Cream skimming is a pejorative conceptual metaphor used to refer to the perceived business practice of a company providing a product or a service to only the high-value or low-cost customers of that product or service, while disregarding clients that are less profitable for the company.
A cream separator, which uses manual centrifugal force to separate cream from milk.
The term derives from the practice of extracting cream from fresh milk at a dairy, in which a separator draws off the cream (which is lighter, and floats) from fresh or raw milk. The cream has now been "skimmed" or captured separately from the fresh milk.
The idea behind the concept of cream skimming in business is that the "cream" – high value or low-cost customers, who are more profitable to serve – would be captured by some suppliers (typically by charging less than the previous higher prices, but still making a profit), leaving the more expensive or harder to service customers without the desired product or service at all or "dumping" them on some default provider, who is left with less of the higher value customers who, in some cases, would have provided extra revenue to subsidize or reduce the cost to service the higher-cost customers, and the loss of the higher value customers might actually require the default provider to have to raise prices to cover the lost revenue, thus making things worse.
Whether or not the perceived negative effects of cream skimming actually do occur – or only occur in limited circumstances – is a matter of judgment and debate.
Creamskimming is a pejorative conceptual metaphor used to refer to the perceived business practice of a company providing a product or a service to only...
Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is...
of customer desire in the market. The skimming strategy gets its name from skimming successive layers of "cream", or customer segments, off the top of...
cream (or thick coconut milk) with the highest amount of fat; coconut milk (or thin coconut milk) with a maximum of around 20% fat; and coconut skim milk...
Ghee is typically prepared by simmering butter, which is churned from cream, skimming any impurities from the surface, then pouring and retaining the clear...
to make "cream of tartar whey": "Put a pint of blue milk [skim milk] over the fire, when it begins to boil, put in two tea spoonfuls of cream of tartar...
Clotted cream (Cornish: dehen molys, sometimes called scalded, clouted, Devonshire or Cornish cream) is a thick cream made by heating full-cream cow's milk...
Baileys Irish Cream is an Irish cream liqueur made of cream, cocoa and Irish whiskey emulsified together with vegetable oil. Baileys is made by Diageo...
the tint would be greatly reduced. As the pigment is carried in the cream, skimming the milk, which some farmers did to make butter or to sell it separately...
fat content and less sour taste. Traditionally, sour cream was made by letting cream that was skimmed off the top of milk ferment at a moderate temperature...
Creole cream cheese is a form of farmer cheese that is traditional in the New Orleans area of Louisiana in the United States. It is made from skim milk...
the cost difference between public and private schools comes from "creamskimming", whereby the private schools select only those students who belong...
reduced cream products. Typical ingredients are skimmed milk, cream, and thickener 401 (sodium alginate). It is offered as a low-fat alternative to cream, with...
Whipped cream is heavy, double, or other high-fat dairy cream that is whipped by a whisk or mixer until it is light and fluffy and holds its shape. Cream aerated...
milk. It must contain less than 34% water and at least 38% milkfat. Cream, skim milk and/or dry milk and water can be added or removed to create the...
the like), binders (can include egg) and liquids (such as water, milk, cream, skim milk, buttermilk, brine, vinegar, etc.). The product must be fully cooked...
Dairy Dessert may now include up to forty ingredients: milk, skim milk, sugar, corn syrup, cream, maltodextrin, whey, cellulose gel, mono & diglycerides,...
type of product produced, including cream, butter, cheese, infant formula, and yogurt. Milk varies in fat content. Skim milk is milk with zero fat, while...
Education, which concluded that "French immersion programmes operate as a 'cream-skimming' phenomenon ... [that] allows white, middle class parents to access...
made with whole or skimmed milk and cream. It is a semi-fluid, creamy, viscous paste. Pure fromage blanc is virtually fat free, but cream is frequently added...
fresh cheeses is the addition of a "dressing" to the curd grains, usually cream, which is mainly responsible for the taste of the product. Cottage cheese...
cheese is made with unpasteurized cows' milk that is semi-skimmed through a natural creaming process.[clarification needed] To preserve the authenticity...
immediately cooling it. Types of pasteurized milk include full cream, reduced fat, skim milk, calcium enriched, flavored, and UHT. The standard high temperature...
CFR. Archived from the original on 2022-05-21. Retrieved 2022-01-22. "Skimming the Milk Label". FDA. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved...
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