Shrinkflation

Drives me nuts. The reduction in size for me often means there's no longer enough to cover 4 people and I have to buy two of something I previously needed only one of. This doubling in cost annoys me so much the brand ends up on my shit list and I'll go out of my way to stop buying it.

They think people don't notice but most of us do. It's instinctive to look at how much food (in volume) there is. I'd rather a small increase in price rather than doubling of my bill.
 
I think the funniest example (if I can use that word) that I noticed has to do with boxes of saltine crackers.

A standard box originally was the size it is because that was the size required to snugly fit four individually-wrapped sleeves of crackers. The box was essentially a thin cardboard wrapper for the four sleeves. They’ve been this size for decades and decades.

Imagine my surprise a while back when I opened a new box and…the sleeves of crackers were only about 75% as long/tall as they used to be - same size box, much smaller/shorter sleeves of crackers inside.
 
TastyReuben said:
I think the funniest example (if I can use that word) that I noticed has to do with boxes of saltine crackers.

A standard box originally was the size it is because that was the size required to snugly fit four individually-wrapped sleeves of crackers. The box was essentially a thin cardboard wrapper for the four sleeves. They’ve been this size for decades and decades.

Imagine my surprise a while back when I opened a new box and…the sleeves of crackers were only about 75% as long/tall as they used to be - same size box, much smaller/shorter sleeves of crackers inside.
Click to expand...

our market(s) stock the old style "big" plus the smallers plus a 'mini-box' of just two (short) sleeves.
personally I like the 'smaller' four pack - the ordinal size longer sleeves seem to stale before we eat the full qty in the sleeve . . .
 
Tin of sweetcorn was the last one I noticed a few weeks ago. I rarely buy it so I'm sure they'd reduced the size in stages but to me the can was so small I spent ages looking for the 'normal size' tin. Nope the little tin in my hand is the large tin now.
Unfortunately it was for tuna sweetcorn jacket potatoes and the tuna tins have also shrunk and incredible amount, and to top if off the baking potatoes are all tiny.

In one shop it went from being cheap easy filling food to an expensive irritation!
 
badjak said:
I am sure they are putting less tea in the teabags...
Now I need 2 per cup.
And loose tea is not an option as it is as fine as the stuff in the bags and comes out of my tea egg
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I've found that with my current loose tea supply I have to give the tea egg a few shakes before immersion or just eat the bottom of the cup and call it fiber... 😆
 
This happened in Sweden about 6 years ago to coffee. I don't remember what it was, but something increased the price of coffe.
And of the 6 most popular brands 4 lowered their weight from 500g to 450g. But they could also then lower their price then the 2 competitors. But only by like 5kr. So it was 56kr for 500g and 51kr for 450g.
And it worked. Since people don't look at comparative price or weight.
 
ZenPandaChef said:
This happened in Sweden about 6 years ago to coffee. I don't remember what it was, but something increased the price of coffe.
And of the 6 most popular brands 4 lowered their weight from 500g to 450g. But they could also then lower their price then the 2 competitors. But only by like 5kr. So it was 56kr for 500g and 51kr for 450g.
And it worked. Since people don't look at comparative price or weight.
Click to expand...
I'm the guy figuring unit cost per each, mass, volume, etc. 🧐
 
Barriehie said:
I'm the guy figuring unit cost per each, mass, volume, etc. 🧐
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They usually have the unit price on the sticker at most grocery stores, and I do check that, and I had to laugh about one recent purchase.

Both MrsT and I love prunes, so I was buying a lot of their standard-sized bags, maybe 16oz or something.

Then one day, I noticed they were carrying a new, giant 32oz bag, with a big red label on it that declared, “NEW FAMILY-SIZE VALUE BAG!!!” - so I began buying that, because one sure-and-true rule is, the bigger quantity you buy of something, the cheaper per unit it is.

After buying a few of these, I happened to glance at the unit prices for the two items and was surprised to find the big “VALUE BAG!!!” was something like a whopping 3 cents more per ounce than the small bag!

Well played, Big Prune, well played… :laugh:
 
TastyReuben said:
They usually have the unit price on the sticker at most grocery stores, and I do check that, and I had to laugh about one recent purchase.

Both MrsT and I love prunes, so I was buying a lot of their standard-sized bags, maybe 16oz or something.

Then one day, I noticed they were carrying a new, giant 32oz bag, with a big red label on it that declared, “NEW FAMILY-SIZE VALUE BAG!!!” - so I began buying that, because one sure-and-true rule is, the bigger quantity you buy of something, the cheaper per unit it is.

After buying a few of these, I happened to glance at the unit prices for the two items and was surprised to find the big “VALUE BAG!!!” was something like a whopping 3 cents more per ounce than the small bag!

Well played, Big Prune, well played… :laugh:
Click to expand...
Advertising exec. grinning the first quarter...
 
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