Snookered again and...cereal shock!

Once again I was fooled by a 10 for $10.00 sign. Somehow I misplace the decimal point and think it's 10 cents apiece, a logical conclusion because it was on some seed packets, which I have frequently purchased at that price.

Of course, when they're rung up at $1.00 apiece, I squawk and then learn it was 10 for $10. Duh! And the cashier is patiently explaining to me (after not listening to my misreading confession) that 10 for $10 is $1.00 apiece. I got it, lady....

Cowabunga: the cereal prices! Multigrain Cheerios are $6, etc. I've got cereal shock. I'm fantasizing trying to make my own cereal, like in the movie, "The Road to Wellville," where Dana Carvey and his henchmen are trying to copy Kellogg's cornflakes. Hilarious.

[Jenise]

I don't eat cereal, but my husband does. And I tend to keep a variety on hand, and I choose from the unsweetened 'adult' cereals, and buy whatever's on sale. Something qualifying nearly always is. But where I live, on sale at best is two for $5. I would think you'd be quite happy with $1!

My limit for cereal is roughly $2.50. I also scour the sales for deals, but those deals are going to be fewer and farther between because of the corn into ethanol thing. GM just announced they're also raising cereal prices (by shrinking the size so it won't be obvious).

We have the same cereal issues here on the East Coast as well. Our favorites, Smart Start and Frosted Mini Wheats, are regularly about $4/box. A really good sale is 2/$4, but usually 2/$5 is as good as it gets. The best deal is to have a coupon when they go on sale at a store where they double coupons.

Call me a cereal killer, but I never got into the habit of eating this stuff (was going to type 'crap' but refrained because some people seem to like it).

Chopped cardboard with sugar coating, designed to hook hyperactive rugrats needing their morning sugar fix? I think not.

Bit of protein to start the day and if you want the carbs, a nice slice of multigrain toast. Or real cereal (och, that means hot, laddie)

It used to be my breakfast of choice. But I've found that I do better with a bit of lean protein in my breakfast. Nowadays...breakfast is a few slices of smoked turkey, a bit of mustard and a whole wheat tortilla (rolled) and a small apple / pear / orange etc..

Richard

I never got into the cereal habit either. But in my case I think it was because I never liked milk in any way except adulterated with enough chocolate syrup to cover the taste of the milk!

I never got into the cereal habit either. But in my case I think it was because I never liked milk in any way except adulterated with enough chocolate syrup to cover the taste of the milk!

Some think that the North American habit of filling the kids up with milk is responsible for all sorts of ills not suffered to the same degree as those countries where milk does not form such a large part of the diet (e.g. France, the Orient.

[Robin Garr]

Call me a cereal killer, but I never got into the habit of eating this stuff (was going to type 'crap' but refrained because some people seem to like it).

Chopped cardboard with sugar coating, designed to hook hyperactive rugrats needing their morning sugar fix? I think not.

Bit of protein to start the day and if you want the carbs, a nice slice of multigrain toast. Or real cereal (och, that means hot, laddie)

I'm on board with all this. I don't hate milk (although I don't drink much of it as an adult except in the occasional latte or cappucino), but I just don't see the point of eating a highly processed industrial product for breakfast when there are so many good alternatives in the bread, eggs and fruit realm (and ham, sausage or bacon for an indulgent weekend brunch). I can't even remember the last time I had dry cereal, but it was probably in the 1970s, and I don't miss it.

Don't you love the mothers that don't take time to feed the kids in the morning, but just toss them packets of junk food "Oprah is on, here is a a pack of Twinkies..." Or "Please be quiet - here is a candy bar"

And you have some more kids whose eating habits are ruined for a lifetime....



Believe me, I've seen it happen.

[Jenise]

Don't you love the mothers that don't take time to feed the kids in the morning, but just toss them packets of junk...believe me, I've seen it happen.

Dropped by my sister's house once in the a.m. and was horrified to find her three year old daughter eating Doritos dipped in bottled Ranch dressing for breakfast. Of course, Ladonna was unrepentant because that's one of her very favorite and frequent breakfasts too, and she can't spell nutrition let alone apply it.

Among my sibs, I am an alien being.

Among my sibs, I am an alien being.

I am right there with you, Jenise. None of the rest of them (and there are 9 of us) care about any of the things I care about.

If I wasn't just like my father's mom in matters of taste, life skills, looks, and attitudes, I'd think I was adopted.

My limit for cereal is roughly $2.50. I also scour the sales for deals, but those deals are going to be fewer and farther between because of the corn into ethanol thing. GM just announced they're also raising cereal prices (by shrinking the size so it won't be obvious).

