Mwahaha! I shall merely push my hand against your forehead!

Speaking of shrink ray, I bought some generic disposable/reusable food storage containers and the package now has 4 not 5. And the "val-u" brand I got is so cheaply made the lids fit poorly and there's no 8 oz lines on the side of the container. That's $1.69 I won't be wasting again.

They are constantly pushing their suppliers to offer better value or special deals to the consumer (and also to Walmart of course) and one of the ways that Walmart really likes are the special "bonus!!!" ounces packages that say "Now 32 FULL OUNCES!!!" in big type, or giant bags of chips that proudly tell you how many pounds they are, or special two-for-one containers in shrink wrap, etc. Walmart is in love with bonus. Walk down any aisle and fully 20% of packages will be some kind of a bonus.

Brands that have not gone for the freebie offers are put under tremendous pressure to offer something more, with not very subtle hints that bad things will happen to their shelf slots if they don't. Walmart also has reams of data showing that people actually do buy more of the products with all the GIANT TYPE BONUS!!! labeling. It works. It moves product. When you are Walmart and you make a few pennies on each one, you want to move a lot of products.

Faced with competitive pressure and Walmart breathing down their necks, some brands resort to this silly version of the bonus type, where they proclaim "Still 18 ounces!!!" just like other brands brag about having more in the can.

Because you, the Walmart shopper, are more likely to buy it this way. And Walmart knows exactly what sells and what doesn't. When they go to Jif and demand a bragging jar of peanut butter, Jif says sure and how many sir? What they PROBABLY did was ask for actual bonus ounces. I mean, Walmart has Great Value peanut butter and Jif wouldn't like to see more shelf space for GV, right? But instead of free ounces, Jif managed to negotiate it down to just a bragging label designed to enhance the perceived value.

And so it goes on every shelf in the store.

The sad side effect is that many of the suppliers who do business with Walmart are pushed to the limits to offer lots and lots of free and "bonus" ounces of product in order to be able to compete with all the other brands on Walmart's shelves. This forces the suppliers to take less profit, cut corners and quality and generally squeezes them horribly with the threat that Walmart will drop them if they don't -and Walmart ALWAYS has at least one or two suppliers for every item begging to get in, waiting for existing suppliers to lose their spot. Walmart is ruthless about this.

When the stressed suppliers squeak and beg for mercy, Walmart merely tells them to send manufacturing to China or Mexico or find creative ways to do it even cheaper and accept even less profit.

+1 for delicious blue bell :)

Hey, I was in TJs the other day, and is it just me or have they stopped carrying all branded products except some candy bars? No more Annies, it's all house-brand?

@nforcer: That is 1 trusting roommate.lol

I'll stick with my cheap Whole Foods peanut butter that's just peanuts and salt. That's it. Jif is only Ok when I want really fakey tasting peanut butter, and i can never finish the whole jar.

[www.flickr.com]

if you look at the larger sized pic, the natural jif is also still 18 oz. the jars are the same height, but skippy has contoured their jar in just a bit in the middle

Yeah, I failed to see how five feet was a whole person. Most people I know are above 5'3". Hell, I'm like 5'9".

Give me six feet in addition to the standard roll, and I'll stop yelling at the TV when I see that advert.

@Cybrczch: "their way" - apparently coffee had not finished kicking in then

@Smashville_now with Monster Energy: Seriously. I get through maybe two jars a year.

"Nobody better be dissin' my peanut butter yall! Ima fixin to go up yo head. Fo real."

That pretty much sums up the response from the man on the street around here.
JIF has been a locally produced item for many, many years.
I can't tell you how good it smells at 7AM in the morning and the roasters over on Winchester Rd have been cooking all night.
Mmmmmmmmmmm peanuts.

@nnj: You mean they didn't raise the price for giving less? My grocery bill has gone up significantly over the past two years and I always end up with less food. Costs more, get less--how appealing.

@justagigilo85: Down to 4 jars? Good lord...someone loves the peanut butter.

Well...I do too...I never know why I don't buy more...

@PsiCop: Make that triangle pink and you have the new WalMart logo.

@HFC: It was totally worth the salmonella. :)

@lockdog: Blue Bell loses me with their radio commercials.

@nybiker: The 6-ounce brands are now 5.3 ounces, by the way. But ShopRite, Ah, Blessed ShopRite brand yogurt, still comes in last century's 8-ounce size and I have to support that. It's all I will buy.

And you guys got it ALL WRONG. Skippy Natural is where it's at.

I'm down to four jars left... I need a sale, damnit. I have a barrage of 75 cent coupons that need to be used.

You'd be surprised how much foil it actually takes...

@Smashville_now with Monster Energy: Oooh.. that stuff is goood..

I also miss the Jif chocolate flavor.. they don't seem to make it anymore.

@morlo:

It's packaged in that amount because the bean counters did a study where they compared the savings of a smaller container to how many people would stop buying it and how it would affect their profit margins.
Then they came up with the size that fit the parameters they needed.

Simple yet dastardly.

@Jupichan:

They say you get 5 square feet for free or a whole persons length.

The average height of a man 20 years or older in the U.S. is 5' 9.4", the average height of a woman in the U.S. 20 years or older is 5' 3.8".

Assuming you take the average of those two you get
5' 6.6". Also assuming that the width of the foil is 12 inches, saying that you get a whole persons length for free is false, unless of course Reynold's gets to pick the person.

@DerangedRoleModel: Yep, and therefore I buy no yogurt anymore. Funny thing, though, is that Yoplait was 6 ounces from day one (I recall them back in 1980) and of course dannon was 8, which was what I bought.

I wonder if Yoplait touts the fact that they haven't shrunk (assuming they are still at 6 ounces).

@nybiker: Ok, I am going to retype that first sentence.

I am with you, but I am reduced to having to buy Ben & Jerry's pints as I don't know where to get that Blue Bell ice cream here in NYC.

There, I fixed it.

@lockdog: I am with you, but I reduced to having to buy Ben & Jerry's pints as I don't know of where to get that Blue Bell ice cream here in NYC.

Mind you, I am not complaining about having to buy B & J's.

We are two of a kind here. Full half gallons of BlueBell for me (bonus points for their sugar-free stuff that tastes like teh legit stuff).

Also, yes I always buy jif now for their refusal to succumb to the 'industry-standard' packaging-size shrink.

Its the same gimmick, instead of saying "NEW LOOK! NOW 12oz!" making you think they've made it larger (you'd think they wouldn't advertise the other way) when it used to be 16oz. or something.

[img140.imageshack.us]

That is all.

-Peanut butter (Jif)

@PsiCop: It was indeed salmonella.

It's better than Jif's original proposal, "Ceritified H1N1 Free!"

The last few times I bought Kraft salad dressings, they had a "Still 16 oz" label on them. Since they had just re-designed the bottles, I think this was there way of saying "we didn't do a shrink ray on them, just a redesign"

This rings a bell. I believe some boxes of Ronzoni pasta went from 16oz. to 12oz. with no price change.

FWIW I recall some yogurt commercials from some years back bragging how their containers were a full 8 oz (IIRC) while the competition had reduced to 6 oz (again, IIRC).

And here's my proposed "icon" for this. Not that it's all that great, but it's something, and I whipped it up in a couple minutes:

I much prefer a straight up price increase on a brand, rather than realize I'm getting less and think a lot of people do, too. It's pathetic that that's a selling point, but there you have it.

Also! We're still made with up to 60% peanut material!

Peter Pan Honey Roast FTW