Stop Shrinking My Food!!! (the continuing saga)

As an investor, I understand that companies are squeezed with inflation too, and many are reluctant to raise prices as their costs go up, because they're afraid consumers will stop buying their products.  But consumers aren't stupid, and many realize that their packages are smaller (and the prices went up anyway).  Shrinking product sizes now, when you've been shrinking product sizes for years is adding insult to injury, and I want it to stop.

124 Of The Worst Examples Of “Shrinkflation” Shared In This Online Group

Wholly Guacamole's packaging change costs them my business

For about ten years, I've been a huge fan of Wholly Guacamole. The quality of their product is better than any similar product, and when my supermarket puts it on sale, it's more affordable than making my own guacamole from avocados.

But now that they've abandoned their sensibly-sized packages in favor of an "easy peel tray," I'll only be buying it when I'm going to serve guacamole to a group of four or more. Whether alone or with my girlfriend, the tray's size is too much.

Also, the #7 plastic they use frightens me. I'm very conscious of the plastics that come in contact with my food, and recognize that all plastics contain some harmful materials, but the #7 is a mystery designation, and I'm very leery of eating food from it.

I tried to contact the company through their website, but received this bizarre message:

"ERROR - Form Submitters IP Address is Blacklisted!!"

It's time we stop redundant and superfluous packaging

The next time you're in the supermarket, convenience store, or co-op food store, take a closer look at the packaging.  Things like corn chips, pretzels, and potato chips come in bags, whereas crackers, cookies, and most cereals come in bags that are in boxes.  Why the redundant packaging for nearly similar items?

The increased cost is just one issue.  A bigger problem is the energy and resources needed both to produce and transport the products, as well as the demands superfluous packaging puts on landfills.  All that's really being done here is creating more waste.

This has been a pet peeve of mine for years, but may have reached a level of inanity yesterday, when I read that Del Monte wants to sell individual bananas wrapped in their own plastic bags.  

If bottled water is a ridiculous product (and more people are realizing that it is), then unnecessary packaging of products is equally silly.  An increasing number of municipalities are implementing bottled water bans, encouraging citizens to drink tap water (which is essentially what most bottled water is anyway), filtering their water, or using reusable water bottles to meet their hydrating needs.  Packaging needs to be on their agenda as well, since the excess cardboard boxes and plastic wraps add no value but increase the cost of cities to transport and dispose of trash.

The twenty-first century needs to be the era when humans learned to live sustainably.  If future generations are going to enjoy the same standard of living we do, then we need to adopt practices that don't place an unsustainable burden on the Earth and its scarce resources.