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

Thanks for shrinking my food

I've written before about food companies shrinking the size of the packages you buy (in a not so secret way of raising the price on you), and others have noticed it too.  Today, however, I want to thank the folks at Meadow Gold for breaking me of my chocolate milk habit.

There's plenty of reasons to stop drinking chocolate milk, but I was hooked. Every morning, I had to buy a pint of it to accompany my breakfast.  Then Meadow Gold shrank their 16 oz. bottle to a 12 oz. size - but kept the price the same.  Obviously this was a way to sneak in a 33% price increase (WTF?  33% increase overnight???).  The funny thing is that I would probably still be drinking the stuff if they had simply raised the price but kept the bottle size the same. 

Their way to doing it, however, is rather short-sighted.  It's unlikely to increase sales, as people who buy single-serving bottles aren't going to start buying two of them.  They'll either keep buying one (albeit a smaller one), or they'll switch to a different brand (one that hasn't shrunk).  Meadow Gold did cut their cost of sales, however, so this move ought to have a short-term effect on their bottom line.  But it increases the amount of packaging per ounce of product, it increases the cost to ship each ounce of product, and it will harm sales.

Still, they got me to quit, so I thank them.

Stop Shrinking My Food - the continuing saga

I've written about this before.  But, since new stories keep emerging, I'll keep writing.  


Food companies are shrinking packages as a way of increasing prices without actually increasing prices.  They say they're holding the line on price increases, but since you're getting less, the price per ounce is going up - often by quite a bit.


Among the problems with this are the increase in packaging per same amount of food, increasing the cost of freight, etc.  Personally, I think each food item has an ideal size, and that's what it should remain at.  What happens after they can't shrink anymore?  "New larger size!" they're sure to boast.  What they'll omit is that it's the same size they sold you five or ten years ago, but now the price is two or three times as much.

From The Consumerist:

Myron Reducto is at it again, turning his Grocery Shrink Ray Gun on Odwalla juice, zapping it down to 12 oz from 15. The price is the same. Like other food packagers, Odwalla is combining the shrinkage with a packaging redesign that it hopes will get more press. In this case, they are simultaneously rolling out bottles that are made from 100% plant based HDPE plastic.

The incredibly shrinking food packages

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one noticing it.

 

And this from Consumer Reports: