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Re: Breyers Yogurt

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Homer <usenet@slated.org> wrote:
> Verily I say unto thee, that owl spake thusly:
> > Homer <usenet@slated.org> wrote:
> >> Verily I say unto thee, that owl spake thusly:
> >>> Hadron <hadronquark@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>> 
> >>>> Choice... And people chose NOT to support Breyers
> >>
> >> LOL! "Support Breyers"? Normal people don't care about companies,
> >> they care about the finished products. The /company/ is just a name,
> >> except to fanatics like Larry who drool over corporate goons, for
> >> some reason.
> >
> > It was not the Breyers company I supported, true, but it *was* the
> > Breyers brand.  (The brand was owned most recently by some investment
> > group).  I would actively seek out that brand because it was
> > associated with the high quality yogurt I preferred.

> Er, IOW the finished product.

Which I had no way of distinguishing without the brand.

> The idea of "supporting a company" is just silly. It's a business, not a
> football team. But if one is the sort of person who worships
> materialism, then businesses become temples, corporate bigwigs become
> gods, and the entire premise of commerce becomes like a religious cult.
> That's what (I would guess) motivates pretty much every anti-Linux nut
> in this group. It challenges the sanctity of corporatism and libertarian
> ideals.

> And even WRT the end products, the fact that I sometimes buy a certain
> product doesn't make me think in terms of "supporting" that product. I'm
> just as likely to buy a competing product next time, or something
> completely unrelated, or nothing at all - and just make it myself. The
> fact that something's "good" doesn't mean that nothing else is. I'd have
> to try them first to find out, and with many things (especially food)
> there are more choices than one man could ever possibly try in a single
> lifetime. I'm damned sure those companies are not loyal to me, so why
> the hell should I be loyal to them? Why should I limit my experiences
> for their benefit?

> With the loss of this product, you've just learned an important lesson
> in misguided loyalty.

I never really thought of it as loyalty.  I was just shocked to find
that I could no longer get my preferred yogurt.  I want my damned yogurt
back.  I don't have time to make yogurt, and the rest of what's
available is not up to par.

> > That looks tedious, but I may end up trying it out.  Not likely to be
> > able to replicate the perfect flavor, consistency, etc. of the Breyers
> > though.

> You may surprise yourself, and anyway it's not like you have a choice
> now, is it, given that you believe this brand was irreplaceable?

It's not just my belief.  It's a fact.  Dammit.  I don't have time
for this yogurt making. 

> Companies spend an awful lot of money trying to convince people that
> their products are unique, irreplaceable, and not reproducible. The
> reality is somewhat different. If they can make it, then so can you.

> In the case of yoghurt in particular, it's utterly trivial to do so. It
> literally takes seconds (of actual work). You may even end up with
> something /better/, given enough experimentation. Of course you'll never
> know unless you try.

> Beware brand fixation. It's a creeping disease spread by advertisers,
> and claims millions of victims every year. Of course, people usually
> don't realise they're infected until it's too late, and the "brand"
> they've been brainwashed into becoming addicted to goes belly-up. Some
> of those people go on to become addicted to other "brands" instead. Some
> are cured, and discover the truth about no-name products, autonomy, and
> other things advertisers don't want you to know about.

> Years ago I had a brand fixation on a yoghurt product called "Müller's
> Thick 'n Creamy". It was a plain yoghurt with a sweeter flavour and
> creamier texture, and I absolutely loved it. Then, predictably, one day
> some marketing dilbert decided it was 0.0000000001% less profitable than
> some other bullshit, and Müller unceremoniously axed it without warning,
> so some fat executive could have an extra 0.00000001 cent in his pocket
> every year. I was devastated.

> Then one day I bought a tub of no-name plain yoghurt, double cream, and
> various other things as part of my weekly shopping. I had intended using
> the yoghurt to make biryani, and the cream with some strawberries, but I
> ended up forgetting about them, and the other ingredients got used in
> other dishes. So I was left with some yoghurt and cream that were both
> in danger of going off soon. Just for the hell of it, I mixed them
> together. Quelle surprise ... "Müller's Thick 'n Creamy". I kid ye not.
> So much for /that/ "unique" product.

> There's so many examples like that in your typical supermarket, I don't
> know where to begin. Nearly every pack of real butter is identical, for
> example, except for salted vs. unsalted. Seriously, buy two completely
> different brands of salted butter, and taste them for yourself. Heck,
> they're probably both made in the same dairy.

