Supermarkets often price staples like milk and eggs very competitively, counting on consumers to use those prices as a benchmark for judging the prices of the supermarket as a whole. On the manufacturer side, companies will respond to increasing costs by increasing prices or even decreasing the quantity or quality of their goods by amounts small enough to escape the notice of most consumers. Supermarkets also use "discounts" to make it seem like items are much greater of a bargain than they actually are.