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—>Reader Kimaroo noticed that something was amiss with the with the single-serve bottle of maple syrup she receives with her French toast at Cracker Barrel. Not only did it seem smaller, she could have sworn that the bottle used to contain 100% maple syrup instead of "100% Pure Natural Syrup." Fortunately, she had another bottle from a different Cracker Barrel visit stashed at home, and was able to compare the ingredients. Indeed, her maple syrup had been hit by the Grocery Sugar Ray: nearly half of its mapley goodness has been replaced with cane syrup. More »
—>Dan sent in this pic from a local pet store. It reads, "After January 1st, bag sizes will be decreased, and these new prices will stay the same. For the rest of 2009 you will save 12.5% on all big bags of Science Diet dog food!!" I like how they're spinning the reduced packaging in a way that benefits them and the customer, while also making sure nobody is fooled come January 1st. More »
—>Matt spotted this jar of Jif peanut butter that proudly boasts its eluded the all-seeing scope of the grocery shrink ray and still packs 18 ounces of goodness within its plastic confines. More »
—>As part of its ongoing efforts to "help consumers balance calories consumed with calories expended," Coca-Cola plans to roll out a 90-calorie can later this year. The 7.5-ounce can will include about 5 1/2 teaspoons of sugar (or high-fructose corn syrup), and may sell for about 50 cents per can. More »
—>Ed wrote to Georgia-Pacific about its grocery shrink ray zapping of Quilted Northern toilet paper. The company consoles Ed and all his fellow wipers by saying the sheet count is only "slightly reduced:" More »
—>Many readers have reported the Grocery Shrink Ray strike on Northern toilet paper, but today Jack and Richard sent us photographic evidence, and even calculations of exactly how much paper consumers are losing out on. More »
—>The prices of commodities has dropped from their peaks of last year, yet food makers are not reducing consumer prices, reports Marketplace. Now this is rather funny, and familiar. More »
—>Banquet Foods wasn't satisfied with reducing the size of their mac & cheese meals by a third, from 12 ounces to 8 ounces. They also increased the price, notes our reader Richard, who confirmed the price hike at both his local Seattle supermarket and at Walmart (although Walmart's prices were lower in both versions). Funny, we thought the whole argument for the shrink ray was that it protected consumers from paying more. More »
—>Reader Mike discovered that Private Selection brand chocolate chips were a recent victim of the Grocery Shrink Ray. However, the company forgot to remove a key piece of evidence after the fact. That, or they're just trying to sell more bags. More »
—>Putting elegant curves on your packaging doesn't just make a bottle of hand soap look nice on the side of your sink. It also lets you drastically reduce the amount of product that you sell in a container that looks approximately the same size. More »
—>Fork over your personal information and the Mars chocolate company will snail mail you a free coupon for one full-sized Mars candy bar in 6 weeks. We mentioned this in Morning Deals in May, it's still going on, and will continue on Fridays through September. They're calling it the "Real Chocolate Relief Act," a tie-in to two different news stories: 1) Economic bailout plans and 2) Some corner-cutting candymakers not using 100% cocoa butter and putting more oil inside - a basterdization known as "mocklate." More »
—>CCM just sent us a photo she snapped of these Mission Soft Flour Tortillas. It's kind of cool to see that in this age of the shrink ray, a company is actually giving you more bang for your buck. Except that in this case, the two added tortillas used to be there until a year or so ago. More »
—>A little over a week ago, we brought to you a heart-warming tale of good publicity, free stuff, and tasty snacks from PopChips. Lurking in our files, though, was evidence that Popchips have been savagely zapped by the Grocery Shrink Ray. More »
—>Pedro discovered that ConAgra Foods focused the Grocery Shrink Ray on Peter Pan peanut butter and came up with an excuse for the downsizing straight out of Never Never Land: It's good for the environment. More »
—>Bryan, a longtime Naked Juice customer, noticed that that Strawberry Kiwi Kick brand he always bought had a different colored cap. He writes, "Alas, the 'Kick' is no more. Gone are the supplements, including plain ol' Vitamin C. Strawberry Kiwi Kick is just fruit juice." When he contacted them to complain, they responded that their "devotees" preferred it that way, and they sent him a coupon and a temporary tattoo. Because if there's anything that says "we take your input seriously," it's a temporary tattoo. (Or maybe they're trying to tell him what they expect of real devotees.) More »
