Objects On Your Shelf May Be Smaller Than They Appear

It has been a major peeve of mine over the years that the products we buy, particularly at the grocery store, have become smaller without an attendant reduction in price. It is a relative of the classic drug pusher scenario: you get hooked on the good stuff, then they go on to charge you more for less.

The first experience with this that I recall had to do with Kudo bars, the chocolate covered granola-ish snacks. These things were a revelation when they appeared in the 1980s: candy bars that Mom would put in your lunch! I have no hard evidence to back this up, but my subjective impression has always been that a few years after they were introduced, the size of the bars was reduced. They still packed the same number of bars in the box, but each had gone on a diet.

Ice cream has quite clearly gone on the product decontentization program. Remember half-gallons? The standard, rectangular box of ice cream? The freezer section of your local grocer still holds those, but the trendy brands like Breyers and Dreyers put out their product in little boxes that look like half gallons ... but are not. Like my favorite here:



It comes in the handy size of 1.75 quarts. The silent switch away from the half gallon has apparently been going on for a little while now. The manufacturers are pretty blunt about their motivation. The linked article quotes a spokesman as saying "do you raise the unit price or reduce the unit?" Brilliant! Pay more for less.

It seems someone else is interested in silly marketing techniques as well. This site tracks what it terms "mouseprint," the too-small-to-read fine print found in just about every product advertisement these days. I like the toilet paper package that promises the same number of squares as before, but doesn't mention that each square is smaller than it used to be. Or the "quart" of mayonnaise that is now 30 oz. rather than 32 oz. This post, in particular, describes clearly the phenomenon I'm talking about.

The manufacturers continually claim that these measures are taken to avoid a price increase. Really? Does that mean that no price increases will follow for a while in the future to make up for the reduction in product? Certainly not. The standard upward creep of pricing can continue without pause, not giving a break to the buyer, while the manufacturer can reap the benefit of the big jump in profit margin.

We are all just grocery-buying frogs in the big stew pot, failing to notice how warm it's been getting lately, while clever marketing wizards stand at the controls, turning up the heat ever so gradually while telling us that they are giving us what we really wanted.

What I want is my missing .25 quarts of ice cream.