People may be more price conscious but I think they are still put off by shrinking sizes. When one piece of string cheese is somehow less satisfying you may not even consciously correlate it with the smaller size of the product but you still may feel that it wasn't satisfying. Same goes with hot dogs. You might be more inclined next time to seek out a heftier dog just based on its bigger size. For every person they think they might put off by raising prices I'm sure they're putting off at least as many based on shrinking sizes. I'd bet my PhD in Psychology on that one!

Also, when you start to feel like you're buying more and more of a product it can cause an aversion to wanting to buy it again so soon. Again, you may not even realize consciously that it's due to a reduction in product size but even so you might still find other ways around buying it so often. I've found myself using less of a product in an attempt to stretch it out longer or making sure to use every last drop instead of throwing it out with a half an inch in the bottom of the jar. Or buying certain things only if I have a coupon or it's on a great sale.