Shrinkflation

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron

I'm actually in favor of this - instead of raising prices, reduce the size. Even families buying in bulk have waste, especially with perishables. Restaurant portions could definitely be smaller. I'd rather pay $10 for a burger and handful of fries where I'll eat the whole thing, than pay $12 and throw some of it away. To me that's like taking two $1 bills and throwing them right in the trash.
 

Sneakers

Just sneakin' around....
There is some merit to that, but I wouldn't encourage it. Otherwise you mask the real inflation.
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
I'd be just as happy with an entree that came WITHOUT fries or sides, although eliminating them probably won't shave the cost down.
Most of the time I never eat all the fries.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
well if you a throwing away food, that is YOUR choice, not everyone is irresponsible
 

BOP

Well-Known Member

I'm actually in favor of this - instead of raising prices, reduce the size. Even families buying in bulk have waste, especially with perishables. Restaurant portions could definitely be smaller. I'd rather pay $10 for a burger and handful of fries where I'll eat the whole thing, than pay $12 and throw some of it away. To me that's like taking two $1 bills and throwing them right in the trash.
Somehow, this is racist.

We need some scientists to study this, dammit! :cds:
 

Hijinx

Well-Known Member
Well my wife and I went to Outback the other day, and we both ordered the same thing. I ate all of mine and she got a doggy bag and ate the rest of hers today for lunch. We don't toss food away. We eat leftovers until they are gone. Tonight we had the left over roast from yesterdays meal with the kids. Too much corn or beans or peas in the can .It's saved for soup. A person living off a trash can would starve at my house.
 

22AcaciaAve

Well-Known Member
This is not a new phenomenon related to the current economy. This has been a trick going on for years. Rather than raise prices companies cut back portions to pass along their higher production costs to the consumer. The hope is that the consumer will not notice. I first noticed it quite some time ago when I bought a couple of boxes of Hamburger Helper on sale. I still had a box of one of them from the last sale. I noticed the newer box was thinner than the older one and then saw that it was one ounce less.

Since then I have notice a lot of things which have shrunk in size. Tuna cans, hair products, boxes of rice/noodles, even Ice cream.

The problem with that strategy is you can only use it for so long. It's not like you can reduce a product an infinite amount of time.
 

herb749

Well-Known Member
This is not a new phenomenon related to the current economy. This has been a trick going on for years. Rather than raise prices companies cut back portions to pass along their higher production costs to the consumer. The hope is that the consumer will not notice. I first noticed it quite some time ago when I bought a couple of boxes of Hamburger Helper on sale. I still had a box of one of them from the last sale. I noticed the newer box was thinner than the older one and then saw that it was one ounce less.

Since then I have notice a lot of things which have shrunk in size. Tuna cans, hair products, boxes of rice/noodles, even Ice cream.

The problem with that strategy is you can only use it for so long. It's not like you can reduce a product an infinite amount of time.

Yeah ice cream has been shrinking for sometime. That long ago half gallon. Snack foods have also shrunk in size from a 10 oz bag to 7.75 oz over the years.
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
My Dad showed me this when I was a kid. Examples were things like coffee and spaghetti sauce, where a standard container might be 32 oz. Change the shape of the can or put less in it, and market it at the same price but sell 28 oz, and then 23, which is what it was last time I made any effort to check.

Bacon is often sold by the pound. CHECK next time - same size package but now it's 14 or even 12 oz. Back before there were calculators and shelves showed you price per pound, ounce or whatever - my Dad carried a scratch pad and did the math at the store and recorded the values.

With cereal, the current trend is to make the boxes thinner from front to back. You think you're buying the same thing, but it has a LOT less cereal.
 

BOP

Well-Known Member
My Dad showed me this when I was a kid. Examples were things like coffee and spaghetti sauce, where a standard container might be 32 oz. Change the shape of the can or put less in it, and market it at the same price but sell 28 oz, and then 23, which is what it was last time I made any effort to check.

Bacon is often sold by the pound. CHECK next time - same size package but now it's 14 or even 12 oz. Back before there were calculators and shelves showed you price per pound, ounce or whatever - my Dad carried a scratch pad and did the math at the store and recorded the values.

With cereal, the current trend is to make the boxes thinner from front to back. You think you're buying the same thing, but it has a LOT less cereal.
I don't remember all the details, plus there was math involved (which explains my mental block), but this was an argument when I was growing up about how screwed we would be if we converted to the metric system; how they could charge us the same, or more, but we'd get less product, since metric sizes were smaller than imperial - or whatever the hell system it is we use.
 

22AcaciaAve

Well-Known Member
They will shrink it down as far as they can and then they will come up with the regular size advertised as the Giant size and give you an ounce free.

That's a really good point, and one I had not considered. No doubt it has been considered by manufacturers. Shrink down the product to it's limit, then offer a Giant or family size at the original size but charge more. The consumer will most likely migrate back to the family size at a higher price because that's what they are used to. After that, phase out the regular size, drop the Giant size name and sell the product at the increased price. Now you have a product that can be shrunk all over again. You can continue to repeat this cycle indefinitely.
 
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