Watch Out for Reduced Product Sizes
May 28, 2008 by Karen Weideman
Filed under shopping
Last week I went to Lowe’s Foods to do my regular grocery shopping and I was going to pick up some ice cream for my hubby. He really enjoys ice cream and Lowe’s had their Edy’s ice cream buy 1 get 1 free.
I was shocked when I saw that most of the ice cream containers were 1.5 quart containers, rather than the usual 1.75 quarts. There were still a few 1.75 quart sizes left, but not many. I managed to get 1 larger size in the cookies ‘n cream, but they only had the smaller size in the espresso chip.
If I’m not mistaken, it was just a few years ago that ice cream was sold in 2 quart containers. Those were decreased in size as well.
I’ve also heard that some food manufacturers are changing their ingredients to less expensive ones. With the rising price of food, it’s possible that our normal favorites won’t be the same. We’ll have to watch our labels to make sure we’re getting the same product.
Have you noticed changes in any products that you normally buy?
image by Karen
It was a while ago, but we stopped buying a certain brand of yogurt- I think it was Dannon- because they went from 6oz to 4oz, keeping the same price. That’s disturbing about changing ingredients, it would be sad to buy a favorite product and have it be just a little “off”.
I haven’t noticed yet. But I’m sure it is coming. Prices for everything are going up, up, up! It is a little scary especially for us SAHM.
I’ve noticed quite a few different items moving from more natural sweeteners to things like malitol or HFCS….I actually bought some things without checking the label because I had been buying them for years. DH noticed that it had HFCS in it and asked why I was feeding it to the family…
What a wonderful world
I noticed the yogurts – all of them, not just Dannon – have reduced their package sizes. Some cheeses too. Seems like instead of raising the price the manufacturers will just shrink the pkg to keep the same costs – which will end up messing me up in recipes too!
I have noticed, but my hips thank the manu. Obesity is the way of the world, maybe that is “the man’s” way of keeping us from getting sooo fat! Off to eat my mini ice cream sandwich from the Food Lion.
This is a frequent game they play, with lots of things. But none quite so sneakily as the food manufacturers. I am surprised they left it quite so obvious in the case of the ice cream. Things like candy bars have gotten smaller, but the wrappers often remain the same size and are just puffed out with air (a trick they obviously learned from the Potato Chip people).
A “pound” of coffee, hasn’t been a pound in quite some time, and the actual amount varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.
One of the nastiest ones I read about is how the candy industry is trying to get the law changed so they don’t have to put cocoa butter back into the chocolate (cocoa butter is what gives it the texture), and instead replace with with Vegetable Shortening instead (If they did that now, they have to call it “chocolate flavored” and not chocolate.)
Coke tried (and quietly failed) to turn the 2 Liter Bottle of Soda into a 1.5 Liter and leave the price the same. But it was too dramatic and the backlash forced them to “add” the size rather than phase out the 2 liter as originally intended.
We noticed this yesterday, as we had two different sized Edy’s containers in our freezer. You can mess with gas prices, but don’t mess with my Ice Cream!!!
My husband also love his ice cream and he also works in a grocery store. We were just talking about this the other day, while we were doing our shopping. The prices are going up and the sizes are going down.
I work at a major retailer as a 3rd shift stocker and food is not the only thing thats getting smaller I have noticed several beauty aides changing packaging and going to smaller amounts for the same price so look the next time you buy your shampoo you still might find the bigger package
I noticed the ice cream change not on my own, but when one particular brand advertised on their cartons “STILL 1/2 GALLON.” My thoughts were “aren’t they all?” Then I discovered that alas, they were not. Thank you not-to-be-mentioned-here-brand for your alert as well as your sense of tradition! =)
Kaye: lol Very sneaky of the other companies to advertise that they are still 1/2 gallon. Very true though.
No, Karen, the Thrifty Mommy is not mistaken. This is one case where the cool mom who enjoys “finding more for less” has instead found less for more.
Yes, manufacturers have conspired to shrink ice cream containers yet again, and yes, the half-gallon container was the industry standard until recently. The next stop on this trip is the 1.25 quart container of ice cream.
One off the Edy’s cartons you have in your photo is their “LOADED” Cookies ‘N Cream variety. Maybe that should really say “LOADED WITH 25% LESS”.
See our post about shrinking ice cream containers at
http://routingbyrumor.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/unilever-shrinks-its-products-again-breyers-ice-cream-now-25-smaller/
And yes, manufacturers are cheapening their recipes, adding more water to many products, and adding things like vegetable gum (or other thickeners) to thicken their watered-down products in the hope that the consumer won’t notice. They are also trying to camouflage their smaller packages with deceptive labels and/or container designs. We’ve documented a few examples of this in our other posts.
If you can find another brand of ice cream (or any product) that hasn’t shrunk. consider buying that item instead, and supporting manufacturers that provide better value to consumers.
- Routing By Rumor
I remember the last time that ice cream got smaller, it did use to be 2 quarts. That stinks that they are making products smaller for same price. It is worse though to change ingredients, will have to pay more attention.
I have noticed that Kraft Macaroni and cheese just dont taste the same as it used to…. and that one box used to be enough for 2 people now not only does it taste really starchy and is really chewy, unlike before, it now only fills one standard size bowl!!