> Talking of salt, that's all identical too, except for the price. There's
> driveway salt, which sometimes contains a lot of other nasty chemicals,
> so you probably don't want to eat that, but the edible varieties are all
> the same, including the supposed "cooking" variety. Think about it, how
> many different types of sodium chloride do you think there are, anyway?
> It's a crystalline compound with a simple chemical formula for God's
> sake, it's not like two refined samples of it could be radically
> different. And yet some people buy the "branded" variety at double the
> price, or more.  Idiots.

> That's "brand" fixation for you. Most of the so-called "differentiation"
> in most products is pure marketing, indeed a lot of the same type of
> products are, in reality, manufactured by just one or two companies,
> usually in some foreign country using cheap labour, then "branded", with
> each "brand" being sold at sometimes radically different prices. Just
> look at Apple, as one of the most stereotypical examples.

> I do a hell of a lot of cooking. A /hell/ of a lot. In particular I do a
> lot of Indian dishes, and I always cook from scratch ... no "sauce jars"
> in this house. The thing about Indian food is it requires a lot of
> yoghurt, as that's the base for many sauces. Where I live is the back of
> beyond though, so asking for "exotic" items like yoghurt usually invites
> blank stares and questions like "are you on a diet?" Think John
> Boorman's "Deliverance" but with fewer shops. So if I want yoghurt, I
> either have to travel miles into civilisation or make it myself.

> Once I discovered how easy it is I never bought another tub of yoghurt
> ever again. I soon discovered how easy it is to make butter from yoghurt
> too, and the ghee (clarified butter - essential in a lot of Indian
> dishes) made from that butter is far superior to that made from
> supermarket butter as well.

> That's the thing about autonomy. Once you make the effort to learn how
> things work, you discover the answers to how other things work too, in a
> sort of cascading effect, because it's all connected. Then you don't
> need to worry about what some corporate dilbert has decided is best for
> you, you can decide that for yourself.

I'm not knocking this make-it-yourself philosophy.  I wish I could do
it.  

