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Kellogg's looking at new cereal boxes

Looking back at the first month of the new year, I realize that the wife and I did quite a bit of "uncluttering": bags of old clothes donated to the local Goodwill, a complete makeover of the toy storage in the kids' room, a new home office, and a total restructuring of closets. Sound like fun to you? I know, it wasn't a blast, but the new space is nice.

Seems like cereal producer Kellogg (NYSE: K) is looking to help unclutter grocery store shelves and your cabinets by producing what is called a space-saving cereal box. Think about it, where do you store your cereal boxes? We have an older house with smaller cabinets, so the cereal boxes have found their way to the top of the refrigerator; however, Kellogg's new offering certainly seems as if it would work with our storage space. The shorter and fatter (which is how many people compare me to this guy) box will hold the same amount of your corn flakes or mini wheats, but with a smaller carbon footprint (Al Gore will certainly thank the company).

Continue reading Kellogg's looking at new cereal boxes

Inflation, Kellogg-style: Less product, same price

Like all processed food producers, Kellogg Company (NYSE: K) is facing rapidly climbing costs for corn, wheat and sugar, the basic building blocks for many of its products. Rather than passing those costs on to consumers in a straightforward manner by raising prices, Kellogg is taking a sneakier route: making some of its cereal boxes smaller while keeping the price the same.

Starting this month, Kellogg will shrink the size of boxes of Apple Jacks, Cocoa Krispies, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks by an average of 2.4 ounces.

Of course, using this approach is in the end the same as simply raising prices. The key is price per ounce, which goes up whether you reduce quantity or increase price. So although you will pay the same price for a box of these sweet cereals, the per ounce cost of a corn syrup high in the morning will go up.

Even though reducing ounces per box amounts to a price increase, smaller boxes have a different psychological effect than adding a few pennies to the retail price. Food companies use this approach in the hope that most consumers won't notice, and research suggests that this is in fact true.

I suppose this means that most shoppers don't look at the per ounce cost when buying things like cereal. When it comes to inflation, maybe ignorance really is bliss.

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Last updated: November 11, 2009: 04:43 PM

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