—>Looks like the power of taurine, caffeine and glucuronolactone is no match for the Grocery Shrink Ray. Alert reader Denis sent us this side-by-side comparison of the new "large" Red Bull (left) and the old one. Original: 16.9 ounces. New, taller, thinner version: 16 ounces. We're not sure when the Bull's wings flew off with the remaining 0.9 ounces, but we already miss them. When it comes to caffeine (and glucuronolactone, of course), that bit can just make the difference between crashing on the couch, or sprinting into the office (or at least that's our excuse, and we're sticking with it). More »
—>When the cost of propane shot up to $1.70 or more per gallon last year, propane dealers quietly cut the amount they were putting into refilled tanks without telling customers. Now the cost of propane is under a dollar per gallon, but retailers aren't increasing the amount back to previous levels. More »
—>Reader Dan noticed something different when buying a new can of formula for his daughter (at left.) Her delicious colic-preventing formula had been hit by the dread grocery shrink ray. Waaah! More »
—>1 pint = 16 fluid ounces — at least mathematically. In the ice cream world, however, there seems to be some shrinking going on. More »
—>With the the cost of ingredients, gas prices, and interest rates dropping, why are food manufacturers continuing to hike prices and shrink products? According to the L.A. Times, supermarkets don't know, but they're as pissed as we are. More »
—>A grocery growth ray is set to hit a popular condiment and several kinds of baked corn with names ending "tos." To push the brands as being good values, Heinz will be selling slightly larger ketchup bottles, and Frito-Lay is adding 20% to Tostitos, Fritos, Cheetos and Doritos - without raising the price. Unlike the grocery shrink ray, you can bet this change will be loudly trumpeted on the package. More »
—>When Fosters-owned Cascade beer (different from regular Fosters in that it tastes decent) switched to 330ml from 375ml while charging the same price, consumers let their discontent be known in a highly visible fashion: they stopped buying it. Fosters reported a 33% drop in sales and some retailers reported up to a 50% drop. In response to the steep drop-off, Fosters is going back to 375ml, the standard size for canned beers in Australia. More »
—>Do you want to lose weight for Valentine's Day? Then M&M's special Valentine's Day Cupid's Mix is just for you! Since they're 10% lighter than M&M's usual holiday pack, they'll help you lose money too. More proof that M&M's Cupid traded in his arrow for the Grocery Shrink Ray after the jump... More »
Yours truly Ben Popken was featured ever so briefly in a NBC Nightly News report tonight about the Grocery Shrink Ray. More »
—>Sad news for lovers of the Thin Mint — you'll be paying the same amount for fewer cookies this year. More »
—>BUH-KAW! Tyson's five-pound bag of frozen chicken wings is now Tyson's four-pound bag of frozen chicken wings. More »
—>Is nothing sacred? The New York Times is reporting that the grocery shrink ray, that scourge of the savvy supermarket shopper, has now been turned to televisions. More »
The NBC Nightly News Grocery Shrink Ray piece I'm in that was to air last night has been pushed back. Will keep you posted as to when its next slated to air. More »
—>Watch NBC Nightly News on Thursday, 12/04/08, for a snippet of yours truly, Ben Popken, laying down some tough talk on the good 'ol Grocery Shrink Ray, THE STORY THAT NEVER DIES!!! MUAHAHA! More »
—>Guess what they call the Grocery Shrink Ray at General Mills? "Holistic Margin Management." I thinks that's also what they call it in 1984. Another interesting fact from a StarTribune article looking at shrinking packages: customers are more likely to notice a change in the height rather than the width of a box. But does anyone really care? More »
—>Reader Dave was doing an online survey about Gorton's Fish Sticks packaging — and it looks like something fishy is going on... More »
—>The story may be well and established already, but that hasn't stopped manufacturers from their food product and package shrink-a-dink rampage. Here's 34 more victims of The Grocery Shrink Ray spotted by the all-volunteer Consumerist tipster army, 25 of which are viewable using advanced pop-up slideshow technology... More »
