Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.os.linux.advocacy > #21100

Re: Breyers Yogurt

Show all headers | View raw

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.

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.

> 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?

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.

-- 
K.                           | "Linux hackers are on a mission
http://slated.org            |  from God" ~ The Vatican
Fedora 8 (Werewolf) on šky   | 
kernel 2.6.31.5, up 78 days  | http://tinyurl.com/linuxmission

Back to comp.os.linux.advocacy | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

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

csiph-web