Downsizing / Shrinkflation

Here are products that have shrunken in size as a sneaky way for manufacturers to pass on a hidden price increase.

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Here We Shrink Again – Winter 2026 – Part 1

We kick off the new year with some more products that were downsized over the past six months or so. Shrinkflation is alive and well and will continue in 2026.

Viva Paper Towels

Like other brands of paper towels, Viva shortened their rolls last year, going from 94 sheets on the old double rolls to just 86 sheets. Thanks to Richard G. for this submission.

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Viva 94-86

Mary’s Gone Crackers

Gregg Z. was very unhappy to see that his favorite crackers that he has been eating for 17 years was hit by shrinkflation. It survived in its original size until the current owner recently reduced the contents by over 25%.

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Mary's Gone Crackers

Atkins Protein Bars

Ace product investigator Richard G. found another shrinking product. This time it is Atkins protein bars that seem to have gone on a diet. The old five pack is now a four pack. Now if only losing 20% of your own weight was that simple…

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Atkins protein bars

Charmin Mega Rolls

Continuing its downward trend, Charmin Ultra Soft mega size packages dropped 16 sheets from each roll, going from 224 sheets to just 208. Thanks to Brendan B. and Richard G. for this find.

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Charmin ultra soft

Finish Ultimate Dishwashing Pods

At a visit to Target, MrConsumer did a double-take when he saw identical size boxes of Finish dishwashing detergents but one had 76 pods and the other just 62. And the larger package was cheaper!

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Finish dishwashing pods

Scotts Turf Builder

Shrinkflation is not limited to grocery products. Christopher D. discovered that fall weed and feed fertilizer from Scotts made a major change to his product. The bags decreased by three pounds making it only cover 4,000 square feet instead of the old 5,000 square feet. He also noticed that the percentage of nitrogen decreased. Even with all these decreases, the price did not go down at his store.

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Scotts Turfbuilder

If you find a product that has recently been downsized, please take a picture of the old and new version side-by-side if possible and send it to: Edgar(at symbol)MousePrint.org . Thanks.

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Tide Drops Ounces, But Number of Loads and the Dosing Caps Remain Unchanged

Tide has once again downsized some its bottles of detergent. The venerable 100-ounce bottle of original Tide that was reduced to 92 ounces in 2014, and then to 84 ounces last year, now has just gone down again to 80 oz.

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Tide 84 oz to 80 oz

But miracles of miracles, it still provides enough detergent for 64 laundry loads, they say. Some water was probably removed.

We also discovered last week that the dosing cap fill lines seem to have remained the same on both the new and old bottles.

Tide caps

MrConsumer immediately thought “those sneaks” at P&G are tricking people into using more detergent than is necessary given the new formulation which should allow you to use less. One of our readers, Mitch M., also discovered the cap issue, but figured out what the company actually did.

In the tiniest type on the back label of the bottles, enlarged below, P&G changed the dosing instructions.

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Tide dosing instructions

Rather than redesign a new cap, they just changed those unreadable instructions to use a certain amount less than the actual lines on the bottle. The old bottle, for example, said for medium and large loads to fill the cap to just below the line, and the new bottle says to fill it 80-percent of the way up the line. Amazingly, both the old and the new bottles had inaccurate fill lines on them.

How crazy is that? So we asked P&G why they didn’t update the cap with accurate fill lines each time they downsized Tide. The company did not respond.

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Here We Shrink Again – Fall 2025 – Part 2

We wrap up our downsizing series this week with more products that have been affected by shrinkflation.

Ziploc Sandwich Bags

The kids will have 10 fewer sandwiches from these boxes of Ziploc bags which have gone from 280 to 270.

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Ziploc sandwich bags

Bounty Mega Rolls

Like toilet paper, paper towel manufacturers continually downsize their products. In this case, Bounty’s super big mega rolls went from 180 sheets on a roll to 164. Interestingly, the Bounty website has begun to have a number of recent complaints citing a significant reduction in the quality of their paper towels. Thanks to Brendan B. for this submission.

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Bounty Mega Rolls

Viva Paper Towels

P&G is not the only paper towel maker reducing the number of sheets on its roll. Kimberly Clark has axed a dozen sheets off their triple roll packs of Viva. They are now down to 121 sheets. Thanks to Richard G. for spotting this.

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Viva Paper Towels

Cascade Platinum Plus

Those big tubs of dishwashing pods are as big as ever, but the number of pods inside always seems to be changing. Cascade Platinum Plus now has 47 inside the old 52-pack size. The “new and improved” ones have kept that smaller number, at least for the moment.

Cascade Platinum Plus

SeaPak Shrimp

The old one-pound package of SeaPak Popcorn Shrimp lost two ounces, and is now down to 14 ounces.

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SeaPak popcorn shrimp

Little Debbie Cupcakes

You used to get eight chocolate cupcakes in a box from Little Debbie, but now a quarter of them are gone, says Richard G.

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Little Debbie cupcakes

Kellogg’s Raisin Bran

Some breakfast cereal makers seem to be making certain size packages for certain stores. For example, we are seeing some smaller sizes only available at drugstores or dollar stores. A case in point is Kellogg’s Raisin Bran. The 14.5 oz. version can be found at Dollar General for example, but not at most supermarkets. The 16.1 size and the 16.6 size seem to be at some stores and not others. And Walmart’s website has both of them at the same price. So, you have to check the net weight to know what you are really getting.

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Kellogg's Raisin Bran

If you find a product that has recently been downsized, please take a picture of the old and new version side-by-side if possible and send it to: Edgar(at symbol)MousePrint.org . Thanks.