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 Downsize Again – Part 1 (2012)

In the never ending cycle of products periodically shrinking inconspicuously in size rather than directly going up in price, we found some doozies.

Paper towels often are downsized, and Bounty is no exception:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Bounty Select-a-Size went from 121 sheets on a roll down to 111. But, the new package seems to say that you are getting 33% more sheets. How in the world is that possible?

*MOUSE PRINT:

The fine print says the comparison is not with the prior version of this product as you would expect, but rather with a “regular” roll, whatever that size really is. If you think about, it is outrageous that P&G would put a 33% more sheets claim on a package that was actually just downsized in the number of sheets.

Last fall, peanut butter prices went through the roof. What got less publicity was the fact that nuts themselves went up in price too. In the case of Planters nuts, consumers experienced both a direct price increase as well as a downsizing.

*MOUSE PRINT:

As always, manufacturers never call your attention to the fact that they have downsized the product, so you have to become net-weight-conscious in order to catch them playing this sneaky game.

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Glad Bags Downsized

Being aware that Mouse Print* regularly reports on downsized products, 12-year old reader Jared G. wrote to us having spotted large boxes of Glad Bags that no longer had as many bags as previously.

MrConsumer asked him to go back to the store, and to act as our special correspondent on the scene, and show us what he found.

Here is Jared’s report…

*MOUSE PRINT:

Wow, wow, wow. What a smart kid! I asked Jared how he came to know about consumer things, and what his views were on spending money. It turns out he learned to be a good shopper from his mother, who homeschools him.

“Regarding consumery things, my mother taught me about pricing and labels, scams, deals, and other shopping paraphernalia, at about eight years old. My money opinions are simple. Your expenses should always be lower or equal to your income.”

Is this a budding consumer advocate or the next Suze Orman (minus the debit card), or what?

Back to Glad bags. MrConsumer took a trip to BJ’s and it revealed that this was not the only Glad product that had been downsized.

*MOUSE PRINT:

*MOUSE PRINT:

We asked Glad to explain why they had downsized so many products. We’re still waiting for an answer.

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More Products Downsized

A new wave of downsizing has been hitting supermarket shelves over the past several months with everything from cookies to detergent packages shrinking in size. Here are the latest examples:

*MOUSE PRINT:

This reduction of close to an ounce and half means you get two fewer cookies in each package. When MrConsumer saw a Nabisco representative in a supermarket and pointed out the downsizing, she cleverly responded, “Look at it this way, you are saving calories!”

*MOUSE PRINT:

You now get over 10% less in each bottle of Dawn dishwashing liquid.

*MOUSE PRINT:

There are now ten fewer tissues in each Kleenex box. This is on top of their 2009 downsizing when each tissue shrank by a fraction of an inch.

*MOUSE PRINT:

In this case, almost two ounces has been lopped off the Vienna Fingers package. And they did something fairly common when a product gets downsized, they printed a banner in the upper right hand corner of the package proclaiming “New Look”, which certainly can distract shoppers from checking the net weight statement.

As always, these examples of downsizing point out the clever ways that manufacturers can pass on a sneaky price increase with many shoppers not even noticing.