EVERY food product is shrinking!!!

[DisneyAndRedSox]

My dad works in the grocery industry- as a buyer and as a broker... he is constantly getting new UPC's when the items change size. Trust me, when they take out 10%, an item is not going down in price 10%.

There are only 3 of us in my house and we can plow through a box of cereal or container of ice cream in no time b/c they are getting smaller and smaller. I can't imagine what it is like for a big family!

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

tons and tons are products are changing their size, but not their price.

I purchased a box of cake mix, only to realize when I started the recipe it called for an 18ox box of cake mix and I had purchased a 15oz box.

Tricky Tricky, when I went back to the store, I had to scour the shelfs to find an 18ox box, almost all boxes in all brands were 15oz now.

 

[Handbag Lady]

I can make my own ice cream and only from reading this thread realized I haven't made any this year!

I have a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer and for Christmas several years ago, I got the ice cream attachment. You just have to plan what flavor you want two days in advance. Since we love vanilla bean, this is what I usually go with...only when I make my own, I can contol how much vanilla bean goes into it, yum!

 

[LilyWDW]

According to current marketing theory, it is believed that more people will stop buying a product if they see a price increase at the same size then would if they see the size decrease at the same price. For some reason, most people react more to seeing the prices change then the size change.

Obviously, some people notice it, but I bet far more don't or just don't care.

 

[Golf4food]

But don't trust the box, either. Just because it says 4 servings doesn't make it true. We have a food scale that we use to measure servings (prevents over-eating and helps accurately track calories, etc.) You would be surprised the number of pacakages of food that say "Serving size 3 oz - servings per container 5" but when we measure out our first two 3 oz servings all we have left is one or 1.5 more servings, not 3 more (so you actually get around 10 oz instead of the advertised 15 oz according to the servings. Meats, vegetables, crackers, cookies - you name it they are all lying to us and assuming they can get away with it because so few people actually check.

So do youself a favor and spend the $15 to get a food scale for your kitchen and use it - and then contact those companies and complain. (You'll also lose some weight as your stop giving yourself portions that are bigger than they should be...)

 

[cluvsdisney]

My latest gripe is canned bumble bee tuna fish. It used to come in 7oz cans, then 6oz, now it's down to 5oz and costs $1.99-2.19 per can depending on the store.

 

[Colleen27]

I can make my own ice cream and only from reading this thread realized I haven't made any this year!

I have a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer and for Christmas several years ago, I got the ice cream attachment. You just have to plan what flavor you want two days in advance. Since we love vanilla bean, this is what I usually go with...only when I make my own, I can contol how much vanilla bean goes into it, yum!

Is it really easy enough to do often? I've been debating a Kitchen-aid since my bread maker died and being able to do ice cream with it too might just be the thing that sells me on it. That's one thing I just am not happy with when it comes to grocery store choices; I don't purchase anything made with HFCS and that limits us to very few flavor/brand options for ice cream!

 

[AntePrincess]

There's a whole website devoted to tracking shrinking package size and deceitful marketing: http://www.mouseprint.org/ (Sadly, does not refer to Mickey.)

I like to buy large bags of dry kidney beans. I soak them overnight, and then cook them in water till they are soft. I check them every half hour or so. When they are cooked, I drain them, and put them in freezer bags. I put about 1 1/2 cups in each bag. I freeze them, and then when a recipe calls for a can of kidney beans, I pull a can out of the freezer. They are just as good as the canned beans, and quite a bit cheaper, without the preservatives that canned beans have. I use them in bean salad, chili, soup or where ever kidney beans are needed.

Why did I never think of that?? Boy do I wish I had more freezer space now.

As government "prints" more money, what you can purchase with the dollar goes down. So instead of seeing prices skyrocket the manufacturer provide a smaller quantity of product for the same price.

We have stagflation for many more reasons than how much money is being printed.

Globally oil is pegged to the dollar, all other countries must exchange their currency into dollars before they can purchase oil. Russia and China and pushing on OPEC to accept their currencies directly for oil exchange. Once that happens watch out!

