Off-Topic Friday: Those Are NOT Double Stuff

We had a family crisis last weekend. A Red-Alert-level crisis.

We were on our first solo family camping trip in the Waterloo State Recreation Area out past Chelsea. First time camping without a big group like the cub scouts. Aside from forgetting my trusty Swiss Army knife and a lighter for my cigars we did pretty well with the packing.

We had great weather – the lake temp was perfect and it had a sandy bottom that only got to about six feet deep fifty yards out.

And the kids were excited (or maybe it was the sugar) because they know that camping trips mean junk food – and lots of it – because it’s easy to transport and doesn’t need to be in the cooler.

All was going along fine until after dinner on the first night (and BTW – this was the LAST time that I’m cooking all the meals over the fire. It may sound all quaint and fun but I must have burned my hand five times).

Then my wife brought out the treats. Double Stuff Oreos. That’s when the trouble began.

Because as soon as she opened the package and we unscrewed our first cookies it was obvious that these were NOT double stuff. Not even close. Maybe a tad more than single stuff. But definitely not double.

Now if these were your simple run-of-the mill boring faceless cookies and something seemed amiss, I would have probably just chalked it up to a perception problem. But not this time.

Why? Double Stuff Oreos were introduced in 1975. And since then, my family has been dedicated to becoming experts in the field. (The fact that we were married in 1991 is irrelevant). And I estimate that in total our family has a combined level of experience in this area is 75 years. THAT’S credibility I’d say.

And our more that 75 years of combined experience told us that these were NOT double stuff.

We checked and double checked the package. The package CLEARLY said that it contained Double Stuff Oreos. This was validated independently by each of our four very interested elementary school age kids.

And the consensus was unanimous – the package said they were, but the visual inspection and taste test said otherwise.

Another victim of the economic times that we live in.

So what was going on here?

De-contenting of course. That’s a fancy shmancy automotive industry term that roughly translates into “what can we remove from the content of the product and still be able to charge the same price for it”.

Have you ever tried to explain “de-contenting” to elementary school kids?

So thanks again Federal Reserve. Your monkeying around with the economy caused inflation which caused the price of “Stuff” to skyrocket which caused Nabisco to de-content Double Stuff Oreos which disappointed my kids last weekend.

Just stay away from Santa and the Easter Bunny. Nobody needs your “help” there.