In a previous post of our High Price of Convenience series, we discussed how consumers pay excessive mark-ups on “instant” foods that aren’t much quicker to prepare than their non-instant counterparts.
Today we’ll take a look at the insane mark-ups stores get us to pay for ready to serve microwaveable foods – bowls or cups of food that go directly from the store shelf into your microwave.
Our example is the Chef Boyardee beef ravioli “Big Bowl.” This “Big Bowl” product allows you to cook and eat beef ravioli right out of the “Big Bowl” container. Sounds like a neat concept until you compare the Big Bowl option to a normal can of beef ravioli.
Below is pictured the “Big Bowl” version of ravioli on the left and the regular can of beef ravioli on the right. It may appear that the “Big Bowl” contains more beef ravioli than the regular canned version. Yet this is an optical illusion as both contain the same 488 grams of beef ravioli.
With the “Big Bowl” version you remove the metal lid located underneath the plastic top. Replace the plastic top and microwave for 90 seconds. You microwave and eat right out of the same “Big Bowl”.
The canned version requires you to remove the top, pour the beef ravioli into your own microwave safe container, and microwave for 90 seconds.
The only difference between the two is that the “Big Bowl” allows you to microwave and eat right out of the “special” container that the ravioli was purchased in. With the canned version you have to take the time (all 5 seconds!) to pour the ravioli into your own microwave safe bowl before you cook and eat it.
So how much is the extra “convenience” of the “Big Bowl” ravioli going to cost you? – well quite a lot. The “Big Bowl” costs $3.45 for 488 grams of ravioli, or .71 cents per gram. The canned ravioli costs $2 for 488 grams of ravioli, or .41 cents per gram.
So for the convenience of the microwaveable “Big Bowl” you’re paying 70% more! An unreasonable price to pay in our opinion. Yet, more and more manufacturers are selling their foods in these microwaveable eat and go containers hoping that the novelty will get us to buy these more expensive products. Campbell’s Soup, for example, has come out with a whole line of microwaveable soup bowls.
Lesson: For the great “convenience” of being able to microwave and eat our ravioli from its own “big bowl,” we pay a whopping 70% more. Next time you’re tempted to pick up one of those convenient microwaveable food products take a second look. Its much cheaper to just dump the canned version in your own bowl before microwaving and eating.
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