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Thread

Breyers Yogurt owl <owl@rooftop.invalid> - 2011-05-04 11:13 +0000
  Re: Breyers Yogurt Hadron<hadronquark@gmail.com> - 2011-05-04 13:16 +0200
    Re: Breyers Yogurt owl <owl@rooftop.invalid> - 2011-05-04 12:03 +0000
      Re: Breyers Yogurt chrisv <chrisv@nospam.invalid> - 2011-05-04 07:38 -0500
        Re: Breyers Yogurt "carlos" <carlos@nospam.com> - 2011-05-04 10:54 -0400
        Re: Breyers Yogurt Hadron<hadronquark@gmail.com> - 2011-05-04 17:08 +0200
      Re: Breyers Yogurt "amicus_curious" <acdc@sti.net> - 2011-05-04 08:52 -0400
        Re: Breyers Yogurt owl <owl@rooftop.invalid> - 2011-05-04 16:08 +0000
          Re: Breyers Yogurt Hadron<hadronquark@gmail.com> - 2011-05-04 18:12 +0200
            Re: Breyers Yogurt owl <owl@rooftop.invalid> - 2011-05-04 16:22 +0000
              Re: Breyers Yogurt Chris Ahlstrom <ahlstromc@xzoozy.com> - 2011-05-04 15:26 -0400
                Re: Breyers Yogurt chrisv <chrisv@nospam.invalid> - 2011-05-04 15:30 -0500
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Chris Ahlstrom <ahlstromc@xzoozy.com> - 2011-05-04 17:12 -0400
          Re: Breyers Yogurt Chris Ahlstrom <ahlstromc@xzoozy.com> - 2011-05-04 12:21 -0400
            Re: Breyers Yogurt Homer <usenet@slated.org> - 2011-05-04 20:00 +0100
          Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 10:13 -0700
          Re: Breyers Yogurt "amicus_curious" <acdc@sti.net> - 2011-05-04 18:58 -0400
      Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 06:59 -0700
        Re: Breyers Yogurt Hadron<hadronquark@gmail.com> - 2011-05-04 16:17 +0200
          Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 08:02 -0700
            Re: Breyers Yogurt Hadron<hadronquark@gmail.com> - 2011-05-04 17:12 +0200
          Re: Breyers Yogurt owl <owl@rooftop.invalid> - 2011-05-04 15:35 +0000
            Re: Breyers Yogurt chrisv <chrisv@nospam.invalid> - 2011-05-04 10:42 -0500
            Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 10:05 -0700
      Re: Breyers Yogurt Homer <usenet@slated.org> - 2011-05-04 16:29 +0100
        Re: Breyers Yogurt owl <owl@rooftop.invalid> - 2011-05-04 15:56 +0000
          Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 10:12 -0700
          Re: Breyers Yogurt Homer <usenet@slated.org> - 2011-05-04 19:50 +0100
            Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 12:50 -0700
            Re: Breyers Yogurt owl <owl@rooftop.invalid> - 2011-05-04 20:03 +0000
              Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 13:16 -0700
              Re: Breyers Yogurt chrisv <chrisv@nospam.invalid> - 2011-05-04 15:26 -0500
              Re: Breyers Yogurt Gregory Shearman <ZekeGregory@netscape.net> - 2011-05-04 23:09 +0000
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 16:21 -0700
            Re: Breyers Yogurt DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2011-05-04 17:16 -0400
              Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 14:23 -0700
                Re: Breyers Yogurt DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2011-05-04 17:36 -0400
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 14:45 -0700
                Re: Breyers Yogurt flatfish+++ <flatfish@marianatrench.com> - 2011-05-04 22:06 -0400
                Re: Breyers Yogurt JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2011-05-05 13:11 -0500
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-05 12:13 -0700
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Hadron<hadronquark@gmail.com> - 2011-05-05 21:34 +0200
                Re: Breyers Yogurt JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2011-05-06 10:23 -0500
              Re: Breyers Yogurt JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2011-05-04 17:20 -0500
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Homer <usenet@slated.org> - 2011-05-05 17:33 +0100
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-05 09:46 -0700
            Re: Breyers Yogurt Gregory Shearman <ZekeGregory@netscape.net> - 2011-05-04 23:06 +0000
              Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 16:19 -0700
              Re: Breyers Yogurt chrisv <chrisv@nospam.invalid> - 2011-05-05 07:40 -0500
              Re: Breyers Yogurt cc <scatnubbs@hotmail.com> - 2011-05-05 12:01 -0700
                Re: Breyers Yogurt DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2011-05-05 16:34 -0400
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-05 13:58 -0700
                Re: Breyers Yogurt An Old Friend <an.old@friend.com.invalid> - 2011-05-06 00:09 +0100
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-05 16:31 -0700
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Homer <usenet@slated.org> - 2011-05-06 01:03 +0100
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-05 21:15 -0700
                Re: Breyers Yogurt JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2011-05-06 10:20 -0500
                Re: Breyers Yogurt DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2011-05-05 18:38 -0400
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-05 16:33 -0700
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Homer <usenet@slated.org> - 2011-05-06 00:51 +0100
                Re: Breyers Yogurt chrisv <chrisv@nospam.invalid> - 2011-05-06 07:31 -0500
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Chris Ahlstrom <ahlstromc@xzoozy.com> - 2011-05-06 08:35 -0400
                Re: Breyers Yogurt "Catch the Wave" <zm@nospam.com> - 2011-05-06 09:27 -0400
                Re: Breyers Yogurt "Ezekiel" <zeke@nosuchmail.com> - 2011-05-07 07:51 -0400
                Re: Breyers Yogurt flatfish+++ <flatfish@marianatrench.com> - 2011-05-07 14:00 -0400
                Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-07 05:54 -0700
                Re: Breyers Yogurt JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2011-05-06 10:16 -0500
            Re: Breyers Yogurt cc <scatnubbs@hotmail.com> - 2011-05-05 11:56 -0700
        Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 10:10 -0700
    Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 06:54 -0700
      Re: Breyers Yogurt Hadron<hadronquark@gmail.com> - 2011-05-04 15:58 +0200
  Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 06:53 -0700
  Re: Breyers Yogurt TomB <tommy.bongaerts@gmail.com> - 2011-05-04 16:53 +0000
    Re: Breyers Yogurt Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com> - 2011-05-04 10:21 -0700
  Re: Breyers Yogurt flatfish+++ <flatfish@marianatrench.com> - 2011-05-04 13:11 -0400
  Re: Breyers Yogurt DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2011-05-05 15:59 -0400

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