—>This video shows how a variety of food products have shrunk over the years, while the price remains the same, and the tricks manufacturers use so we don't notice the differences. She stacks up the coffee cans as they go from 16 oz to 11 oz. At one point, Maxwell House says that while the size is going down, the potency is going up. "We've fluffed the beans!" they say. So then why do the instructions on the side of the can for the amount of coffee you use to make a perfect cup stay the same? Though we don't really mourn for lost Maxwell House value, the example is illustrative of standard industry tactics, even on food that doesn't taste like crap. More »
—>Foodmakers are planning to bombard you with advertising to keep you from ditching their carefully groomed brands for some blechy cheapo generics. Pay no attention as they try to re-brand their products as cheap and affordable. Here's a small preview of what to expect... More »
—>The parasitic Grocery Shrink Ray has infected restaurants, shrinking portions and spurring substitutions as restaurateurs struggle to pry revenue from cash-strapped customers. Desperate to fill seats by any means, restaurants are borrowing from the airlines and are starting to overbook reservations for peak times. They're also giving preference to the new big spenders: Europeans. More »
—>Reader Kirin says he's suspicious of Arm & Hammer's assertion that the same 1lb of baking soda will only deodorize for 30 days when it used to work for 3 months. More »
—>Here's a fun little mystery for you guys. How can taking away 4 oz of coffee produce more cups of coffee? We've been thinking about it ever since Blueprint for Financial Prosperity sent us this photo the other day, and we just can't figure it out. Could it be magic? Some strange new property of the Grocery Shrink Ray? More »
—>The Grocery Shrink Ray continues its miniature spree across the supermarket aisles of America. Here's 14 more victims that have surfaced in the past week, as spotted by our watchful bands of deputized Consumerist reader-investigators... More »
—>The Grocery Shrink Ray has expanded its range and is no longer just hitting the US. Pint-sized woe has befallen the the UK snack section. For one, the Dairylea triangle is shrinking from 180 to 160g per cheese wheel. Other shrunken products include Rolo, Palmolive, Olvatine, Dairy Milk, Mars bars, Yorkie chocolate bars, and Pringles.Check out the company double-talk as they tried to explain away the changes, sometimes with verbal softshoe, others with oddly pugilistic rebuttals: More »
—>The Chicago Tribune quoted me in a piece on the Grocery Shrink Ray. Paraphrasing a food science. expert, it says, "Broadly defined, packaging costs often outweigh ingredient costs, Hotchkiss said. And a penny shaved off packaging can translate into millions of dollars in savings for a high-volume consumer product." This is interesting because it means the greatest cost savings come from reducing package costs, rather than ingredient amount. Which means if they're reducing ingredient amounts, they've got to be really hurting. Maybe if I really wanted to do my part to help the economy I should have spent that stimulus check on juice, cereal, paper towels, mayonnaise and ice cream. More »
—>Wegman's a grocery store chain in the northeast has addressed the issue of the grocery shrink ray, and shed some light on why even store brands are affected by its malevolent beam. Wegmans says that their store brand merchandise is manufactured by companies that also make products for other stores — so they have little say about the size of their products. More »
I will be in a roundtable discussion guest be on KCRW's "The The Point" at 2:10 PM eastern today. You can listen here by clicking on the "LIVE" link at the top left, or tuning into your NPR affiliate station if they carry it. We'll be talking about the economy, the growing pressures on consumers, the grocery shrink ray, and what, if anything, you can do about it. More »
—>The notorious Grocery Shrink Ray was supposed to help prevent this, or so we were told by apologists for it, but Datamonitor is reporting that Kraft Foods, Kellogg's, ConAgra, Sara Lee, and Tyson "are all expected to announce a hike in the prices of their products" in the near future. Here are some of the hikes you can expect, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. More »
—>Joe spotted this box of Bausch & Lomb Boston contact solution at his Target, another victim of the Grocery Shrink Ray. "Someone at Target wasn't smart enough to change the original price label...4oz down to 3.5oz is significant when you are dealing with an everyday item like this at $7-7.99 per bottle," he writes. Full pic inside. More »
