The latest products to downsize have keep the same old package, but decided to put less product inside.

P&G has just downsized its largest containers of Cascade dishwasher detergent ActionPacs.

*MOUSE PRINT:

In surprisingly large print, the company decreased the number of loads you get from each container from 110 to 105. The trouble is that most consumers have not memorized the number of loads that each size container of Cascade provides, so they are not likely to recognize they are now getting less for the same price.

Also downsizing but keeping the package the same is Mrs. Freshley’s.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Here, instead of getting 12 Buddy Bars in each box (six packages of two), you now get only eight (four packages of two) — a decrease of one-third! Most people, including MrConsumer would not have noticed this because the boxes are the exact same size. Mrs. Freshley’s indicated that in fact they make both eight bar and 12 bar products, but that it is the retailer who decides which to carry. In this case, it was Dollar Tree which apparently decided it could make more money selling the eight pack for a dollar.

Thanks to Cathy B. for spotting the Mrs. Freshley’s change. She also notes that Mrs. Freshley’s Swiss Rolls are being cut similarly, but the box is smaller.

If you have ever watched “Extreme Couponing” on TV, you know that shoppers on the program demonstrate how they received hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of merchandise for only a few dollars (if that) by using coupons. They will buy dozens of the same item, using dozens of identical high value coupons (often doubled in value by the store) to accomplish this feat.

Now some manufacturers and retailers are fighting back. Look what P&G is now printing on its manufacturers coupons.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Here the manufacturer is imposing a limit of four identical coupons that can be used when buying the same product. But now some retailers are getting in on the action too.

*MOUSE PRINT:

“Rite Aid may accept up to 4 identical coupons for the same number of qualifying items as long as there is sufficient stock to satisfy other customers within the store manager’s sole discretion.” – Rite Aid Coupon Acceptance Policy, May 2011

“You may double a maximum of 4 identical manufacturers’ coupons. For example: if a customer purchased five boxes of Cheerios and presented 5 manufacturers’ coupons for 50¢, the first four coupons would be doubled to $1. The fifth coupon would only be redeemed for 50¢. Up to an additional 12 identical manufacturers’ coupons/items will be redeemed at face value for a total of 16 identical manufacturers’ coupons.” — Stop & Shop and Giant coupon acceptance policy.

If these practices are actually enforced, and other companies jump on the bandwagon, extreme couponing may become a thing of the past.

Since Mouse Print* began in 2006, we have featured product after product that has been downsized. Manufacturers remove an ounce here and there, and for paper products, they shave off fractions of an inch in width or length, or reduce the number of sheets provided.

Now comes Ken’s Steak House salad dressing. Looking at the picture on the left, the bottle on the left appears bigger than the one on the right, and one might conclude that they too have just downsized. Surprise, the opposite is true.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Ken’s actually added an ounce of dressing to their traditional eight ounce bottle when they made the switch from glass to plastic bottles. This was a deliberate move by this family-run company to buck the downsizing trend.

Too bad they missed the opportunity to tout the fact on the bottle that they are now giving the consumer more at the same old price. (They had limited space, and couldn’t figure out how to best communicate that fact according to a spokesperson for the company.) In the comments below, feel free to offer your suggestions.

Motts, the apple juice people, have been running a feel good commercial for their Motts for Tots product claiming their product has 40% less sugar than regular apple juice.

Did they come up with some revolutionary scientific discovery to remove sugar from apple juice?

*MOUSE PRINT:

Nope. It was a very natural solution. They diluted it with water. A lot of water. And if parents just grab the product without reading the label carefully, they may think they are doing a good thing for their kids when they are probably not.

*MOUSE PRINT:

The nutrition label suggests it might be diluted with about 46% water (in addition to the water necessary to dilute the apple juice concentrate). They did add a shot of vitamin C, however, to make the product more nutritious.

So since you are now buying a product that is almost half water, they’ve undoubtedly cut the price, right? Nope. A half gallon of their diluted product is the same price as 100% pure apple juice.

Motts is not alone is selling a watered-down product and touting the benefit of less sugar and calories. Tropicana has been promoting its “Trop50″ product that way for the past several years.

Last week a commercial for a new product Whonu? cookies began airing nationally. It basically contends that its cookies are a healthy choice for consumers.

On their website, but a little less so in the commercial, the company makes an array of nutrition claims comparing itself not only to oatmeal and milk, but also to the vitamins in blueberries, spinach, carrot juice, tomato juice, cottage cheese, and fruit:

*MOUSE PRINT: Those little asterisks lead to a fine print disclosure on the website, and a similar one in the TV commercial, which is visible for only three seconds:

So, you have to eat three cookies to get the nutrition they claim. However, when looking at the nutrition label for their Oreo-like cookies, one discovers that it contains only three grams of fiber, not four, as one would find in a serving of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats. And all the other vitamins and minerals are mostly in the 10% range (with a few up to 30%) of one’s daily requirement.

The bigger problem in our view is not quibbling over the claims referring to one cookie or three cookies, or the amount of fiber. Rather, it would be an unfortunate result to have people think they could eat these cookies as a substitute for all the healthy foods they compared them to, which obviously, as a whole, provide much more nutrition than these vitamin-spiked snacks.