Netflix has angered customers with its decision to raise prices by as much as 60 percent.

Smart companies know that every action has a reaction. That’s why they tread carefully when considering raising prices.

A couple of recent price-increase announcements caused a lot of angst around the country.

First Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. Latest from The Business Journals Empty Moffett Park building fills up with two tenantsSoul Daddy failure costs Chipotle .4MInvolvement in TV show costly to Chipotle Follow this company said it was planning a “moderate” price increase, then Netflix Inc. Netflix Inc. Latest from The Business Journals Netflix down 10 percent as rate hike dims outlookNetflix down 10% as rate hike dims outlookNetflix drops 10% as rate hike dims outlook Follow this company said a couple of weeks ago that it was going to boost its prices by about 60 percent.

Both Chipotle and Netflix are revered in my home, but my family and I reacted to their price hikes differently.

While we’re not thrilled that Chipotle (NYSE: CMG) is bumping the price of a burrito, an extra 35-40 cents per person isn’t going to keep us away from the family favorite. Plus, we can understand the increase — we read that ingredient costs are going up, so it’s not unreasonable that those costs get passed to the consumer.

But Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) is a different story. Just last night I went to the Netflix site and picked a new, lower-priced plan. Netflix will earn less money from my family in the future.

For years we had a plan that gave us unlimited streaming while allowing us to have one DVD at a time. That cost us $9.99 a month. A good value.

But Netflix is raising the price of that plan to $15.98 a month — the 60 percent boost they were talking about. And there’s no obvious change on expenses: Postage rates didn’t rise; the studios aren’t charging Netflix more for rights. It’s a flat, out-of-the-blue price hike.

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