—>The Mexican restaurant chain Chachos is now charging a 7.5% inflation surcharge on all meals with cheese. Skyrocketing commodity prices present restaurants with a menu of unappetizing choices: raise prices, levy surcharges, reduce portions? How would you like your inflation served? Vote in our poll, after the jump. More »
—>Pew! Pew! Grocery Shrink Ray zapped Skippy Natural Peanut Butter. You know what's really going to be something? When they start raising the prices on all the products they shrunk. Then we'll see some real purchasing power loss. More »
—>Mark says he's found fault with Faultless spray starch. The bottle shrunk by two ounces and is being sold for the same price, another victim of the Grocery Shrink Ray. Compare the products here and here. What's interesting is that when he called his mom, she said she had a different brand of starch spray. It too had shrunk by two ounces. Could manufacturers be colluding together to all decrease their products by the same amount at the same time? I've heard of price-fixing, but what about the legality of size-fixing? In any event, Mark emailed customer service about the new package. Their cheery reply, inside... More »
—>Reader Luke noticed that the grocery shrink ray mercilessly zapped his bottle of White Rain shampoo— but mysteriously left the "33% more" label untouched. 33% more than... what exactly? More »
This morning, very early in the morning, we were on KTLK in Minnesota talking about, yep, you guessed it, the Grocery Shrink Ray. Clip is here. And earlier this week we were featured in an article in the UK's Observer. More »
—>Is your supermarket the victim of The Grocery Shrink Ray, the force that is shrinking how much product you get while keeping the price the same? Here are three antidotes: More »
—>Nothing is safe from the Grocery Shrink Ray: not babies; not household brands backed by expensive ad campaigns; and apparently, not even discount private labels. More »
—>Logan thought this bonus pack of Colgate contained two equally-sized tubes of toothpaste. After all, the boxes are exactly the same size. Yet when he opened the bonus box, he found a smaller box containing a mini tube of toothpaste. More »
—>Andrew writes: More »
—>NPR's Michele Norris on "All Things Considered" did a nice interview with me about that deadly Grocery Shrink Ray sweeping supermarkets across America. It looks like it just aired, you can listen to it online here. If you want to look at previous stories in the Grocery Shrink Ray series, check 'em out here. And if you have a example of a product that is shrinking in terms of volume or net weight and you want to submit it to us for a possible post, just send it on in to tips@consumerist.com. More »
—>Michael sends in this latest Grocery Shrink Ray victim, found at the Petsmart where he works. He writes, "The price is the same, and the 20lb bag is apparently being "upgraded" to an 18lb bag. This was the only 20lb bag left, but consumers who pay attention may be able to still be able to find some of the larger bags in stores." More »
—>Reader Max writes in to let us know that Kraft's Zesty Italian Dressing has (allegedly) not been hit by the dreaded grocery shrink ray— a fact that they proudly display right on the bottle! More »
—>Violating every conceivable standard of decency, the Grocery Shrink Ray has unleashed a heartless attack on baby cheese. Mini Babybels, those adorably pudgy wax-encrusted cheese cylinders, were once allowed to grow until they reached 132 grams. Now, the Babybel's are a stunted 120 grams. More »
—>The grocery shrink ray doesn't just target food. It's coming after your baby's diapers. More »
—>Media interest in The Grocery Shrink Ray sweeping across America continues, I was interviewed recently by CNNMoney.com, The Brian Lehrer Show, and Agence France-Press. Everyone knows prices are higher and manufacturers need to pass them on somehow. I don't like the method of shrinking sizes while keeping the prices the same. Or when they combine it with a package redesign, hoping we'll be so distracted by a new spigot that we won't notice we're getting less. My local pizza parlor went about it differently. They raised prices and taped up two articles explaining how rising wheat costs are driving up the cost of making pizza. They didn't, however, cut their pies into 12 slices instead of 8. More »
—>Starting this week, a few portions are smaller and prices higher at Arby's in the OK-KS-MO-AR region. Here's the aftermath: More »
—>It looks like the fell Grocery Shrink Ray may have hit cans of Arizona Ice Tea, reducing the size of their 12 oz cans to 11.5 oz cans. We couldn't find any definite pictures of 12oz Arizona Ice Tea cans, but we did find them being sold on this website in 12 oz cans. What happens to a product when the shrink ray hits it? I imagine it goes eek! eek! eek! and the last eek is an octave higher than the first. More »
