That possibly makes sense, although completely changes the point of this post. It's not really 'grocery shrink ray' if they are reducing the price as well and in fact reducing the price even more than the weight.

I guess it is post worthy that there is an extra good deal for dog food for a month.

I had just assumed the 35 vs 40 lb thing was a variety difference. That they had already shrinkrayed some of the costlier specialty varieties to keep them all the same price per bag.

I was fretting because 50 pound bags of "OL YELLER",have gone up to $12.99 per bag! I didn't know there was such expensive dry dog food out there.

My dogs do great on cheap dog food. Always healthy. They are mixed breeds.

1. Buy Rabies, and 7 way vaccine at the feed store and administer my self.

2. Use Safegard horse wormer for intestinal worms twice a year. (Same stuff the vet uses)

3. Use Ivermectin Horse wormer once a month for Heart Worms. (Same stuff as heart gard) A tube lasts several years.

Ya' don't hafta spend a fortune for dogs.

That's total BS. Some pets do fine on cheapo food. Growing up we used to feed our cats and dogs the cheapest walmart brand. But the cat I have now had terrible (truly awful) gas (not to mention the even worse smell in the litterbox) on Kitten Chow and this immediately stopped completely the day we switched her to Science Diet's "Sensitive Stomach" variety.

It costs an arm and a leg compared to cheap food, but my house smells 10 times better--it's worth it!!

It seems to say that the current 40lb bag was $45, and that the same bag will be $35 until New Year's, after which point they'll sell 35lb bags for $35. Yeah, the unit price is set to go up, but $1.00 per pound (the 2010 price) is unequivocally better than $1.12 per pound. Isn't it?

@pecan 3.14159265: well, yeah I would. if that was my dog's food. I think she would eat me in my sleep if I changed her food on her now though. Unless I changed it to straight chicken, beef, and bacon.

@squinko: Agreed. It may be more expensive, but it's your puppy! They deserve a nutritious diet.

@The Porkchop Express: But if it's going from 40 to 35, you can definitely load up on the 40 right now at the same price the 35 would be in the future, essentially getting a 40 lb. bag for the price of a 35 lb. bag.

Just take a look at their very basic adult dog dry food, which they recommend for show and working dogs ([www.hillspet.com]); the first three ingredients are "Ground Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Animal Fat", which is absolutely horrible.

Next time you're shopping for pet food, do me a favor and take a look at the label. You're most likely feeding them something that is the exact opposite of nutritious.

@pecan 3.14159265: I think the 40lb is going down to 35lb. I don't use this food for my dog, but most seem to go from 15 to 30-40 or 50. never a 5 lb difference.

@floraposte: If I were buying that kind of dog food, I would load up on the 40 lb. bags at the lower price, since you'd essentially be getting 5 lb. for free.

But I'm still not sure where those trains are going to pass each other.

I mean, they're in it to make money.

You can't expect them to say, "Were making our product smaller and lowering the price in the same proportion!"

The sign says the price has dropped for 35/40 lb. bags. So the new price of $34.99, is that for the 35 lb. or the 40 lb. bag?

But if both the size and price decreases, how is that the "grocery shrink ray" effect?

I thought that only occurs if the size decreases, but not the price.

.....I suppose it could be a shrink ray effect if the size and price decrease is not proportional.

@zerj: The best I can figure is that the bag sizes are being reduced from 40lb to 35lb, and the prices are being reduced from $45.59 to $34.99, respectively. The resultant price decrease per pound is 12.28%, which is 12.5% rounded to the nearest half percentage point.

Actually isn't that a 23% decrease in price? Where does 12.5 come from?