We conclude our two-part series this week about products that have recently been downsized (shrinkflation).
| Brawny Paper Towels |
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Paper towel manufacturers seem to always be reducing the number of paper towels on each roll and sometimes even the dimensions of each sheet. This time, the tear-a-square variety went from 120 sheets on a roll to just 100, but each sheet on the new one is 4/10th of an inch longer.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Maxwell House 100% Columbian Coffee |
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Remember when cans of ground coffee were a full pound? Over the decades, the contents have been continually whittled down to the point where you don’t even have 10 ounces of coffee in them, like this variety that was just downsized. And the big canisters lost almost an ounce and a half.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Gillette Custom Plus 3 |
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Nick B. buys his razor blades at Costco and he sent us this picture showing that their 36 packs of Gillette Custom Plus 3 razors now only have 30 of them — a 17-percent reduction. And the price stayed the same at $31.99.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Kellogg’s Special K Red Berries Cereal |
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Kellogg’s has been busy this year reducing the contents of various of its cereal varieties. This one is particularly surprising because the new box is actually taller than the old box! How is that possible? They made the new box more narrow.
The contents went from 16.9 ounces down to 15.6 — the equivalent of losing one bowl of cereal in every package.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Tom’s of Maine Toothpaste |
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Like so many brands, Tom’s of Maine is shrinking their tubes of toothpaste. This time, the already small 4.7-ounce size went down to just four ounces.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| DiGiorno Rising Crust Pizza |
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Consumers lost almost three ounces of pepperoni pizza in these boxes. At least the new one no longer says “33% more.” Thanks to our ace shrinkflation spotter, Richard G., for finding this.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Mission Carb Balance Whole Wheat Tortillas |
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If you didn’t check the number of Mission tortillas you were getting in the package, you might not have realized the old eight-count pack now only has six tortillas — a 25-percent reduction. Thanks to Devin B. for this submission.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Kellogg’s Raisin Bran Crunch |
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In another downsizing where Kellogg’s has made the new package taller but narrower, almost two ounces was removed from Raisin Bran Crunch boxes, and the price stayed the same. Thanks, Richard G., for spotting this.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Lesser Evil Popcorn |
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Andie S. told us about Lesser Evil popcorn which has been reduced in size by almost 10 percent. The five-ounce bag is now 4.6 ounces. Popcorn kernels are so cheap, it is hard to imagine why any company has to skimp on them.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Green Mount K-Cups |
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Steven C. alerted us to a change in the number of k-cup pods that are in Green Mountain boxes. Their smallest box just went from 12 cups to 10… and the price stayed the same.
*MOUSE PRINT:
If you spot a product that has been recently downsized, please take a picture of the old version and the new version, showing the net weight or net count, and email it to Edgar (at symbol) MousePrint.org . Thanks.
All of this continual downsizing is so infuriating! These companies are gouging us and there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do about it.
Yes, what you can do about it is to shop using unit pricing. That way, scan price and package size don’t matter. It doesn’t take very long to train yourself on what your “buy price” is.
Example: You like to buy cereal for $2.99 for 17 oz box, that’s $2.81/lb (as shown on the shelf edge to the right of the scan price). The $2.81 is the price you know you need to be near to purchase. The manufacturer shrinks the box to 14 oz, but you don’t need to notice that because you see the unit price has increased to $3.41– making it not an attractive purchase for you. And, you didn’t have to pay attention to the scan price or package size.
Think of how you buy gasoline, apples, chicken, etc. —the unit pricing on these makes purchase decisions so easy. Now you can apply that to everything in your cart — no more exhausting examinations to see that they’ve shaved a couple ounces off your can of coffee or whatever.
The biggest issue with this Matt is there is often no unit pricing sale tags for things like “Buy 5 save” and etc. I’ve also found different brands of the exact same product setup with different types of units. Two different brands of soda where one will be price per oz and one will be price per can and etc.
I’ve found myself just drifting towards brands that haven’t shrunk where I can. I’d almost prefer to buy an inferior product that stays the same size.
Blue Bell ice cream would crush me if they ever started to downsize like every other brand of ice cream has at this point. I’m surprised we haven’t seen bread companies downsize the size of a loaf to keep costs the same. Everyone wants to hide inflation.
I haven’t found the missing tags to be “often” at all. However, I sure agree when there are disparities, it is quite annoying.
Luckily, we all have calculators in our pockets to come up with the correct numbers for the infrequent times they’re needed.
More egregious to me than Maxwell House’s shrinkflation is that redesigned logo. I get that you might want a design update after like 100 years of the same old thing, but didn’t anyone notice the new coffee cup is filled to the rim, thus contradicting the same-old slogan “good to the last drop”? And not just filled to the rim, but emitting a single, giant drop of brown sweat like an embarrassed Japanese anime character? I guess this is what we can expect once all design is turned over to AI!
It’s gotten to the point that I think the shrinking is backfiring on them. There is a point at which you look at the amount you’re getting and the price it costs and decide it’s too expensive – no unit pricing memorization necessary. I am sure I’m not the only person that looks at how much is in the box, bag or can before I buy it. The only time people mindlessly ignore those things is if they buy it every week but not everyone is doing that. Sometimes we look at new products or products we only buy every now and then. Or products based on need. I look at the number of tortillas in a bag before I buy them because I may need a certain amount for a recipe or occasion. Then when I compare that with the price it can result in “sticker shock”. I buy store brand tortillas now, BTW. I get more for the price and they’re actually better than the name brand!
You see a lot of this in K-Cups, most brands have gone from 12 surviving to 10.