Shrinking food dollar

[Lalakai]

I've been seeing an interesting and somewhat distrubing trend in the food manufactors. Instead of increasing the price of a product, they are decreasing the size/weight of the food in the container while keeping the price the same.

Smokie Links had been 10oz pkgs and are now 8.4 oz
tuna fish had been 6 oz cans and are now 5 oz
pringles had been 5.7 oz and are now 5.3 oz

those are just a few examples that I can remember. Technically they haven't raised their prices but it sure counts as a price increase. Anyone else have example?? LOL I bet the dairy folks are crying as there really isn't a way of reducing the size of a gallon so they are forced to go the old fashion way and raise their prices.

 

[TXHokie]

The skinny cereal boxes are getting ridiculous. It can barely stand up now. I'd walk by the table and the draft would knock it down.

 

[Ns1]

See: grocery shrink ray

I opened a Reese's mini peanut butter cup for the first time in years and was appalled by how small it got.

 

[Svnla]

Don't forget about the smaller size/portion in: cookies, soda bottle, juice, potato chips, and so on.

 

[SheHateMe]

I went to the store the other day and saw a box of Fruity Pebbles....it was $5.50 for the box and it only had like 8 servings in it. Ridiculous. The box was so skinny.

Oh yea...and the 8 servings is contingent upon you only eating like 1/2 cup of cereal or something.

Who only eats 1/2 cup of Fruity Pebbles in one sitting?

Anyway, I settled on a box of Peanut Butter Captain Crunch for the same damn price but the box was MUCH bigger.

 

[lxskllr]

Yea, it's bullshit. That's one of my biggest piss offs in life. They must think people are idiots. It's a sneaky way of raising prices, and patently dishonest.

 

[SunnyD]

See: grocery shrink ray

I opened a Reese's mini peanut butter cup for the first time in years and was appalled by how small it got.

Let's not forget things like this:

YAY! Let's pay more for AIR!!!

 

[LTC8K6]

This trend goes way back. I would say 15 years at least.

The reductions people are noticing now are the second wave.

 

[Vdubchaos]

How many of you own stocks in Food companies?

:biggrin:

How about this. Make a list of companies that do this and don't support them!!! FOREVER

Hope that others do it and we hit them where it hurts, their profits.

I know, not gonna happen.

They will continue to do whatever the hell they want.

 

[Red Squirrel]

This is true with lot of products sadly.

The best is when they try to upsell it. "Now with more bubbles!!!" Yeah, that just means there's less of the actual product.

 

[lxskllr]

How about this. Make a list of companies that do this and don't support them!!! FOREVER

Hope that others do it and we hit them where it hurts, their profits.

I know, not gonna happen.

They will continue to do whatever the hell they want.

I do it as much as possible, but it's tough anymore, and sometimes impossible. The last canned coffee that came in a 1# can was Luzianne, and I haven't even seen that in a long time.

 

[Saint Nick]

How many of you own stocks in Food companies?

:biggrin:

How about this. Make a list of companies that do this and don't support them!!! FOREVER

Hope that others do it and we hit them where it hurts, their profits.

I know, not gonna happen.

They will continue to do whatever the hell they want.

I sure as hell don't let them. I grow what I need during the seasons that permit, and supplement by buying from other farmers in the area. However I still do need to rely on the store for other products such as fresh meat, milk, cheese, and eggs. I do not typically buy bagged goods.

 

[ElFenix]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4RNb3tt0LM

 

[SunnyD]

Oh, the other irritating thing is when content gets smaller, yet the packaging gets bigger.

 

[mmntech]

My favourites are yoghurt and toilet paper. I remember the big containers of yoghurt we used to get as kids. They hold two of the little mini ones they have now. Double rolls of toilet paper I remember being as large as a single roll some 20 years ago. There's also those ridiculous mini cans of pop they sell. Only 100 calories! Meat is another common one. Grocery stores sells streaks that are razor thin now. Cook up like shoe leather.

Fortunately most of the grocery shrink products are junk food. Can't really reduce the size of fruits and veggies.

 

[dabuddha]

I went to the store the other day and saw a box of Fruity Pebbles....it was $5.50 for the box and it only had like 8 servings in it. Ridiculous. The box was so skinny.

Oh yea...and the 8 servings is contingent upon you only eating like 1/2 cup of cereal or something.

Who only eats 1/2 cup of Fruity Pebbles in one sitting?

Anyway, I settled on a box of Peanut Butter Captain Crunch for the same damn price but the box was MUCH bigger.

You've always seemed like a Fruity Pebbles kind of guy!

 

[Saint Nick]

You've always seemed like a Fruity Pebbles kind of guy!

LooooooL:biggrin:

 

[GoPackGo]

Anything packaged has seen sizes shrink while prices still go up. Prices on per pound items have skyrocketed.

 

[dabuddha]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4RNb3tt0LM

hahahaha the ending was awesome!

 

[nehalem256]

American's are too fat. Smaller packages encourage healthy eating

 

[SunnyD]

Smaller packages encourage healthy eating

TWSS.

 

[sixone]

American's are too fat. Smaller packages encourage healthy eating

No, they don't. They encourage us to buy two.

 

[TwiceOver]

I think it is going both ways. Higher prices and smaller portions.

I remember I used to joke that you can't get out of Wal-Mart without spending at least $100. Now we are lucky to walk out without spending $200.

Per week. Family of 3.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I remember a couple years ago Tropicana started filling their standard half-gallon cartons of orange juice with 59 oz (instead of 64 oz). Didn't take long before Florida's Natural followed suit. And of course they did a similar think with their larger sizes as well:

And when I was in the baby food aisle one day, I saw they were selling boxes of rice and oat flour. Decent sized box, about the same size as a 1 lb box of Cream of Wheat. Picked the thing up and it must have been half full at most, and saw that the package was only 8 oz. And every single brand had the same size box with the same 8 oz half-full amount. Good thing we make all of our own baby food but wow.

It's one thing to shrink packaging. I don't like it very much either. But they're now just underfilling everything in the same size packaging so you have to be even more careful and look at the weight. Of course by shrinking the packaging gradually, few people notice that either.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Who only eats 1/2 cup of Fruity Pebbles in one sitting?

The 8 year old children it is meant for? What adult eats Fruity Pebbles or any other breakfast candy?

Anyway, I settled on a box of Peanut Butter Captain Crunch for the same damn price but the box was MUCH bigger.

And contained the same amount of food.