Food/Groceries

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Did 7-Eleven Reduce Coffee Cup Sizes?

Last month we reported on a national movie chain seemingly shortchanging customers on beer purchases because the cups could not hold the advertised number of ounces. Now, some people have complained that 7-Eleven coffee cups are shrinking too.

According to their website, the chain of convenience stores sells regular coffee in four sizes: 12-oz. (small), 16-oz. (medium), 20-oz. (large), and 24-oz. (extra large).

*MOUSE PRINT:

7-11 coffee cup sizes

But one consumer noticed a very large indent in the bottom of the extra-large cup and wondered if he was really getting 24-ounces of coffee.

7-11 indent

CBS 8 San Diego reporter Anna Laurel decided to put all the sizes of 7-Eleven coffee cups to the test.

The test revealed that to get the stated amount of coffee, the cups had to be filled right to the brim. And in the case of the extra large 24-ounce cup, it appeared not to be able to hold a full 24 ounces.

We wrote to 7-Eleven’s PR folks to ask their reaction to the video test, and whether they had changed their cup sizes. The company did not respond to either the TV station or to us.

It is not clear to MrConsumer when a company advertises sizes of coffee such as 16 ounces, whether the customer should be getting 16 ounces of black coffee to which they can add milk or cream if desired, or whether it is customary to fill these cups with less than 16 ounces to allow room for that addition. Either way, it seems that having to fill the 7-Eleven cups right to the brim with hot coffee is something most people don’t do and thus they are probably getting less than they paid for. Your thoughts are welcome in the comments.

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Hey Campbell’s, Where’s the Beef?

The Campbell Soup Company was recently sued by a New York consumer who said she was misled by Campbell’s Chunky soup label “Beef with Country Vegetables” which has more vegetables than beef.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Campbell's Chunky Beef & Veg

The ingredients statement above shows that there is more water, carrots and potatoes in the can than beef. In fact, the entire 18.8 ounce can has 15 grams of protein, which is only about two ounces of beef!

One has to wonder if Campbell’s took lessons from The Three Stooges on how to make cheap soup?

By contrast, Progresso beef and vegetable soup, has beef as the primary solid ingredient after broth and water.

The consumer’s lawyer further argues that the product should be labeled “Vegetables and Beef” since vegetables predominate over beef. He may be thinking of label rules that require On-Cor, for example, to call the product below “gravy and turkey” because there is more gravy in it than turkey:
en-cor turkey
I don’t know if those rules apply here. The product in question is beef soup and it probably doesn’t even need to have pieces of beef in it.

I think the chances of this case succeeding are… m’m, m’m not good.

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Kettle Chips: When Cutting the Fat Doesn’t Cut the Calories

When a product is air fried, one expects it to have fewer calories. Such doesn’t seem to be the case, however, with Kettle Chips.

Here is the regular variety of Kettle chips. It has 140 calories per ounce and nine grams of fat.

Regular Kettle Chips

Now here is the “air fried” Kettle chips.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Air Fried Kettle Chips

This variety says “air fried” in huge letters, but in small type that some people might miss, it says “kettle cooked, air finished.” What? The chips are really deep-fat fried, but then blown dry, so to speak?

That alone could be misleading, and so the company was just sued in March by a consumer.

But look closer, comparing the two nutrition labels. The air-fried product says 30% less fat than the regular version, and sure enough, it has six grams of fat per ounce versus nine grams of fat. But how is it possible that the bag with less fat has the exact same amount of calories per ounce? The ingredients in both products seem to be in the same order of predominance.

We asked Campbell’s Soup, the maker of Kettle chips, for an explanation. They did not reply.

Now it is your turn. What could explain that there is no change in calories in the air-fried product despite having one-third less fat?