Sneaky Moments

I must confess, I am not overly enthused about shopping, not for clothes, groceries, hunting for bargains or coupons. There are times when I go shopping and yes, I do enjoy browsing, particularly in book stores and our Emporium (a nearby delightful candy shop located in a converted gas station).

When my wife enters the house after grocery shopping, I often hear laments on how much prices have gone up and how containers look the same but hold lesser amounts. It also complicates getting the right measurement in recipes. She is not alone. Look at what others are saying.

Consumers are beginning to encounter shrinking food packages where shoppers pay the same amount but get less. There's more. When Lisa cooked her usual three boxes of pasta, she was embarrassed because it wasn't enough as it used to be. Oh oh. Ms. Stauber bought 16-ounce cans of corn but they were 15.5, then 14.5 ounces and then for the first time she saw 11 ounce cans. Sneaky she said.

A marketing professor said that customers are generally more sensitive to changes in price than to changes in quantity but companies try to do it in such ways you don't notice, maybe keeping the height and width the same but change the depth so the silhouette of the package looks the same. Hmmm. Another professor commented that businesses had little choice these days when faced with increased costs of their raw goods plus high unemployment and fewer wage increases.

It seems that most companies reduce products quietly hoping customers are not reading labels too closely. And some companies keep hoping for better times so these alterations can be only temporary. Other companies make adjustments like wrapping the food better while including less arguing that freshness has been added. Sneaky?

Another professor said this downsizing began in the 1980s when a one-pound tin of coffee and a pound of nuts shrank to 13 ounces. Then a half-gallon of ice cream managed to shrink a bit. Same with a pint or quart of berries when their containers were replaced with similar but smaller products yet costing the same.

When the economy rebounds, will the continuous cycle of resizing disappear.? Maybe. That my friends is why I let my wife do the shopping. She's smarter and wiser.