Grocery Stores Still Dipping into the Pockets....Package Quantity's

[rsmith6621]

Well it was last summer about this time that a barrel of oil was skyrocketing, Airlines were charging surcharges for bags and fuel...the price of items at home improvement stores were climbing, we were driving less and YES the neighborhood grocery stores were aiding the manufactures of the producers of our food in one of the biggest deceptions of all time......smaller packaging and they didnt even tell us,we just had to figured it out for ourselves.

A half gallon of ice cream was now 3/8 of a gallon, a can of anti perspirant was two ounces less...candy bars became smaller ect ect...Well folks a year has past, gas prices are down below what they were a year ago today and it looks as though the peak has happened and they are heading downward and still the grocers have not lowered their prices or asked the makers of product that product content be restored back to original sizes.....in fact today I went to buy a 3/8 gallon of strawberry ice cream and I though it felt lighter after looking at the label....3/10 gallon now and 75 cents more...mentioned it to the store manager he said he could only relay my concern to the vendor....it was the same size container but the bottom was higher in the container.


Folks all around everywhere are pocketbooks are being abused. It is time for us to stand up to these company's.....remember wages haven't gone up???

[elleng]

1. Naturally!

I'm very careful about ice cream! (Not joking, and I really do appreciate your concerns.)

Some years ago, I noticed a difference in Breyers, which had been my favorite; it seemed to me they had begun fluffing up their i.c!!! More air, less product! I don't buy it any more (unless Dad insists!)

[DJ13]

2. This angers me every time I go shopping

Its a fraud being committed on both the customers and the stores themselves.

I made a pledge to myself that I will refuse to buy products that have shrunken sizes.

I will buy the more expensive item thats maintained its package size because I dont appreciate having these companies try to pull a fast one.

[panader0]

3. Two hour movies are only an hour and a half nowadays

What used to take me twenty minutes now take only ten.
(kidding) I've noticed this for years. It may have gotten worse lately, but it's been around forever.

[Fla_Democrat]

24. As I got older

What used to take me twenty minutes now take only ten.

What use to take me ten minutes, now takes an hour. Not that my wife is complaining, mind you. :evilgrin:

[Demit]

4. Shoot, I remember when plurals weren't made with apostrophes.

:) Those were the days.

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. And when people thought it a moral good to write coherently and correctly.

But in the current day of "Fuck you, I'll do what I want" I guess that courtesy has also disappeared, a sacrifice to the god of individual rights or, like, something.

[Sal Minella]

10. Whatever.

[Quantess]

5. Not to mention the wasteful packaging.

Great, just what the world needs. More garbage for the landfills.

[timeforpeace]

6. Do grocery stores make the products they sell?

[Atman]

7. Misleading; grocery stores only sell what is available to them

If their customers want shitty Folger's coffee, they gotta sell it. They don't MAKE the shit. They just sell that for which advertising creates a demand. It is the manufacturers who are reducing package sizes while raising the wholesale prices to the stores.

.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. Really? This is the grocery stores' fault? Obviously I live in a different economic world, then.

[Ilsa]

11. Blue Bell Ice Cream is still 1/2 a gallon. At $5.25 or higher, usually.

The brown rims are more expensive. But some of their seasonal varieties are delicious!

I like Breyers. No fake flavors, cream and sugar and fruit or cocoa and milk. Affordable and tasty.

But I try not to eat ice cream very often.

[sallylou666]

12. Fewer servings each month

Blue Bell is regional. Sorry to you folks without it. It's yummy!

I noticed this a long time ago. The easiest way to compare is look at the number of servings over time.

[Ilsa]

16. Yeah, and it is so rich my butt can't handle any more of it either. nt

[kath]

20. Actually, Breyer's is not nearly as good as it used to be -started adding TARA GUM a couple of years

ago, and now it's nasty,frothy and gummy tasting like all the other crummy ice cream out there. It used to be so good, and such a good value - but now I refuse to buy it.
The only brand available here now that doesn't have some kind of "gum" added to it is Haagen-Dazs.

