Food/Groceries

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Here We Shrink Again – Spring 2025

Shrinkflation slowed a little in early 2025, but now seems to be picking up a bit again. Here are some more products that have been downsized over the past six months or so.

Simply Orange Orange Juice

Except for store brand orange juice which in some cases is still 64 ounces, brand name OJ has had a steady decline in size going from 64 oz. to 59 oz. to 52 oz. and now to 46 oz. The latest casualty is Simply Orange whose carafes are now just 46 ounces. And in MrConsumer’s Stop & Shop, the price actually went UP 10 cents to $4.89! To look at the bottles head-on, it is hard to see how you lost a full glass of OJ in each one. You may be able to find old and new bottles side-by-side in your local supermarket right now.

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Simply Orange 52 to 46 oz

Thanks to Richard G. for spotting this change.

Ruffles

Potato chip bags have been downsized for decades. The latest example is Ruffles whose bags are now down to 8.5 ounces from nine ounces. But rest assured, you’ll still get the same amount of air or perhaps a bit more in each bag.

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Ruffles

Tide

Another category where there has been a lot of resizing is laundry detergents. The latest trend seems to be to keep the number of loads you get the same, but with fewer ounces of the product.

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Tide 14 oz. less

In this case, big bottles of Tide shrank by 14 ounces, but you still supposedly could get 100 itsy-bitsy, teenie-weenie loads of laundry out of every bottle. The difference is usually explained by having some amount of water removed from the formulation. That makes the stuff more concentrated so you can use a little less in each wash load. Raise your hand if you actually do use less!

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Tide 250 - 225 oz

Less popular these days is powdered detergent, but that doesn’t exempt them from being downsized. Here, 25 ounces was removed from each box, but you still theoretically are able to get 143 loads out of it. The question becomes what unnecessary ingredient have they removed from this dry product that doesn’t affect its cleaning ability? It certainly is not water. Thanks to Brendan B. for spotting this change at Costco.

Bounty Paper Towels

Paper products is another big category where we find shrinkflation. In this case, earlier this year, P&G downsized Bounty. In this case, their triple rolls went for 135 sheets down to 123. Thanks to both Richard G. and Brendan B. for spotting this.

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Bounty lost a dozen sheets

Crystal Light

With summer not too far away, don’t expect your Crystal Light packages to make as many bottles of lemonade as before. The old six-pack has become a four-pack.

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Crystal Light

Pure Leaf Tea

Another summertime beverage also is now giving you less per bottle — Pure Leaf tea. The half gallon bottles lost five ounces and are now just 59 ounces. But the bottles are about the same height. One trick they used was making the cap larger. They also had to taper the bottle, it appears. Thanks to Denise H. for this submission.

CORRECTION: Both these sizes still exist. The larger one is a shelf-stable product in the grocery/beverages section, while the smaller one is sold in the refrigerated case, unchanged. Thanks to Kevin M. for the clarification.

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Pure Leaf tea

If you spot a product that was downsized, please provide details and try to submit a picture showing the old and new side-by-side as you see above to Edgar (at symbol) MousePrint.org. Thanks.

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Here We Skimp Again — Annie’s Shells & Cheddar

The new packages of Annie’s Shells and Aged Cheddar proclaim that the new recipe is cheesier.

Annie's shells

But the ingredients don’t exactly shout new and improved.

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Annie's ingredients

Annie's cheesier

While cheese is still the predominant ingredient, the new cheesier version has had the butter and skim milk removed and corn starch – a thickener – added. The amount of salt has gone up. Worse, the amount of protein and calcium has gone down when one might have expected it to increase if there is more cheese in the product.

Many recent reviews on the company’s website pan the new recipe, saying things like:

Annie's review

Will companies never learn?

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San Diego Fights Back Against Digital Coupons

Vons Digital CouponLast week, the San Diego city council passed an ordinance to require stores that advertise digital-only deals to also provide paper versions of those coupons so anyone without digital access or know how can still benefit from the savings.

This is believed to be the first government action to fight digital discrimination in retailing and become law. As readers of Consumer World and Mouse Print* know, consumer advocates have been urging stores to offer easy, offline alternatives to digital coupons so that the many digitally-deprived seniors and lower income folks who have been shut out of these deals can have equal access. [See our series of stories.]

The bill, sponsored by city councilor Sean Elo-Rivera, is elegantly simple:

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Any grocery store that offers digital discounts to consumers for the purchase of goods must make physical coupons for the digital price available to consumers upon request.

It also provides that stores post a sign alerting shoppers to this requirement.

Simplicity, sometimes, can have its own issues too. We pointed out to the city councilor that stores in San Diego like Vons and Albertsons offer 400 – 500 digital coupons each week via their apps and websites, and it would be cost prohibitive for stores to have to print a 40 or 50 page book each week with them. We suggested that the law only apply to those digital coupons and digital-only discounts that are advertised to shoppers in their weekly or periodic circulars. He agreed and said they would add clarifying language, but as the ordinance heads to the mayor for his signature, that has not been done yet.

Other states have been considering legislation that would require stores to offer shoppers other easy alternatives to digital coupons. New York and New Jersey in a particular have had bills in their legislature on the subject, but they have yet to pass. Additional states like Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Illinois also are considering similar proposed laws this year. (See update at Coupons in the News.)

And at the beginning of 2025, Stop & Shop, with over 350 supermarkets in the Northeast, rolled out digital coupon kiosks in all their stores so shoppers merely have to scan their loyalty card or enter their phone number and then all that week’s advertised digital coupons are automatically loaded on their account. [See our story.]

Kudos to San Diego for passing their ordinance which goes into effect this summer, and to the other states and stores working to make digital-only deals accessible to everyone.