—>Where did those two ounces of yogurt go? The dreaded grocery shrink ray has blasted them to oblivion, my friends. Not even store brands are safe. More »
—>Here's the clip of yours truly, Ben Popken, on FOX 13 Tampa yesterday talking about the Grocery Shrink Ray that all the writers on the site have been doing a great job of covering. The interview was done over Skype webcam and I think it came out pretty well. "Shrinkage" and "downsizing" may be nothing new, but I think we're going to see more goods shrinking and by greater degrees in the coming months. It's practically a secret inflation. At the end of the story they say that some manufacturers are considering doing away with gallons of milk and instead selling 3/4 of a gallon, for the same price. If that happens, I think a lot more messages like the recording of the good ol' boy upset over the downsized Jimmy Dean's sausage are going to be left on customer complaint lines across America. As the guy in the New York Daily News shrinking package article (which I was also quoted in, whoo), said, "Soon people will be buying empty bags and empty boxes." More »
Consumerist Editor Ben Popken (hey, that's me!) talks about the grocery shrink ray today at 5:30 PM Eastern on WTVT-TV FOX 13 in Florida. More »
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—> Kellogg has confirmed that the much-feared grocery shrink ray has now focused its malevolent beam on Apple Jacks, Cocoa Krispies, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks. Boxes were shrunk by an average of 2.4 ounces. More »
—>These Sun Chips have shrunk from 11.5 oz to 10.5 oz and are still being sold at the same price. "Not even healthy foods that normally are already sold in smaller portions are safe," says tipster MasonTwo who spotted these on the shelves at Walmart. CNN says the products most vulnerable to the Grocery Shrink Ray are paper towels, potato chips, sticks of gum, toilet paper, detergent and candy bars. Hey, look at the bright side, maybe the Grocery Shrink Ray is just what we need to fight the obesity crisis. More »
—>Tony Roma corporate sent Alex the following response to his complaint over being sold a 16 oz beer and getting a 14 oz beer instead: More »
—>UPDATE: Tony Roma Corporate Responds To Shrinking Beer Complaint More »
Attention Floridian Consumerists! Provided everything goes according to schedule, I will be on Fox Tampa Thursday during the 10pm newscast, talking about the mysterious Grocery Shrink Ray sweeping across America. More »
—>Although we've been covering the unpleasant phenomenon of the grocery shrink ray for a while, we've been slightly relieved that the shrinking products were things like soap, gum, and orange juice—not crucial staples of our existence. Not anymore, according to the Wall Street Journal: Bars and restaurants are shrinking their beers. The horror! More »
—>The grocery shrink ray continues firing unabated, this time scoring a direct hit on Dawn soap. Reader Courtney reports that Dawn containers, once a proud 740 ml, have now shrunk to a mere 650 ml—a loss of 90 ml of bleach-alternative cleanliness! More »
—>Now that you have to buy more packages of your favorite orange juice, ice cream, and butter to get the same amount of the product as you used to get in one package... you're bound to have more garbage, right? Just a little bit more? More »
—>Joel loves his orange juice and is none too pleased with Tropicana's recent decision to shrink their containers by 7 oz. He fired off a complaint through Tropicana's website, and was pleasantly surprised when the company responded with a coupon for a free carton of shrunken sweetness. More »
—>Reader Linda is unimpressed with Tropicana's new "easy pour pitcher" because it means she'll be getting 7 oz less orange juice for the same price. So, she called them up and gave them a piece of her mind. More »
—>If you're sick of ice-cream makers shrinking their package sizes, maybe you should try Brigham's ice-cream. They're still selling true quarts and true 1/2 gallons, with 15.5% butter fat and 55% air. They might be hard to find in some places but they're the number-one selling vanilla in Boston. Non-deceptive labeling and sizes, wicked! More »
—>Attention Ice Cream Lovers: The evil entity wielding the grocery shrink ray has pointed its malevolent device at Edy's Ice Cream. The standard jug of ice cream is now 1.5 quarts, down from an already-shrunken 1.75. The price, naturally, is exactly the same. More »
