With Lay's potato chips at least, this is not actually a new thing. I've noted for many years that they go through a cycle where they start out at 13 or 14 oz., then drop it by a half-ounce at a time, and sometimes as little as a quarter-ounce, maybe once every year or so, leaving the price the same. It eventually goes down to 10 oz. or so, then the next change is back up to the higher end of the weight range, which is when they finally raise the price "Because look, so much more!"

It has to be at least twenty years since I first noted this cycle. Sneaky, but at least they have put the weight back on every three or four years. Let's hope they plan to continue.

I wish Ivory soap would put the weight back on. I'm not exaggerating when I say that every single time I open one of their reduced-width bars now, which still feels completely wrong a year after they switched, I mutter the uncouth plural of the alimentary canal's southern terminus. I only wish they could hear me.

In Lay's case, it's an odd down and up scheme to sort of mask the eventual price increases, but in the case of Ivory, I think it was the shipping weight they were going after, not the rising costs of production -- I mean, what can a bar cost to manufacture? Not even a dime, I'd wager.