It may be a new year, but companies are still up to their old tricks of making products smaller in order to pass on sneaky price increases to shoppers (“shrinkflation”).
| Turkey Hill Ice Cream |
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This is a big one. The major brands of ice cream last did a major downsizing 15 years ago when Breyers, Edy’s and others took a full cup out of their 56-ounce containers and made them 48 ounces. Now Turkey Hill is dropping two additional ounces making their containers 46 ounces.
*MOUSE PRINT:
But instead of clearly marking the containers with the new number of ounces, they chose to only use the odd number 1.44 quarts. We asked the company’s PR firm three times about that, why they are making this change, and whether they think the industry will follow suit. We did not get a response. A call to their consumer relations department did provide some insight. The representative said because of the high cost of some ingredients a decision was made to make the containers a little smaller rather than to tinker with the recipe. Thanks to Sam L., Jim, and Steve K. for also catching the change.
| Crisco Vegetable Oil |
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Oil has come in predictable-size containers for decades like 24 oz. 32 oz., 48 oz., etc. Now Crisco is breaking away from the mold taking out a full cup of oil from each bottle, but on the shelf you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference.
*MOUSE PRINT:
So, only if you turn the bottles sideways would the new slimmer bottle become evident. And they cleverly put the number of ounces on the side of the bottle so you can’t see if from the front. We can only wonder if Wesson and other brands will soon follow suit. Thanks to Mike K. and Jack K. for pointing out this change, and to Janet M. for the profile picture.
| Aldi Green Beans |
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Store brands are not immune from shrinkflation. Here is an example of canned green beans from Aldi. Each can was reduced by half an ounce. Remember when canned veggies were a standard 16 ounces?
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Sabra Guacamole |
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Chris J. sent in this tip about Sabra Guacamole going from a standard eight-ounce container down to just seven ounces. He said the package size looks the same size, but the new container has a resealable lid.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Stella Artois Beer |
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Bottles of Stella Artois, a Belgium beer, have been 11.2 ounces for several years instead of the more typical 12 ounces for American beers. Their cans appear to be following suit, but many websites still show pictures of the old 12-ounce size. It is unclear when this change took place. Anheuser-Busch did not answer our inquiries.
*MOUSE PRINT:
| Colgate Total |
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Colgate Total Deep Clean paste has downsized from 5.1 ounces to 4.8 ounces. We did not find old and new boxes in stores side-by-side, but typically these days box sizes tend to exaggerate the actual contents.
*MOUSE PRINT:
If you find a product that has been hit by shrinkflation, please take a side-by-side picture of the old and the new product, with the net weights showing and email them to Edgar (at symbol) ConsumerWorld.org . Thanks.
