Look here we are being ripped off!!!!!

[rferris75]

American supermarkets are epics of excess: it often seems like every item in the store comes in a "Jumbo" size or has "Bonus!" splashed across the label. But is it possible that the amount of food Americans are buying is, in fact... shrinking? Well, yes. Soaring commodity and fuel prices are driving up costs for manufacturers; faced with a choice between raising prices (which consumers would surely notice) or quietly putting fewer ounces in the bag, carton or cup (which they generally don't) manufacturers are choosing the latter. This month, Kellogg's started shipping Apple Jacks, Cocoa Krispies, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks containing an average of 2.4 fewer ounces per box.

 

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[diggemall]

No surprise here

Somewhere I read that "quart" size containers of some food products, that we have all grown accustomed to being quarts, are no longer 32 oz. - they're something like 29 or 30 oz..............

Caveat Emptor

Diggem'

 

[ramjet2187]

How long has it been since you've seen a half gallon of ice cream?

 

[rferris75]

I havent been paying attention, but now I will be.

 

[BuckleBoy]

Well, they have to pay huge shipping expenses so I can see why they'd either raise the price or cut the content. What else can they do? They don't label the boxes as 32 ounces when they are really 30 ounces - so it's not like they're lying to us. What's the big deal? I mean, something's gotta give.

Exactly. If we actually cared about the crap food that we eat, we'd read what's in it--and be informed consumers. Hell, that'd take us actually feeling the pinch at the pocketbook directly (which is what this post is touching on), rather than the health care costs to our wallet and insurance premiums 20 years down the road because we've eaten so much Crap Food.

 

[Farmercal]

Spaghetti sauce has been dropping from the old 32 ounces down the present 25.5 ounces for the last 20 years. This isn't new, they have been doing it to all foods. Coffee used to sold by the pound not xx ounces. Sugar used to only be in 5 pound bags, now 4 pounds is the norm. It's a shell game they have been playing for years and you just caught on?

 

[Zephyr]

I noticed years ago that paper marked 8 1/2 x 11 was actually 8 x 10 1/2. This wasn't isolated to one manufacturer....

 

[Montana Jim]

How long has it been since you've seen a half gallon of ice cream?

Yea... I am an Ice Cream fiend... they have mostly all dropped in size.

Same Bat Price though!

 

[G.I.B.]

Talk about getting ripped off....

Go to Home Depot, Lowes, or any home improvement center, and measure a 2X4

 

[Montana Jim]

Talk about getting ripped off....

Go to Home Depot, Lowes, or any home improvement center, and measure a 2X4

You mean a 1½" by 3½" ?? It's been like that my whole life... it's due to planing and drying after actually being rough cut at 2x4.

 

[savant365]

The best thing you can do to save a little money or at least get the most for it at the grocery store is to find out what the item costs per ounce. Sometimes the bigger packages are not the bargains they seem to be. Potato chips are a good example, the family size bags almost always cost more per ounce than the regular size bag. There are only 2 grocery stores in the town I live in, Wal-mart and Hy-vee, the lack of compitition here kills us. It is a 45 minute drive to the nearest city with several stores and gas prices wipe out anything we can save by driving there. The fast food restaurants are just as bad, McD's just started the dollar menu that the citys have had for years and their combo meal prices are higher the other McD's where there are more than one in a town.
It's pretty sad when I can take my 2 kids out to eat and it's cheaper then buying groceries though. I am no economist but I am cheap and I like to get the most for my money. I completely understand the companies wanting to make as much profit as they can but when they insult my intelligence by trying to trick me into spending more money for less product it pisses me off.
It may not sound like much but saving a few cents here and a few cents there really does add up. I remember working for Domino's pizza we had to do prep work to get ready for busy times and making the pizza sauce was one of the jobs. It consisted of emptying 3 #10 cans of sauce into a large plastic container to be used on the make line. The owner had us add 1 #10 can of water to each sauce tub, it didn't thin out the sauce too much but over a years time just by adding that 1 can of water saved him/made him $6,000.00.
Paying close attention to every item you are buying is more important now then ever.

 

[Smee]

It is a shell game, but the reason we see it is simple . . . but most of us miss it. It stems back to the price controls of the Richard Nixon era. (Don't blame the Dems for this, because it was a REPUBLICAN idea that has screwed us for decades!)

There was a price freeze. All prices had to stay the same on every item you sold. Well, some genius figured out a way around the problem (give business a chance and they can always find a new way to screw you).

If you could not raise the price on the existing 16 oz can of coffee, what if you put it in a new package of 15 oz? Well there was no 15 oz price that you had to adhere to because you had never sold a 15 oz can of coffee. Now, if you can sell 15 oz for the same price as you were getting for 16 oz, then let's start selling it in 14 oz or 13 oz.

This accomplishes 1 thing for the merchant & manufacturer: They could get around the price freeze and make more on each ounce of coffee even during a government enforced price freeze.

This accomplishes 1 thing for the government: Since there was never a 15 oz package of coffee, the fact that your cost per ounce increases will not show up in the consumer price index because these are based on the packages being the same size. A new package --- even if the price per ounce doubles --- cannot be compared to a different package. Then it went from full ounces to partial (1/2 oz or 1/10 oz difference from the previous package).

They found this also worked by making a new cut of meat, or even "renaming" an old one.

Best of all, no one has to tell you that they have started giving you less product. You should read the label on every single package every single time you go shopping. This justified not telling us that the "per ounce" price actually increased without "inflation" happening in our economy.

The practice continues as a way to increase profits without the ignorant masses noticing, and having to face something like the beef price protests of the 1970's. Ground beef had reached historic price levels, the housewives of the US protested and the price came back down to near or below $1 per pound.

 

[Bassfish]

Pound of bacon is now 12 ozs most of the time

ditto for most hot dog packages

a pound of coffee is the exception these days.

I feel sorry for the poor egg farmes, they kind of pigeonholed themselves when they came out with that goofy looking carton!

 

[diggemall]

I feel sorry for the poor egg farmes, they kind of pigeonholed themselves when they came out with that goofy looking carton!

They're workin on it:

Diggem'

 

[gametalman52]

Blue Bunny ice cream, still a half gallon and that's how they advertise.

 

[Zephyr]

I noticed years ago that paper marked 8 1/2 x 11 was actually 8 x 10 1/2. This wasn't isolated to one manufacturer....

Are you talking about inches? I just measured my printer paper and my photo paper - both are 8-1/2" x 11".


Some of the bull posted in TNet is just plain ridiculous. How can anybody post such tripe and still have the courage to continue to logon? Zephyr, I am just astonished to read your statement. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and presume you used a broken ruler. Sheesh.

Well, a little mea culpa on my part. Remembering back, the pages were actually 8.25" x 10.75" (though the packaging clearly stated 8.5x11), measured with the rulers being sold in the same office supply stores. And if you had read my statement carefully, you would have noticed that I did not say "all" paper manufacturers.
I know what I saw, but I don't blame you for being skeptical....

 

[rferris75]

It all boils down to this the things we are used to buying are gonna be shrinking.

 

[flyinguy]

Talk about getting ripped off....

Go to Home Depot, Lowes, or any home improvement center, and measure a 2X4

1.5x3.5. drives me nuts. but older stuff was even worse. no exact size.