The Incredible Shrinking Packaging

[shamijy]

Our local news did a special piece tonight on how some companies are shrinking the size of their products instead of increasing their prices, due to their costs/expenses going up. They state that they see a decline in sales when they increase their prices, so they figure it will be better to just reduce the amt of product were getting because we probably wont notice. The examples they provided were...

Dial Soap - was 4.5 oz - now 4 oz
Breyers Ice Cream - was 1.75 Q - now 1.5 Q
Frito Lay - was 11 oz - now 10 oz or 9.75 oz
Bounty removed 8 sheets from each roll
Dannon Yogurt - was 6 oz - now 4 oz
Country Crock Butter - was 48 oz - now 45 oz

The also noted that the change to packaging, if any, is so minute that we wont notice that there's less product. Just wanted to share this with everyone, we gonna have to really keep our eyes sharp.

[FlaminGOgirl]

Interesting that they noted that they thought that consumers would not notice the change in packaging. DH & I both noticed the huge size change on the Breyers Ice Cream, & that's saying something when DH notices this.

[phlack]

Originally Posted by shamijy Country Crock Butter - was 48 oz - now 45 oz

Didn't notice this on the last trip, but then again, it wasn't me that made the trip. I'll stick with the Walmart brand...I'll assume that's still 48oz.

-Mike

[CouponSAHM]

I have found lately that if it's on clearance or a great sale it's getting ready for a size reduction!! Diapers come to mind lately. The companies are right most people don't even notice! But then again most people don't have 2 million coupons threatening to takeover the house!! LOL

[I'mASaver]

Here's one for ya. There's way too many pages in this thread for me to read at the moment so if this was mentioned before I apologize but...and I'm going to give my age away here...I'm 42...but when I was a young teenager, about 13 or so, my grandmother used Dove bars on her face. I specifically remember the packaging (a wrapping at the time, not the box like today) saying "1/4 Moisturizing Cream". About 12 years or so ago I noticed the word "cream" had been replaced with "lotion" on the Dove bars. Shortly after that I noticed they had shrunk in size, along with the size of a can of soup. I notified my family of those observances. We all thought it was an interesting concept at the time and assumed it would probably be the wave of the future.

Several years later I became friends with an older lady who was a true corn farmer from the mid-west. She told me the way to "save" soap was to allow it to harden. Take it out of the package and let it air-dry for a week or so. To this day I still take my bars of Dove soap out of their box and let them dry in a decorative glass dish in the bathroom. I have no idea if this actually works but it's a habit I've become accustomed to and lends a nice smell to my bathroom. Now Dove is selling bars and liquid with Cream Oil. I"d be very curious to know how the formula of today compares to the formula of "yerster-year", and what the comparison between the sizing and pricing would be.:shrug7:

[MamaBird06]

Originally Posted by jessalee3 I just got some Edy's this morning and noticed how tiny it was. I have one 1.75 in my freezer that I bought about a month ago, but all the ones in the store are now 1.5!

Yes! I did the target deal free ice cream wyb 3 12 packs of pop and noticed they were smaller. At first i just thought it was a target thing, but then i got to thinking about this thread and realized it probably wasn't target after all, but everywhere. I had been buying belfonte the past couple of months since those were the coupons i had, so i guess the change happened recently.

[MamaBird06]

Originally Posted by greenfrog57 The news recently reposrted that Kroger will be marketing 3/4 gal of milk. UGH!

I don't know, I kind of like this idea, aside from the fact that the US produces way to much milk for consumers to consume, alot of people don't drink a gallon of milk in the time it takes to spoil. We are one of those families. Ds actually doesn't like cow's milk that much and prefers soy over it, but i will buy it to make fresh cheese curd or in a pinch when soymilk is not on sale and cows milk is cheaper. Just as long as they keep the other sizes i won't have a problem w/ 3/4 a gallon milk.

[wannabefree]

My bugaboo is Dunkin Donuts coffee....used to be 16 oz now 12 for more money. (still bigger bag at the store but we don't have them in Al.)

[derketchup]

Originally Posted by MamaBird06 I don't know, I kind of like this idea, aside from the fact that the US produces way to much milk for consumers to consume, alot of people don't drink a gallon of milk in the time it takes to spoil. We are one of those families. Ds actually doesn't like cow's milk that much and prefers soy over it, but i will buy it to make fresh cheese curd or in a pinch when soymilk is not on sale and cows milk is cheaper. Just as long as they keep the other sizes i won't have a problem w/ 3/4 a gallon milk.

I stick with the half-half gallons (aka quarts)

[gr8Idea]

Originally Posted by CouponSAHM I have found lately that if it's on clearance or a great sale it's getting ready for a size reduction!! Diapers come to mind lately. The companies are right most people don't even notice! But then again most people don't have 2 million coupons threatening to takeover the house!! LOL

Yup - the great deals on the free Kraft cheese up to $4 and the $3 off Planter's nuts deal is apparently all about this.

I can't believe I didn't even notice while pulling them off the shelves, but when the U-Scan voice was calling out two different prices for each of these two items, I realized:

$3.89 for a 16 oz Planter's dry roasted peanuts, and
$3.79 for a 12 oz Planter's dry roasted peanuts!!!

- and then -

$5.79 for a 16 oz pkg of Kraft select singles, and
$4.19 for a 12 oz pkg of Kraft select singles!!!

Although the unit pricing on the cheese has actually gone down, the unit price on the peanuts has gone from .24/oz to .32/oz - that's a 33% increase!

I knew this "fantastic promotion" was too good...

What really burns me, though, is the waste of all the packaging. To eat the quantity of two old pkgs, you'd now have to buy three (with a little left over) and that's just more trash!