer story:

From Snopes

Status: True
We changed the directions on the packages and began showing two Alka-Seltzers dropping into a glass of water in every commercial. Miles created portable foil packs that held two Alka-Seltzers each and sold them in new places, magazine stands, bars, fast-food restaurants, powder rooms — they became ubiquitous — and, naturally, Miles began selling twice as much Alka-Seltzer.

In the meantime, get yourself a juicer. We just did, and it is out of this world. Juice… real juice. Unbelievably sweet, usually strong enough to warrant dilution, and is to store-bought fruit juice what real maple syrup is to Log Cabin.

[Rand_Rover]

I never get these types of rants. People like different things. The only way someone is getting ripped off is if the contents of the product are not disclosed, which is not the case here.

If someone wants to buy a jar full of air for a dollar or a jar half-full of air for two dollars, then good for them.

[aerodave]

Rand Rover, you’re absolutely right. Those companies are allowed to market anything they think they can sell. People are allowed to buy anything they want, no matter how stupid it seems to others.

And so it follows, I’m allowed to hold and express the opinion that those people are gullible idiots. We’re all just doing our own thing.

[Rand_Rover]

I never get these types of rants. People like different things. The only way someone is getting ripped off is if the contents of the product are not disclosed, which is not the case here.

If someone wants to buy a jar full of air for a dollar or a jar half-full of air for two dollars, then good for them.

[KneadToKnow]

What do you mean “we,” paleface?

[Ferret_Herder]

@Swallowed_My_Cellphone

Related to the OP, last time I went home to visit family in the U.S. I found it difficult to buy the foodstuffs I wanted generally because they were cut with all sorts of stuff. We eat a lot of yogurt, but we actually had a hard time finding yogurt that was just yogurt (milk ingredients and live bacterial cultures). Almost all yogurts we could find had gelatin, which we don’t eat.

I’ve pretty much had to make my own (fruit) yogurt because of this gelatin issue. I get Dannon’s non-fat live culture plain yogurt - last I checked it was pretty “plain” when it comes to ingredients - as a starter, and make my own yogurt with skim milk and nonfat milk powder, then just mix in what fruit I want at the time of eating. Not at all convenient for a visitor, I know, but I’m just saying even Americans have to deal with that issue in one way or another. I could go out of my way to get yogurt, often more costly, that didn’t have it, but at that point I just said forget this, I’ll make it myself.

I was buying canned coconut milk and picked up the “light” version. Apparently the difference from the regular is because the light kind is thinned down with water. Yes, I suspect there’s some fat-skimming too, but I’ve just been mixing in water myself since I read that. I get more coconut milk, a healthier product, and spend less.