Food/Groceries

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Here We Shrink Again – Year-End 2024

The next new Mouse Print* story: January 6th.

As we wrap up 2024, it is time to take a last look at some products that suffered the effects of shrinkflation. Here are some more products that have been recently downsized.

Chex Mix

Snack foods are one of the common categories of groceries to shrink. And Chex is no exception. Their family size bags which used to be 15 ounces have gone down to 13.5 ounces.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Chex Mix Chex Mix Bold

Secret Deodorant

Solid deodorant packages tend to be deceptive. The dispenser appears to be pretty tall, but if you look carefully at the one on the right below, you will see that the fairly thick platform that raises the stick deodorant starts halfway up the package. There is no content in the bottom half.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Secret Deodorant

And to add insult to injury, the new tubes went from 2.6 ounces to 2.37 ounces. Thanks to Nora F. for this submission.

Q-Tips

Warehouse club packs of Q-Tips have been shrinking. The old packs combined contained 1875 Q-Tips, but the new ones have 125 fewer Q-Tips — just 1750. Either way, this seems like a lifetime supply for many people.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Q-Tips

People have also been complaining online about the amount of cotton on the ends of Q-Tips. They say it has been reduced. Thanks to Glen B. for finding this product.

Charmin Strong

Our ace downsizing spotter, Richard G., discovered that Charmin in the red package finally downsized again (the soft version in the blue package did that last year). Now each roll has 330 sheets instead of the old 363.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Charmin Mega XL

Along with the reduction in sheets came a name change. P&G retired the name “Super Mega” and renamed the product Charmin Mega XL. They did this apparently so they could introduce an even larger roll called Mega XXL. (It would have been odd to have had to call it “Super Super Mega.”)

Tyson Chicken Nuggets

Don’t look now, but you probably lost 10% of the nuggets from each of Tyson’s two-pound bags. You now only get 29 ounces.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Tyson Chicken Nuggets

Richard G. spotted this one too, along with their chicken patties going from 10 in a package to just eight.

Bar Soap

The ever-shrinking soap bar continues to shrink. Now 3.17-ounce Dove bars are only 2.6 ounces. And Lever 2000 went from four ounces to 3.75.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Dove soap

Lever 2000

Betty Crocker Au Gratin Potatoes

What has Betty Crocker been cooking up lately? Smaller boxes of her au gratin potatoes, that’s what. They went down from 4.7 ounces to just four ounces. Thanks to both Nick B. and Richard G. for spotting this change.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Betty Crocker Au Gratin Potatoes

Jif Peanut Butter To Go Cups

Richard G. discovered that little cups of Jif peanut butter that kids might eat as a snack went down from 1.5 ounces per cup to just 1.1 ounces.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Jif to go cups

Lorna Doone Snack Pack

Lastly, a childhood cookie favorite, Lorna Doone, lost two of its six cookies in each snack pack, according to Susan L. So they’ve gone from an ounce-and-a-half down to just one ounce.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Lorna Doone

If you find a product that has been downsized very recently, please take a picture of the old version and the new version, side-by-side, if possible, clearly displaying the net content statements on both. You can email that to Edgar (at symbol) MousePrint.org . Thanks.

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Stop & Shop Makes Digital Coupons Easy

Stop & Shop Savings Center KioskTwo years ago, five national consumer advocacy organizations, including Consumer World and Consumer Reports, called on a dozen supermarket CEOs to stop digital discrimination and make digital coupons more accessible to less tech-savvy shoppers. There are significant numbers of seniors and lower income folks who do not use the internet or have smartphones and thus they they have been shut out of advertised digital-only offers.

Sample digital coupon

Digital coupons like the one above are advertised in a chain’s weekly sale circular. Generally stores have required shoppers to go to the coupon section of the store’s website or app, and then find and e-clip each particular coupon individually that they want.

Now, one supermarket chain finally heard our call and took decisive action to fix this. Last week, Stop & Shop, the largest supermarket chain in the Northeast, announced it was rolling out “Savings Station” kiosks to the entire chain after successfully completing a one-year test of them in a handful of stores. Installation will be complete by the end of January.

The kiosk is essentially a freestanding screen and barcode reader located at the front of the store. All a customer has to do is scan their loyalty card or enter their phone number on the device, and then all that week’s advertised digital coupons are automatically loaded onto their card or account. It takes as little as five seconds! No more futsing with apps or the coupon section of the store’s website (except for manufacturers coupons). This is NOT a computer in the store where you have to go through all the steps of loading coupons as you would at home. [See earlier video demo.]

This should come as welcome news to the 70-percent of Consumer World readers who told us in a 2022 survey that they would prefer an easy offline in-store method to activate digital coupon savings. Frankly, even for those of us for whom doing stuff online comes more easily, this is a huge time saver.

Hat tip to EntryPoint, the company that developed these kiosks and has launched them in other chains like Food Lion and Winn Dixie also.

We applaud Stop & Shop for taking this innovative step to help digitally-disconnected shoppers finally be able to access digital discounts and to cut their ever-climbing grocery bill.

Now it’s time for other supermarket chains to follow Stop & Shop’s lead and help all their customers get easier access to digital discounts. Albertsons… hello? Kroger… hello?

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Mandatory Arbitration Requirement Found Hidden Inside Nutrition Product Package

Vital ProteinsCompanies generally do not like to be sued by consumers particularly in class action lawsuits. So, many of them have incorporated mandatory arbitration clauses into their contracts, or sometimes buried in the terms and conditions section of their websites.

Consumer World reader Dave L. recently wrote to us pointing out a most novel way that one company was attempting to foist a mandatory arbitration requirement onto its customers.

I recently bought my wife some Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides protein powder dietary supplement at BJ’s (Stoneham, Mass.) and noticed the packaging had changed. … After she opened the new outer container, she noticed fine print on a seal that said she was bound by terms and conditions …

*MOUSE PRINT:

Vital Proteins inner lid

There, under the new paper cap, is a disclosure that says:

READ THIS: By opening and using this product, you agree to be bound by our Terms and Conditions, fully set forth at VitalProteins.com/tc, which includes a mandatory arbitration agreement. If you do not agree to be bound, please return this product immediately.

What chutzpah of this company ignoring basic contract law that requires disclosure and agreement BEFORE a contract is entered into! You have already bought the product and destroyed the new paper package’s top, and you are then supposed to return the product if you don’t agree to these terms? As our consumer wrote, “this is nuts.”

In addition, on the company’s website, part of its terms and conditions, seeks to absolve itself of errors, including incorrect prices and inaccurate product descriptions.

*MOUSE PRINT:

V. Availability, errors and inaccuracies

… The information found on the Service may contain errors or inaccuracies and may not be complete or current. Products or services may be mispriced, described inaccurately, or unavailable on the Service and we cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information found on the Service.

Why is this company, now owned by Nestlé Health Science, doing this? It seems they have been subject to various legal actions before by a competitor and a public interest health group, and they had a product recall in 2023.

We asked Nestlé twice to comment on why they thought they could rope purchasers into a mandatory arbitration agreement that was only disclosed to them after they bought the item at a retail store. They did not respond.