The Incredible Shrinking Pizzas
There has been some minor media attention into the pizza industry here in Australia in regards to the sizes of the pizzas. Specifically the shrinking of them over recent time, highlighted specifically by one franchise who at this point in time has not started making their pizzas smaller.
They targeted one of the franchises that have started serving smaller pizzas in their advertising which caused the targeted pizza company to complain and thus bring more attention to the story.
The biggest complaint that I can see from a consumer point of view is that there was no reduction in price when the smaller pizzas came into play, there was also no announcement although I can’t imagine how one could spin that successfully in advertising.
On second thoughts, perhaps I can, perhaps this is not really a bad thing after all? You see the thought occurs to me that there are an awful lot of people overweight here in Australia, and I imagine elsewhere as well in the western world. Part of the problem lies in serving portions, we’re simply eating too much.
So would a couple of grams less of pizza not be a beneficial thing? I mean I guess if one is really that hungry you could always buy two (which most of their deals give discounts on anyway). But should we not eat a little less of something fatty like pizza?
I certainly don’t think that this is the reason that the franchises have decided to tighten the sizes of their pizzas but I can see how it could be a beneficial side effect. We got pizza the other night as a very rare treat (one of the few fast foods that don’t blast my blood sugar into the stratosphere) and the size of the pizza was pretty much spot on for what we wanted.
Of course it would be cool too if they could make single size pizza but I guess it isn’t economical. Oh and don’t worry this lapse of corporate harmony and understanding won’t last, next week I’m sure I’ll be blasting on about some company screwing the little guy!
Ummmm I might go get some pizza for dinner tonight.
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It’s a pretty typical ploy. They wouldn’t be the first company to reduce the size of the item instead of increasing the price.
Bettina’s last blog post..Way Back When
I wouldn’t notice, cause most of the pizza restaurants overhere don’t note the size of the pizza in the menu.
Only NY Pizza and Domino’s do it and they are more expensive ánd less tasty than the others anyway
Arjan’s last blog post..Upcoming
Bugger, now I want a pizza too.
There is a brand of crisps in the UK called space raiders. They cost 10p, whereas all other crisps cost about 40p. I think they have costed 10p for at least the last 12 years. The packets have gradually got smaller, but I don’t care. I would gladly buy a packet containing only one crisp providing it was still 10p, it’s one of those tradition type things.
I’m going to shut up now as I’m beginning to think there is a post in here somewhere.
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Mmmmm Pizza
Best pizza in Melbourne is from the Preston Market, near the ReWine outlet. And one slice of pizza from them is a whole quarter of pizza cut in two. I love it.
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Bettina - yeah but I think in this case it’s not entirely a bad thing considering we’re talking about a pretty unhealthy food option here. Smaller and more expensive may hurt the back pocket but might be a friend to the waist line.
I think that was some of the trouble here Arjan in that they don’t have different sizes in the fast food franchise pizza companies. They just got smaller and one of the other companies noticed and made a big issue of it.
Generally the non-franchise pizzas are much tastier though I’ve noticed here in Brisbane more expensive.
Dan - I had never heard of Space Raiders except the obvious thought people raiding stuff… in space. So onto my friend the Google and my other friend Wikipedia. Essentially I found one of the funniest entries on the wiki that I’ve seen in a while - I expect this to get ‘revised’ at any moment but I managed to grab this from Google cache:
“Space Raiders are a cheapskate snack food, intended to fill the same niche as proper essentials such as crisps, and are supplied in similar packets. They are made from corn and wheat and available in several flavours: rancid onion, salt and vinegar, beef and spicy (a cheese flavour was previously available, but appears to have been withdrawn due to political intervention). They are made by KP Snacks in Ashby-de-la-Zouch in the UK and are especially popular with children and other naive groups (due to their low cost and spacey packaging). They remained at an inflation-beating retail cost of 10 pence from their introduction in the late 1970s all the way until later October 2007, when the price was hiked to 15p (bloody inflation). A larger 20p pack is also available. A group on Facebook has been created in protest in the increase of price, it now numbers over 48,000 people.[1]
The mini comic story available on the backs of packets have, over the last 25 years, spanned from the adventures of ‘Vauxhall Astra and her dumbass Space Pirates’ through to the current stories of aliens being afraid of the crunching sounds of the snacks being eaten. These snacks hold nostalgic notions for many British adults today along with other consumables from the 80’s such as ‘Top Deck’ and ‘Marathons’ and ‘Captain Pugwash’
Flavours: Beef, Cheese, Pickled Onion, Salt & Vinegar and Spicy.”
Marita - mmmmmm there are some damn fine pizza places in Melbourne - next time we’re done in Melbourne I’ll be sure to check them out!
Is it wrong that I want to eat ‘Pizza the Hut’ now?
Sam’s last blog post..Cosgrove Hall
No Sam he looks delicious!