We use oil for so many things, it impacts every aspect of what you purchase at the grocery store. How far does you food travel before it gets to you?

I think we are approaching a time when it will be cheaper to purchase more locally grown / sourced food products.

Like all of these, also we're having record droughts and crop failures almost every season for the last few years. I remember when I couldn't get canned pumpkin for love or money and all the strawberries and tomatoes molded.

I just made a dessert over the weekend that called for graham crackers. I used to have an entire sleeve of crackers left after making the dessert. Now I have 4 whole crackers left! I've been aware of the "shrinkage" for some time, but it really is getting ridiculous. I do not buy a lot of processed food and try to use fresh ingredients whenever possible. It's easier in the spring and summer, not so easy in the winter.

I have the same problem, mostly from laziness. When I'm not feeling lazy, I make homemade Graham Crackers (http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/05/graham-crackers/) with maple. They're my youngest's favorite cookie.

My latest gripe is canned bumble bee tuna fish. It used to come in 7oz cans, then 6oz, now it's down to 5oz and costs $1.99-2.19 per can depending on the store.

Fish populations are collapsing all over, I'm not surprised the price has gone up. We check the Monterey Bay Aquarium safe fish guide, which also keeps track of whether or not a specific fish is being overfished. These days we buy a lot of sustainably farmed tilapia.

Is it really easy enough to do often? I've been debating a Kitchen-aid since my bread maker died and being able to do ice cream with it too might just be the thing that sells me on it. That's one thing I just am not happy with when it comes to grocery store choices; I don't purchase anything made with HFCS and that limits us to very few flavor/brand options for ice cream!

It's very easy to do, we make almost all of our ice cream at home with the Kitchen-Aid mixer and a custard base.

 

[Handbag Lady]

Is it really easy enough to do often? I've been debating a Kitchen-aid since my bread maker died and being able to do ice cream with it too might just be the thing that sells me on it. That's one thing I just am not happy with when it comes to grocery store choices; I don't purchase anything made with HFCS and that limits us to very few flavor/brand options for ice cream!

Yes.

All you need to do is plan a day ahead. It is so easy, even I can do it! You clean and rinse the attachment and stick that in the freezer. The attachment comes with ice cream recipes, mostly egg, sugar, cream, flavor (I use real vanilla bean) but you can add fresh strawberries or any berry or chocolate). You mix them up per the recipe, then freeze or refridgerate it (depending on the recipe) then the next day, you pour the now really cold mix into the attachment, attach the attachment to the mixer and blend until it makes ice cream.

The "working" time is about 10 minutes but it can take a day for the attachment to freeze which takes most of the time.

My biggest problem is that I need to make sure I have room in my freezer as we have a smaller one.

 

[billdob62]

What bugs me is the way Wal-Mart does pricing. First they will raise their prices...a little while later they will have a big sign near the product exclaiming that they have ...Rolled Back Prices. But if you keep track, you will see it is still more then when they started. Irritates me.

 

[DisneyPolve]

I noticed the decrease in product sizes around 2009. However, we are leaning more and more to totally homemade and organic. I even make my own salad dressing, via Pioneer woman, best tasting ranch EVER!!! There are some things I buy like ketchup, but organic minus high fructose corn syrup. Strange thing is this past weekend we were at BJ's and I was picking up organic Heinz 57 ketchup, two bottles 128 oz for $6.99....right next to it was Heinz 57 ketchup, two bottles 128 oz for $6.99. Person after person picked up the less healthier option, they were the same price for same amount. I was dumbfounded But made me think we are creatures of habit as the other shoppers weren't even looking at the bottles, just grabbing what they normally buy. That's how these companies get away with it!

 

[AntePrincess]

What bugs me is the way Wal-Mart does pricing. First they will raise their prices...a little while later they will have a big sign near the product exclaiming that they have ...Rolled Back Prices. But if you keep track, you will see it is still more then when they started. Irritates me.

