Ugly shrinkflation deception

[Kitty 34]

Chips are what drive me nuts. I really don't care about the price but just sell me a big bag of chips.

 

[RedAngie]

It seems to be the opposite here. Things that used to be packaged by the pound have been uniformly "shrunken" to 375g or about 14oz. Hamburger, bacon, packaged cheese, coffee - all now 375g. Sugar is sold in 1 or 2kg bags which are weird amounts; 2.2 or 4.4 lbs.

I meant that the ground beef packaged at store level has random weights of 1.25 to 1.4 pounds. “Brand name” hamburger, like Laura’s, usually comes in one pound packs.

Yep, other products packaged at a factory have shrunk in size.

Question: I’ve seen Canadian supermarket ads and have been in several of them. Fresh meat, deli, veggies, and other loose items seem to be sold by the pound, with price per kg or 200 g listed in small print below.

Is this still true? Those pre-packaged bacon, cheese, etc. are sold by metric weight?

 

[ronandannette]

I meant that the ground beef packaged at store level has random weights of 1.25 to 1.4 pounds. “Brand name” hamburger, like Laura’s, usually comes in one pound packs.

Yep, other products packaged at a factory have shrunk in size.

Question: I’ve seen Canadian supermarket ads and have been in several of them. Fresh meat, deli, veggies, and other loose items seem to be sold by the pound, with price per kg or 200 g listed in small print below.

Is this still true? Those pre-packaged bacon, cheese, etc. are sold by metric weight?

The opposite actually. Prices will be advertised by the pound in big print and kg in small print but are actually weighed and sold by the kg, which is what you see on the receipt. They do that sometimes too with fresh meat and at the deli but less often. And some expensive products, like seafood and deli meats are actually advertised by the 100g to keep people from fainting at the idea of them. For example, regular roast beef sliced at the deli is currently $2.70/100g at my grocery store. or about $13/lb.

All pre-packaged goods are labeled in metric. Even imported goods have to be, in order to be sold here.

 

[chickapin parterre]

thank goodness they are not doing that with Mcdonalds....still getting use to BOGO instead of value menu as we travel around the state. but loving the $1.00 drinks still

 

[NotUrsula]

I ran across a new one today; OTC pills. I routinely take a generic version of Mucinex D; it's a standard time-release 12 hour tablet with 60 mg of pseudoephedrine and 600 mg of guiafenesin.

Normally I buy a generic version from CVS. The "large" package used to be 36 pills, and they were kind of large and bit hard to swallow. Today I bought a new pkg and discovered that the box itself is much larger, but the number of pills in it is now 24 ... and get this, while the active ingredient content is still the same in each pill, the pills themselves are now about 20% larger. (These things are now horse pills; much harder to swallow.) The price has gone down by $4 or so, to $22, but there are 33% fewer pills in the package.

 

[Dznypal]

The shrinking of amounts has been going on for a long time. When I was still working a co worker who was a great baker made some bars with a graham cracker crust. They didn’t turn out. She happened to glance at the box to find out it was only 12 oz instead of 16. I also made a sheet cake that calls for a box of powered sugar. As I was mixing it the consistency wasn’t the same. I had to keep adding more and more. Good thing I had a bag of also only to realize the box is now 12 oz instead of 16. Companies shoujd be required to tell you know the package has changed round a lot of receipes otherwise. Customers shouldn’t have to read every detail on every item they buy when the company decides to give you less product for more cash.

 

[Dznypal]

Intention the mucinex tablets. At least they lowered the price while giving you less. Just a few other things were you get less for more. Paper plates and the bathroom Dixie cups. The plates were usually on sale 100 for 0.79. Now it’s about 79 plates for 1.29 on sale. The cups I don’t buy anymore but I know you get less then used to. The list goes on and on

 

[Dznypal]

Oops should have been interesting in my last post

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

The shrinking of amounts has been going on for a long time. When I was still working a co worker who was a great baker made some bars with a graham cracker crust. They didn’t turn out. She happened to glance at the box to find out it was only 12 oz instead of 16. I also made a sheet cake that calls for a box of powered sugar. As I was mixing it the consistency wasn’t the same. I had to keep adding more and more. Good thing I had a bag of also only to realize the box is now 12 oz instead of 16. Companies shoujd be required to tell you know the package has changed round a lot of receipes otherwise. Customers shouldn’t have to read every detail on every item they buy when the company decides to give you less product for more cash.

Or maybe recipes should be written with weights or volumes rather than "one box of" or "one can of" especially for baking which requires precision.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Or maybe recipes should be written with weights or volumes rather than "one box of" or "one can of" especially for baking which requires precision.

I get what you're saying, but it's still inconvenient and wasteful. Whether your recipe said "1 can" or "16 oz." you've still got to buy 2 cans now that they are 14 oz, and 12 oz. are going to waste.

 

[RedAngie]

Or maybe recipes should be written with weights or volumes rather than "one box of" or "one can of" especially for baking which requires precision.

Imprecise recipes usually appear in those church fund-raising cookbooks or similar. They’re from grandma’s time when “a can” of coffee was a full pound, and have never been updated.

And most of the people who contribute such recipes just eyeball things anyway.

(Beer chugging aunt sent in a recipe for paella circa 1975. After seeing it published my father asked how often she made it. “Never. I just copied it from a magazine.)