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Here We Downsize Again 2015 (Part 4)

 
Note: The next new Mouse Print* story will appear on January 4th.


We end the year with our final installment of products that have undergone the shrink ray.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Gillette deodorant

Thanks to our ever vigilant Richard G. for catching Gillette deodorant going from a full four ounces to 3.8. And you still can’t carry it on an airline.


*MOUSE PRINT:

Kleenex Costco

We’ve seen the smaller boxes of Kleenex tissues get smaller over the years, but Albert L. found that they shrunk at Costco as well. In this case, each box in the 10-pack is now shy 30 tissues. Put another way, you are missing more than a whole box now from every 10-pack.


*MOUSE PRINT:

Campbell's Spaghetti

Frankie found and took a wonderful picture of Campbell’s Spaghetti, which went from 14-3/4 ounces to 14.2 ounces. Surprisingly, the can is noticeably smaller despite such a small decrease in contents.


*MOUSE PRINT:

Walmart Great Value nuts

Tim B. discovered that Walmart lopped off more than 12% from their Great Value mixed nuts, bringing cans down to an even pound from 18.25 ounces. The price also went up from a reported $7.98 to $8.84. Combined, that is the equivalent of a 26% price increase, making it not such a “Great Value.”


*MOUSE PRINT:

Soda Stream

Finally, Richard G. found that Soda Stream, which makes flavor concentrates so you can make your own soda, changed their packaging and a lot more. The old bottle made 50 eight-ounce servings of soda and cost $7.99. The new version only makes 29 glasses, but the price dropped by $2. Fair deal? Not at all. The customer is now getting 40% fewer glasses of soda, but the price only went down by 25%.

If you spot a product that has been downsized, send MrConsumer an email at edgar(at symbol)mouseprint.org . And if you can take a sharp photograph of the old and new product labels, that would be great too.

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12 thoughts on “Here We Downsize Again 2015 (Part 4)”

  1. It seems a no brainer that when the amount of product in a container is reduced, and the container size is also reduced, that there was way too much non-functional slack-fill in the container to start.

    Not only is this just sneaky, but in many cases, a violation of federal law.

  2. Since we do have Campbells spaghetti listed as a shrunken product I am also going to THROW out another shrunken product that I somehow missed but have FULL proof it shrunk.

    Sometime around or before September of this year the SpaghettiOs product get shrunk from 15oz down to 14 oz. MY 100% full on proof is the bunch of SpaghettiOs posts on the Facebook page.

  3. Ancient history but I remember when Kleenex had 200 sheets and sold for 17 cents a box! My sister and I would look for sale and fill up our shelves. Seventeen cents!

  4. It only makes sense if a product downsizes that the packaging should downsize an appropriate amount. The last 3 make sense to me and I don’t consider them overly dubious. The first one (Gillette) is the classic terrible case of shrinking 1) same product size 2) “New formula” 3) different coloring. They do everything they can to keep you from noticing that you are getting less.

  5. I noticed the Great Value nuts shrinking but thought it was just another size option offered, not a shrunken box at the same price – This is how they fool people. Nut prices are insane lately so that explains it. I wonder when the Costco nuts will shrink and go up now too.

  6. What raises a red flag is when a manufacturer redesigns the packaging and adds the word “Still” as in “Still 16 ozs”. You know change is forthcoming – it’s just a matter of time.

  7. What gets me about all of this, for a couple of years all they did was blame high oil prices on the reason to raise prices. Oil is now at almost decade low prices but have they reduced the price of so many products?

    I remember they used high gas prices as an excuse for the high price of tomatoes, costs so much to transport them. Well, tomatoes are still very high price considering where they were the last time gas was under $2 a gallon….

  8. Social Security did not implement a Cost Of Living Adjustment for 2016 because “there wasn’t enough inflation” to justify the raise. Reduction in size/amount of a product but remaining at the same price results in a higher cost per unit. It’s difficult for us to stretch our grocery budget to compensate.

  9. For Soda Stream: How does only 60ml reduction create a 21 glass reduction? This seems very disproportionate. Did the glass size, maybe, increase sightly to 12oz? I think there is more at work that just a smaller bottle.

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