Is this some definition of "GM" that I'm unaware of (I don't buy cereal)? I thought GM made cars.

-Paul W.

General Mills. He's Colonel Bogey's commanding officer.

None of the rest of them (and there are 9 of us) care about any of the things I care about.

When I lived in Salt Lake, where 9+ kids per family wasn't unusual, I always wondered how people kept the names straight. Best I could tell, they just named the first 4 or 5, then gave the rest of them Roman numerals. "Hey, VII, stop pounding on IX!" Sort of like the moons of Jupiter.

My limit for cereal is roughly $2.50. I also scour the sales for deals, but those deals are going to be fewer and farther between because of the corn into ethanol thing. GM just announced they're also raising cereal prices (by shrinking the size so it won't be obvious).

Is this some definition of "GM" that I'm unaware of (I don't buy cereal)? I thought GM made cars.

-Paul W.

General Mills

I'd love to see the cost of the bill of materials for those $6 cereals. I tried to plow my way through the financial stuff on Yahoo, but bogged down completely trying to turn commodity grain prices (which are in dollar units with no indication of how much grain per unit) into per pound prices. Can anyone explain this to a moron?

Stuart, I have a note somewhere on this subject -- I'll post when I find it. We eat toasted oats, and buy Malt-O-Meal Scooters, which are very good, very much like Cheerios. Scooters cost 13 cents per serving; Cheerios, 24 cents. [Based on Consumer Union comparisons -- we find Scooters in this general area at about 40% of the cost of Cheerios.]

The major cost differences between Scooters and Cheerios are accounted for in large measure by marketing and advertising, including the pretty pictures and ever changing text on the boxes, and fees for prime positioning on supermarket shelves.

There are also a couple of store brand toasted oats that are about 35% of Cheerios price, but the stores are not close enough to us to make the purchases pay.

Here's Consumer's breakdown on the toasted oats field:

Very Good

General Mills, 24 cents
Malt-O-Meal, 13 cents
Stop & Shop, 20 cents

GOOD

Trader Joe’s, 14 cents
Albertson’s, 17 cents
Safeway, 19 cents;
Great Value (Wal-Mart), 11 cents
Publix, 17 cents
Market Pantry (Target), 14 cents*
Kroger, 13 cents

___
* Often discounted here as a loss leader at about 10 cents a serving, but the closest Target is 12 miles away.

Here's another note from CU last fall from their public site:


Cereal prices rise, boxes shrink

Inflation means your dollar is shrinking, but it can mean your cereal box is shrinking, too. Kellogg announced in July that it would impose a price increase averaging 2 percent overall on some cereals this fall, including Corn Flakes and All-Bran. It also said that it would trim the box sizes of Frosted Flakes, Frosted Mini-Wheats, and Rice Krispies 5.3 to 15 percent yet charge the same price (see Fewer flakes). "It’s a way to raise prices to make it look like it’s not as large an increase as it really is,” notes Ephraim Leibtag, an agricultural economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.

Kellogg attributed the hike to the higher cost of commodities, particularly grains, sugar, and energy used in manufacturing and transportation. But marketing expenses can be high as well. (Perhaps it’s no surprise that Kellogg also announced it would be spending more for "brand building.") Raw materials, experts say, account for only 10 to 40 percent of the retail price of a box of cereal.

General Mills and Kraft Foods declined to discuss pricing plans for their cereals, but industry watchers say that consumers probably won’t be seeing the last of the incredible shrinking cereal box. They note that the growing influence of private-label products and the power of super-retailers such as Wal-Mart have protected consumers from higher prices until recently. "It’s a highly unfavorable cost environment now, so companies are looking for ways to pass increases along without pricing them through the roof," says Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic, a Chicago-based market research company for the food industry. "Coffee did that years ago. In retail, what is a pound of coffee today? Thirteen ounces?”

Well, rule of thumb in most industries is retail running about five times BOM. I'll bet that the number for cereal would conservatively be ten at least.

I think so too -- at least at the high end. My goal is to keep it at five times without giving up any quality. A few moments in the microwave solves all the problems that CU mentions, and then it's a matter of taste, mouth feel, and what's on the label.

Hey, Stuart, you are inspiring me. Here's a hint of a way to make your own Cheerios. I'll bet I can get the cost of goods down to ten percent of what they charge. I'll revert:


Tastes SO much better this way...take a dry skillet/pan, and toast your oats on it for about 3 minutes, until they start smelling aromatic....Try your steel-cut oats this way, it's amazing, trust me.

Who needs the holes?

Regards, and thanks, Bob

This might be an interesting use for those otherwise-awful hot air popcorn poppers. Mr. Science feels an experiment coming on...