The shrinking ice cream affair

By Jack Mayne

In a city where gasoline prices are the highest around (except in Vancouver, B.C., where gas is $1.30 a liter or $4.93 a gallon for regular), you would think big business would understand that we comprehend that things are costing more and more each day.

But that appears to have escaped the people at the Dreyer's Ice Cream company. Instead of admitting that constantly increasing price of all the ingredients in their "Grand" ice cream was forcing them to charge more, they tried to sneak a price hike by simply reducing the size of their "half-gallon" but keeping the price the same. As a frequent shopper, I have heard a lot of very unpleasant comments when people realize they are being snookered.

One woman left her ice cream on the check-out counter, several clerks have pointed out that the container was now 1.5 quarts, instead of 2 quarts (yes, Dreyer's did this before, making a 2 quart half gallon into a 1.75 quart package). Many other customers fumed and took a cheaper brand of ice cream (oh, never fear, Dreyer's, the others will match your move, soon).

We accept price increases even when we don't like them. I admire a company who comes clean and says right up front, "We are raising the price of our product because our costs are going up." We do not like a company that treats us like idiot sheep and we can imagine a corporate board meeting where a CEO says, "They will never notice."

We fired off an e-mail to Dreyer's (known as Edy's in the east).

We expected a computer-generated response form the tech department with language any kindergartener could have written.

We did not expect the head ice cream guy to respond (well, his name signed the message, at any rate).

"We looked at raising our prices to cover these costs, but at some point, it just doesn't make sense to raise prices too high," said Chief Executive Officer Tim Kahn's e-mail. "I suspect very few families would want to pay $7 or $8 for a carton of ice cream (I would, but that is me). So as you know, we opted to drop the size of our carton from 1.75 quarts to 1.5 quarts.

"Dreyer's has been making ice cream since 1928. We hope we've earned your trust over the years. Thank you for being so passionate about our ice cream and for taking the time to contact us. We hope you'll continue to invite our products into your home."

Well, I am still feeling peeved and wounded, but that approach did help. A corporate PR person sent a (surprise!) similar note, but Kahn's is the one I liked, even if the PR lady could have written it. And, yes, we liked the price-off coupons they sent.

You see, I am an ice creamaholic and I have backslid many times when my waistline says I must go cold turkey. Having ice cream coupons gives me an excuse to buy more of that less ice cream.

Oh, and I tried that some tack on Chevron, but I never got a response. We understand they were much too busy raising the price of high-test gasoline to $4.20.9 (ever wonder why they bother with that stupid .9?).

Jack Mayne may be reached at jmayne@robinsonnews.com or 932.0300.