It's Not Your Imagination
Your Juice Has Been Downsized
"Does it seem like you've been changing the toilet paper a little more often, or heading out to buy paper towels a little more frequently? It's not your imagination.
According to research from Consumer Reports, many companies have been shrinking the size of the products you buy, while charging the same amount for the product.
The report, featured in the February issue of Consumer Reports and online on their Web site, says companies are attributing the downsizing to rising costs for ingredients and energy.
"They've got a point," says Tod Marks, a senior editor at the magazine, in a press release. "Higher commodity and fuel costs are expected to spike in food prices by as much as 3 percent in 2011. But if manufacturers are skimping when costs go up, why aren't they more generous when costs hold steady or fall?"
Good point."
flashback 7/08 - In The Land Of The Dull Witted, They Think You Won't Notice
"The humble American consumer, already dogged by soaring petrol prices and declining wages, now has something more sinister to contend with: downsized groceries.'There is a grocery shrink ray that has been unleashed on supermarkets across America,' said Ben Popken, editor of consumerist.com, a popular consumer affairs website.Facing higher prices for ingredients and a tumbling dollar, American food manufacturers have been forced to tackle the issue of price inflation. But rather than increase the prices of packets of food on the shelves - which tends to steer consumers away from expensive branded goods towards cheaper varieties - many of the big food manufacturers have simply shrunk the size of their products while keeping prices steady.'That's why we call it the grocery shrink ray,' said Popken, adding that his website has seen a massive increase in alerts from users over recent weeks."
Bulk cat food bags used to be four pounds, then dropped to three and a half, now a lot of products are marked in metric measurements to fool the unwary, so if something on the shelf is metric it's a good chance it was zapped by the shrink ray.
"Does it seem like you've been changing the toilet paper a little more often, or heading out to buy paper towels a little more frequently? It's not your imagination.
According to research from Consumer Reports, many companies have been shrinking the size of the products you buy, while charging the same amount for the product.
The report, featured in the February issue of Consumer Reports and online on their Web site, says companies are attributing the downsizing to rising costs for ingredients and energy.
"They've got a point," says Tod Marks, a senior editor at the magazine, in a press release. "Higher commodity and fuel costs are expected to spike in food prices by as much as 3 percent in 2011. But if manufacturers are skimping when costs go up, why aren't they more generous when costs hold steady or fall?"
Good point."
flashback 7/08 - In The Land Of The Dull Witted, They Think You Won't Notice
"The humble American consumer, already dogged by soaring petrol prices and declining wages, now has something more sinister to contend with: downsized groceries.'There is a grocery shrink ray that has been unleashed on supermarkets across America,' said Ben Popken, editor of consumerist.com, a popular consumer affairs website.Facing higher prices for ingredients and a tumbling dollar, American food manufacturers have been forced to tackle the issue of price inflation. But rather than increase the prices of packets of food on the shelves - which tends to steer consumers away from expensive branded goods towards cheaper varieties - many of the big food manufacturers have simply shrunk the size of their products while keeping prices steady.'That's why we call it the grocery shrink ray,' said Popken, adding that his website has seen a massive increase in alerts from users over recent weeks."
Bulk cat food bags used to be four pounds, then dropped to three and a half, now a lot of products are marked in metric measurements to fool the unwary, so if something on the shelf is metric it's a good chance it was zapped by the shrink ray.
posted by nolocontendere at 5:41 PM
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