The Great Top Ramen Conspiracy?
Posted by Greg Bulmash in Cooking & Recipes, tags: budget cooking, food, noodles
Nissin's Top Ramen noodles have kept many a college student alive and kicking when they ran out of money before they ran out of month. At 380 calories per package, this mix of flour, fat, spices, and preservatives provides an inexpensive source of bulk calories that will keep your heart beating, your brain operating, and get you through until the next check comes and you can afford things like meat and produce.
The thing that gets me is that they seem to be the same price now as when I was in college 20+ years ago. How can they keep their price this low for this long?
With the country in an economic downturn of historic levels, I've been checking the supermarket circulars for bargains lately instead of chucking them in the recycle bin. Today I noticed that Albertsons had a special on 6-packs of Top Ramen at $1 each, which is equal to Costco's everyday price on Top Ramen (48 packs for $7.99 at the time of writing). That comes out to 16.7 cents per pack of ramen. I seem to remember Top Ramen being 22 cents a pack in the late 1980s, going on special for 10-15 cents a pack at the local grocery store.
Nothing holds the line on price like that. According to the USDA (see report here), the price of flour has gone up 50-100% in just the last 4 years. According to the Food Timeline, the per-ounce price of Oreos is up 182% between 1986 and 2008. But the per-pack price of Top Ramen remains in the same general range I seem to recall from the 80s. How is this possible?
If you look at a 25-pound bag of calrose rice from Costco at $15.75, at 150 calories per 42 grams pre-cooked weight, it comes out to about 25.7 calories per penny. The Top Ramen comes out to 22.8 calories per penny. On a straight calorie-to-calorie comparison, the Top Ramen is only 12.8% more expensive than plain white rice and comes with a flavoring packet. The rice doesn't. Add on the cost of some bullion or some soy sauce for flavoring the rice and the per-calorie cost comes out about even.
Now, since I cannot find (at this time) historical pricing information on Top Ramen, maybe I should use some of the free time I've got and go check microfiched copies of the Seattle Times food section from the 80s to see if I can find an ad with Top Ramen being advertised; get some evidence of this conspiracy. No company can just be so efficient that they can keep their prices this low for this long. Somewhere there has to be an international cartel keeping Top Ramen prices artificially low. But for what reason? What is their evil plan?
If you have proof, or can contribute to my conspiracy theory, please post your thoughts below.
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Well, I actually have noticed over the last couple years, that Top Ramen has changed somewhat... The noodles used to be VERY crisp in their pre-cooked state. Now, they're more "hard" than "crisp". I'm not sure what the change is, but since eating it raw is one of my guilty pleasures (plus, less sodium that way!) I certainly noticed it. The cooked noodles still seem to be the same consistency, but something has changed in the dry product.
I also suspect that the package and noodlebrick have shrunk a little since the '80s...
When you find out, let me know, I'll be heading to college in the fall.
Two words….."Soylent Green"! O.o
Top Ramen is people! They're making our noodles out of people!
Funny. But it's not that the noodle they are making are the same price, it's that the noodles you are buying are the same ones they made in 1980. They had one production run and are still working their way through the first batch. I mean that's got to be it, have you seen the packaging on this stuff - it's so 80s.
If you take a course on financial accounting, you'll learn exactly how to read the statements that you will find at this website because it's a publicly traded company (based in Japan, but their website does provide an English version of their earnings statements), you can view such things as operating expenses, capital expenditures, etc.
The key ratio I've noticed is, "net profit margin" which has lowered in the past year. So basically, the costs of food has hit them a little bit, but they have always been charging enough to give themselves a nice cushion (which is a good idea for any company). So as to how they could charge the same price of noodles over 30 years, it's because they have probably continually reduced operating expenses (more efficient machines, laid off redundant positions and stream-lined things, all which the technological revolution has had tremendous effect with something called, "Supply-Chain Management" which involves using the Internet and databases of computers to minimize the usage of storage (which costs money to rent obviously) and minimizes transit time while maximizing effectiveness in terms of reaching the seller as quickly as possible) . Also, fluctuations in the trading value of the Yen versus the Dollar have probably had an effect as well.
Hope that clears things up