[AdHocSolver]

22. Breyer's ice cream quality dropped after Kraft bought the company. n/t

[gleaner]

13. I've noticed that too....

but in a product which is necessary to life and hygiene. The rolls of toilet paper are getting smaller and so are the boxes of kleenex. Pretty soon we will be expected to drip dry from every bodily orifice.

[grasswire]

14. the cracker boxes made me laugh yesterday!

This week they have shrunk even more dramatically. Boxes of cheese crackers are now 7 ounces. They look almost like lunchbox size. It's nuts!

[mitchtv]

15. paper napkins!

used to be about 18"s a package, now about 12"s long

[tomreedtoon]

17. Time to set some supermarkets on fire.

Or is that not what you meant? Were you going to write more angry LTTE's again? How is that working out for you?

[Speck Tater]

18. Save a bundle. Don't buy factory-made food that comes in a package.

Last time I was in the restaurant supply wholesale outlet the 25 bag of rice was still 25 pounds, and 50 pounds of bread flour still weighed 50 pounds.

Why pay for packaging. You can't eat packaging. In fact you have to pay to have it hauled away to the dump. Pay for it, bring it home, then pay it have it taken away. Kind of pointless.

As for ice cream, a good ice cream maker is not very expensive at all. If I want strawberry ice cream I start by picking strawberries fresh out of my garden (Or fresh from the freezer off season). So much better tasting, and soooo much cheaper.

When food prices go up, just remember: There IS a way to turn common dirt into food. Garden.

[AdHocSolver]

19. The shorting of the amount of product in a package to HIDE INFLATION has been going on for years.

To hide the significant increase in prices during the previous 15 years, producers have been shorting the quantity of contents even though the package sizes have remained the same.

A package that used to hold 64 ounces of ice cream now contains only 56 ounces. A small can of tuna that used to hold 7 ounces now contains only 5.5 ounces. A box of tissues used to contain 175 pieces, but now contains only 160 tissues at a higher price.

It is the equivalent of putting the frog in a pan of water and turning up the heat slowly so he doesn't notice.

In spite of all the hoopla extolling the virtues to the consumer of importing goods from cheap labor countries compared to manufacturing them locally, the trade deficit and the debt it has produced has devalued the dollar to the point that even locally produced products are soaring in cost. The corporate response to this inflation is to reduce the amount of product they sell even as prices are raised to treat the consumer like the frog in the slowly heating water.

The posters in this thread who belittled the concerns of the OP are much like the frog.

[kath]

21. Actually, the ice cream packages that used to be 64 oz are now down to *48* oz.

It's disgusting.
"quart" jars of mayo now only 30 oz, 1 lb tubs of margarine down to 15 oz., jars of peanut butter have shrunk even more than that.

[exboyfil]

23. Anyone know how the CPI treats these reductions?

I suspect I know the answer.

[LeftHander]

25. "More Crunch!" and "Great New Taste!"

Equals less food more air and more HFCS.

Prepared Food production is about removing expensive ingredients and replacing them with something else that sort of tastes the same but for half the cost. After 50-60 years of doing this the result is cardboard no flavor prepared foods.

Stop buying prepared foods....make your own meals.

[colinmom71]

26. And it's not just the manufacturers...

I've been noticing lately that my subtotals for groceries at my local Kroger are higher than they should be after my "card-holder" discounts. I'm still going through receipts to confirm, but my last trip cost almost $10 more than my calculator said it should have, if my card discounts were properly calculated. I'm still compiling data with which to confront the manager.

Oh, and they seem to have quietly gotten rid of their Baby Bonus rewards program. I haven't gotten a $10 bonus for quite some time. Having a disabled child, I frequently buy diapers and other baby supplies there. That rewards program was quite helpful in reducing our overall grocery bills. I have no idea if they will ever re-instate this program either.

[laureloak]

27. Bryers lost me as a customer when I tried Blue Bunny ice cream.

Bryers cut their package size drastically but kept the price. We tried Blue Bunny as a cheaper option and found we liked it much better, especially the butter pecan. We've bought only Bryers for 20 years, but no more...well, maybe a little cherry-vanilla now and then.