It's also not necessarily cheaper than anywhere else, every consumer report on the subject has demonstrated it's not so great a deal. They have a consistent habit of opening a new store, running it as a loss leader until their competition is gone, and jacking their prices when you, the consumer, have no options nearby left.

 

[kwdw]

I am really sick of sizes shrinking on products. Really - just charge me more. Really, it's okay. I have alot of old family recipes - that called for a "can of" a particular product. I'm now purposefully writing down the sizes I can remember so the next generation can continue to make the recipes!

But the size of ice cream and spaghetti sauce are just miserable now. Consumers aren't that dumb. I understand the whole mentality of not wanting to pay for for something because it seems mentally wrong - but the huge increased in the frequency of size changes and the larger number of products it's happening on has also caught the attention of customers.

 

[DisneyRunner2009]

I've noticed smaller packaging for ice cream, mayo and Frito-Lay products. I'm not paying $4 for a nine ounce bag of chips, especially when I can go to Aldi and get a bag for $1.19. I won't/can't do it!

 

[Ginny Favers]

Companies are not only saving money by giving you less food, they're saving by giving you less packaging. It is now impossible to pull a sleeve of cookies out of the package (and then get it back in) because they've made it SO TIGHT.

 

[maccuul]

The one that drives me absolutely crazy is the 4lb bag of sugar (Down from 5lbs).
We have started buying the 10lb bags instead but its only a matter of time before they shrink too.

 

[matt98378]

I saw last week that instead of 2 liters, soda is coming in 1.5 L bottles for the same price as 2 L. I don't know how long that's been going on because I rarely purchase soda, and I wouldn't have seen that if I hadn't been at the store with DH.

The newest thing we saw was last weekend -- instead of a 20 oz coke (the size by the checkout lanes), it was only 16.9 oz.

For a couple years now, we have also noticed that what used to be a 24 pack of soda is now more commonly a 20 pack.

I'm still irritated about my brownies -- they cut the size back and so now they are really thin unless I want to change the pan size.

Hmmm... looking at this post, maybe I need to get a better diet....

 

[ctinct]

I love how they try to hide the size reductions. I bought a box of elbows this weekend to make macaroni salad for a crowd. The box was the same size it's always been, but when I cooked them, I noticed it made a much smaller amount. It was 12 oz. instead of 16 oz.

I remember when oj went from 64 oz. to 59 oz., one of the brands said "new, more convenient size."

Toilet paper is not as wide, the waffles in my box of Eggos are thinner, a "pound" of coffe is constantly shrinking, etc., etc.

I've changed some of my buying habits because of the size decreases, but some stuff I can't do much about, like the toilet paper. It's depressing to go grocery shopping, and it scares me to think of my kids trying to raise families. A box of the new size Cheez-Its would have been enough for one or two snacks for my son as a teenager.

 

[Alesia]

Is it really easy enough to do often? I've been debating a Kitchen-aid since my bread maker died and being able to do ice cream with it too might just be the thing that sells me on it. That's one thing I just am not happy with when it comes to grocery store choices; I don't purchase anything made with HFCS and that limits us to very few flavor/brand options for ice cream!

Ice cream is really easy to make. In the last 2 weeks I've made buttermilk ice cream, cheesecake ice cream, grapefruit sorbet, coconut ice cream, and pineapple sherbet. Don't plan on saving any money by making your own, though - it ends up being quite a bit more expensive than buying it at the store.

 

[Colleen27]

Ice cream is really easy to make. In the last 2 weeks I've made buttermilk ice cream, cheesecake ice cream, grapefruit sorbet, coconut ice cream, and pineapple sherbet. Don't plan on saving any money by making your own, though - it ends up being quite a bit more expensive than buying it at the store.

Hmmm, give me a frame of reference for "more expensive" - around here the brands I buy are $5.99 for 1.5 qt and seldom on sale. More expensive than that, or more expensive than the $3 store brand that is loaded with ingredients I can't pronounce?