Since the New York Times story about shrinkflation, we have gotten many more tips than usual about products downsizing. So, here is another round of them.
| Green Giant Frozen Vegetables |
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Mark H. reported to us that in late summer he noticed various varieties of Green Giant frozen vegetables had downsized from 10 ounces to only eight, yet they still claimed two (skimpy) servings. Sure enough, most of their varieties are now only eight ounces.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Duke’s Mayonnaise |
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Historically, mayonnaise came in quart-size jars, but in 2006, Hellmann’s introduced the 30-ounce size to replace that. And almost everyone else followed suit sooner or later. Not Duke’s. It refused to downsize and trumpeted that fact on their label noting that it was still 32 ounces. But Duke’s acknowledged on their website that last September that jar was now 30 ounces. Of course, the new jars are not labeled “now 30 ounces.” Thanks to Whit W., Richard G., and Steve E. for submitting this change.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Goodman’s Macaroons |
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Just in time for Passover 2023, the traditional 10-ounce can of Goodman’s macaroons has morphed into a nine-ounce bag. A customer service rep for the company confirmed the product has been reduced by 10-percent. Other brands still come in the familiar 10-ounce size but are moving to bags also.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Pepperidge Farm Cookies |
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Several varieties of Pepperidge Farm cookies have been reduced in size repeatedly over the years. Thanks to Joan D. and James M. for raising this issue. Here is one such change where Milano cookies went from 6.25 ounces to just six.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Dove Body Wash |
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Unilever seems to be nickel and diming customers with repeated reductions in the size of their Dove body wash. In this case, it has gone from 24 ounces to 22 ounces to now just 20 ounces. And reader Joyce M. lamented over a year ago, that so much lotion sticks to the inside of the 22-ounce Dove container, that she cut one open and has gotten two extra weeks of use just from the residual lotion.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Werther’s Original Hard Caramels |
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Candy is one of the categories of products often subject to shrinkflation. Darnell K. wrote to us about Werther’s hard candy resenting their product shrinkage and saying the practice is just plain shady. Here, their large size went from 34 ounces down to 30 ounces. It is unclear when the change occurred but likely it was a while ago.
*MOUSE PRINT:
If you spot a product that has been recently downsized, please take a sharp picture of the old product and new product side-by-side (old on the left) with the net weight or net count showing. You can email it to Edgar (at symbol) ConsumerWorld.org . Thanks!
Some of this is getting to the point where it almost can’t be downsized anymore. Pretty soon we’re going to end up with shampoo that looks like cereal where they come out with a “family size” and slowly shrink that down to the regular size before coming out with a new family size that’s large again.
Those Pepperidge Farm cookies get downsized so often it’s amazing they haven’t found a way to downsize the package after you paid for it or started to eat them.
This is truly disgusting…because most of the time the downsizing comes with an increased price. I prefer companies just do like Coca Cola and raise the price! Leave our sizes alone!
Raising prices is what I prefer but pet owners have really been hit hard with price increases at the grocery store since the start of the pandemic.
Sheer corporate greed.
They know the little low-income guy is hurting and this is what they choose to do. They have shareholders, don’t they? Gotta keep the bottom line booming. Can’t offer a helping hand to those who can no longer afford their products. Or, those who refuse to bow to these greedy thieves.
Don’t give them your money. When they realize their profits are suffering because we will no longer be bullied by them, see how fast the price drops, coupons are forthcoming and sizes are upped.
Lots of mentions of downsizing— are we to just assume the scan price is remaining the same? Is that why it’s newsworthy?
More helpful would be the pricing associated for each size. Has the unit price increased? Not too concerned with size amounts, as my pocketbook makes the purchase decision. Size and scan price never matter; always comes down to unit pricing.
Matt… as a general rule, when a product has downsized, the price remains unchanged or even rises sometimes. It would make no sense for a manufacturer to go through all the retooling and repackaging expenses just to lower the price of the item proportionately. In most cases, it is almost impossible to find both the old item and the new one side-by-side on a store’s shelf at the same time to check whether they scan the same price. Whenever I have had the good fortune to find them together, they are priced identically. For example, the Turkey Hill ice cream examples from January going from 48 oz. to 46 were priced identically. Our consumer who found the Werther’s example above said it had gone up in price.
It all depends on what you buy at the store.
Stuff like Mayo and pet food have only gone up in price without much of a change in size.
This is one of the rare times though a size cut has occurred to Mayo.
I brought the Werthers example to Edgar’s attention. Fortunately for my dentist, I am a regular Werthers buyer and have been for years. When the size went down four ounces a few months ago, the price did not go down. It remained the same for an additional few months, but as of last weekend, the price rose TWO DOLLARS per bag! Not pennies, but two dollars for four ounces less! I, too, wish companies would just raise the prices. Doing it this shady way makes me think they consider us to be too stupid or unobservant to even notice. I’m neither and I won’t be buying Werthers any longer. Darnell
You didn’t say whether or not you contacted the company about this. But if you haven’t, you should & tell them exactly what you said here.
This isn’t a package shrink but the product. I hadn’t bought Oreos in a long time, at least not the regular ones, and saw someone mention on reddit that their package had Oreos rattling around in it. Anyway, I was curious so I bought some, the so-called “double stuffed” ones, which I rarely bought previously because I liked the cream:cookie ratio of the original.
Well. Not only is the cookie itself smaller, but the cream filling of the “double” one is now like the old original. That pretty much ensures I’ll never buy them again, just based on principle.
It’s gotten to the point with the frozen vegetables that I buy them only at Aldi, Trader Joe’s, Costco or Walmart Great Value brand. Most of the time these days they’re just as good and come in realistically sized packaging, plus the price is a LOT lower. I look at the unit pricing. I got taken in by a sale price on frozen vegetables with Birdseye recently and didn’t get enough to feed my husband and I who are both on 1200 calorie per day diets right now, so you can’t blame high expectations. That’s just unacceptable. When I was a kid back in the ’60s one of their smaller bags or boxes fed a family of 3 with no problem. Now you barely get one. What a disgrace.
Another stealth way these companies downsize is the following: Have you noticed that the pour hole in salad dressings have become larger, as well as the Log Cabin syrup hole? There can be only one reason for this – the larger hole tends to make you use more of the product so that you empty the product sooner, resulting in making more purchases of the product. I’m not falling for it.
I often wonder if it is really money-saving when the production line has to be changed to put less in the package and the packaging has to be changed to conceal that there is less in the package (while at the same time the print on the package has to be altered as to the true package contents). Seems like a lot of work to downsize! I’d rather just see the price go up a bit, than to get less for my money . . . and then see the price go up anyway!
One thing your not taking into consideration is the smaller package itself cost less for the company, smaller container cost less smaller box to ship and more boxes fit in same load to ship so less pallets and less shrink wrap. change package design is nothing.. few minutes on computer got to look at whole picture. they save a lot not just on product itself.