A minor shopping rant – “Shrinkage”
To the store manager, shrinkage refers to loss of inventory due to theft. To the consumer, it’s the reduction in product size over the years. I love Friendly’s Ice Cream. Some flavors more than others, of course, with pistachio being my favorite.
But when it’s not available Cookie Dough is a close second. For most of my life the standard container was 1/2 gallon, otherwise known as 2 quarts. I didn’t notice when the change happened, all I know is that when I took a third serving, the fourth one didn’t look like much, and it was then that I noticed the container had gone down to 56 oz, 7/8 the half gallon volume. More recently, it’s down to 1.5 quarts as you see above. “Same great taste, now with 25% less ice cream per container!” Great slogan, no?
It’s not just ice cream, pasta is shrinking too. A number of brands of pasta have introduced whole grain wheat as a healthy alternative choice. Instead of a bit of a premium in cost, the package has the same shelf price, but instead of 16 oz they’ve dropped to 13.25 or 12oz depending on the brand. I’d prefer to see a one pound package stay at one pound, just charge me a bit more. For some recipes, the odd size package means opening another box to get the pound I’m looking to cook.
Last, coffee. I never thought I’d reminisce about cans of coffee. When I was a young boy, coffee came in one pound cans. Do you even know what a small can of coffee weighs? 11 oz, 12 oz? It’s all over the place depending on the brand. My Maxwell House that I buy at Costco is 42.5 oz. That’s 2.66 lbs. It’s $9.49 last I checked, a reasonable $3.57 per pound, but still the oddest size container I’ve seen in a while.
When you shop and are comparing one brand to another or one size to another, be aware, the standard sizes are gone. I can’t even tell you how much a can of tuna weights. That’s it. My rant is over, thanks for listening. If I’m not the only one, tell me, what product shrinkage bothers you most?
I thought I was the only one who noticed. I picked up the world’s smallest box of cereal this month and paid $3.99 for it. Special K just keeps getting smaller and smaller.
Ha! Cereal! I suppose 16oz should be the standard size, but I know it’s come in many. many sizes for a long time now. When you think about it, they do have an excuse – a pound of a puffed cereal will have a much higher volume than a dense, granola-type cereal. So the boxes would be different sizes. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
If you’re at Costco, move away from the Maxwell House and try the Kirkland. The can is a REAL 3 pounds (48 ounces) and costs about $10 per can – That’s $3.33 per pound. Where possible, I always try to stick with honest providers. If you’re going to raise prices by 10%, tell me – don’t try to sneak one by.
PS – Costco is the BEST provider of hearing aids.
Since my kids are now adults, I haven’t gone to McDonalds for years. However, last week I had a hankering for some chicken mcnuggets and ordered the Happy Meal.
The serving of french fries in it was like miniature! It was so miniature, it was almost cute!
Just yesterday I went to Costco, and my favorite cereal “Honey Bunches of Oats” in the 2 pack had shrunk also. Hard to say if I rather have smaller servings at the same price, or the same size servings at a higher price if something had to give.