Retail

Updated every Monday!   Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

Fruit Roll-ups: Their “Strawberry” is Really…

Decades ago, General Mills introduced us to Fruit Roll-ups, a supposedly healthy snack “made with real fruit.” Indeed, below is a picture of an older box of strawberry Fruit Roll-ups, with the claims that it is “made from real fruit” and that it is “naturally flavored.”

Well, it seems that at least one consumer actually read the ingredients statement and was surprised by what she found.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Annie Lam was shocked to find that the strawberry snack she bought not only had no strawberries in it, it was actually made with pears, and a bunch of other additives and chemicals. And unlike most consumers who would shrug off this afront, she filed a class action lawsuit against the company.

General Mills asked that the suit be dismissed, but the judge ruled last week that it could go forward because:

“Reasonable consumers might be misled by packaging that claimed the snacks are ‘made with real fruit,’ and would not read the fine print.” — U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti

Updated every Monday!   Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

Scott’s Tube-Free Toilet Paper Trick

In the never ending ways that toilet paper manufacturers have found to downsize their products, Kimberly Clark, the maker of Scott Tissue, came up with a new one.

Lauren B., a regular Mouse Print* reader, says she tried Scott’s new tube-free Naturals toilet paper and her whole family swears there is less on each roll.

A quick look at the packages of Naturals with tubes and Naturals without tubes reveals they both have 440 sheets per roll, the sheets are 4.2-inches by 4.0-inches on both, and both packages contain a total of 205.2 square feet of paper. It turns out that Lauren mistakenly thought that all Scott toilet paper had 1000 sheets, irrespective of the variety being sold. But her inquiry raised the question of whether the only difference in the case of Scott Naturals was that one had a tube and one did not.

As it turns out, a little secret was hiding in the fine print.

*MOUSE PRINT:

The tube-free version is only one-ply, and tube version is two. That difference would also suggest that you might have to use more sheets of the single-ply version than the two-ply one.

Updated every Monday!   Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

Unexpected Rebate Twists

More and more manufacturers and retailers are finding ways to save money on rebates.

Example 1:

Menards, a home improvement chain, is offering an 11%* rebate on everything:

That asterisk after the 11% goes to their fine print disclosure:

*MOUSE PRINT:

“Rebate is in the form of merchandise credit check.”

As Nadine B. told Mouse Print* when she saw their ad, “the fine print says that it’s not cash, as most of us expect with a ‘mail-in rebate.’ It is for merchandise credit, meaning it can only be used for future purchases at Menards.”

While this type of rebate is common at office supply stores like Staples that send out reward checks good only toward future purchases at the store, it is rare to see it in this type of store.


Example 2:

To encourge people to try Grain Berry products, the company is making a buy one, get one free offer via rebate, with a twist.

*MOUSE PRINT:

You’ve got to include the envelope and postage to get your free coupon.