Walked across the parking lot to the store today to pick up some lunch (forgot my sandwich at home, facepunch!) and got some extra groceries while I was there. On the list were quick oats, as part of
Mr. Money Mustache’s Amazing Save $100 on Cereal Per Year Trick (the single most-awesome thing I've learned from the MMM blog!)
There are two store brand options for sale: "Meijer Quick Oats", and "Meijer Naturals Quick Oats".
WTF? How can "natural" quick oats be any different than "unnatural" quick oats? Looking at the ingredients, they can't. Both obviously have a single ingredient, though, ironically, on the "Naturals" carton they were labeled "100% Whole Grain Rolled Oats", while on the "unnatural" carton they were "100%
Natural Whole Grain Rolled Oats" (emphasis added.) ???
Oh, wait, but of course there is one major difference, the "Meijer Naturals" cost
40% more!! ($3.49 vs. $2.49 for 42oz)
I've always known that slapping a fancy label on sunglasses or jeans or a car could trick idiots into spending way more than they would without that fancy label, but now that this is happening in the world of oats (and
store-brand oats no less!) I think our level of consumer brainwashed idiocy has reached its nadir and we can only go back up from here. Right?