One of the internet's best blogs has got to be The Consumerist. It's a blog that takes on the corporate world's shadier and less friendly dealings. I read it daily.
Over the course of the past few months they've had a series of posts on what they've dubbed the, "Grocery Store Shrink Ray" referring to the fact that as energy prices increase Big Food is responding by zapping their foods with a shrink ray and then charging the same amount.
The picture above shows how Babybel cheese has shrunk by 9% (but the price remained the same) and on the Consumerist site there are before and after shots of shrink rays hitting Yoplait yogurt, Apple Jacks, Cocoa Crispies, Corn Pops, Fruit Loops, Honey Smacks, Tropicana orange juice, Brighams Ice Cream, Edy's Ice Cream, Garden Salsa Sun Chips, Arizona Ice Tea, Arby's and even draft beer!
So the question that leaps to my mind of course....if the food we're sold gets smaller, will we?
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I think it's interesting that somehow, they managed to cut 1% of the fat out of the product along with shrinking the size. Curious, I checked the U.S. website and it claims that the product size is 21g and the fat content is only 23%. I'd be interested to know how the three differ in composition.
ReplyDeleteWalmart's been doing this for years. That's why their food is cheaper, right?
ReplyDeleteI recall reading something about the price and size of Hershey's chocolate bars over the years. What you are seeing is one increment of ratchet. The next increment is either another shrink downward at the same price (perhaps 5 mini-cheeses per package, which is what I usually get in the US), or a slightly larger "new, improved" size at a significantly higher cost per gram (either a one-ounce cheese, or eight cheeses per package). That will slowly ratchet back down to the current size/number at roughly the same price at which the "jumbo" size was introduced.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that with my Coke Zero yesterday. I was looking at the bottle thinking it looked a bit smaller, and then I checked - sure enough, 591 ml instead of 600 ml.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there's the trend toward 100-calories per package snack food... Same price as the regular sized package, but usually less than half the contents.
ReplyDeleteYou've just got to wonder about the evil genius that exploits peoples' desire to be more conscientious about their calorie intake and then turns around charges twice as much as for half the product, and thereby makes it cheaper to over-eat more of the same product.
Something I've been thinking about, too. And I've decided, that the effect will be minimal. The things being shrunk aren't the real problem foods.
ReplyDeleteUnless they can shrink fresh produce, those prices will naturally rise. The list didn't appear to have many nutritional products on it anyway.
ReplyDeleteSit outside Costco and count the number of obese, not overweight but obese, people out of 50. Try the same with Farm Boy - the result?