Watching out for the customer

We have long been familiar with the waxing and waning of bars of chocolate in response to movements in the prices of the ingredients, particularly cocoa beans.

This morning we were alerted to the same phenomenon in washing up liquid. It so happens that Sainsbury's own brands are a lot less visible than they were before the onset of the plague, with one result being that BH is buying genuine Fairy Liquid rather than some own brand alternative. Bottle No.1 contained 383ml, while the almost identical bottle No. 2, a few weeks later, contained 340ml. While today Wilko do 443ml online, as snapped above.

One supposes that the Sainsbury marketing people have worked out that sales hold up better if people are not aware of price rises. Also that people like see-through bottles to look full - unlike tins of fish which are usually sold half empty. So this price rise has been contained by making the bottle slightly smaller all round. One imagines that in the olden days, changing the size of the bottle in this way would have been an expensive and time consuming business, but maybe nowadays with computers getting everywhere, such changes can be made by pressing a few buttons.

But still wasteful, in part because of the costs involved in changing the size of the bottle, but also because customers cannot respond in a rational way to price changes because they have been made more or less invisible. In a more lefty world, with washing up liquid sold by some fossilised & nationalised industry, the bosses would not have too much regard to what customers thought and would have just changed the price and left the bottle alone. Capitalism might produce the goods but there are some not so good side effects.

On a quite different tack, I have a new problem with Wellingtonias. A few days ago, we watched an episode of the Inspector Gently saga called 'Gently with Honour'. An episode which appeared to feature an impressive avenue of Wellingtonia. An avenue which must be up north somewhere, probably quite near the River Tyne, because shots of the avenue include the distinctive car which appears in places like Durham, and it is unlikely that this car would have been sent down south just for this shot. And being a fairly old saga, unlikely that the car would have been dubbed into some pre-existing shot of a suitable avenue

[Perhaps its most famous feature is the beautiful avenue of nearly 200 year old Californian giant redwoods which lead from the A68 up to the house]

The people at reference 1 were quite helpful, first turning up an avenue in Scotland (reference 2) which failed because there did not seem to be a road running down the middle. And second an avenue in a monastery, Minsteracres Monastery off the A68. A little to the south west of Newcastle upon Tyne the location is good, it has a road and is not yet ruled out, but it is not yet confirmed either. Further investigation needed, perhaps even a visit. 

References

Reference 1a: https://www.monumentaltrees.com/.

Reference 1b: https://www.monumentaltrees.com/en/gbr-giantsequoia/england/.

Reference 2: https://www.rbge.org.uk/visit/benmore-botanic-garden/.

Reference 3: https://www.minsteracres.org/. 'We are a Christian place of prayer with a resident community of Roman Catholic Passionist priests, nuns and lay people. The presence of the community gives the centre a homely atmosphere and provides a spirit of prayer and hospitality'.