Your Orange Juice is Being Squeezed at the Cash Register

In the last few months I have noticed that many products have become downsized. While shopping for some of the traditional foods that we normally enjoy for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners I noticed several changes. For example, the Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry sauce that I always buy did not look familiar. The can had a new label and two ounces less of the sauce. This amounts to having at least two servings less for about the same price.

According to the February 2011 issue of the Consumers Report, many other products have downsized. For example, Tropicana orange juice dropped in size from a 64 ounce to a 59 ounce size, a reduction of 7.8 percent. Kraft cheese singles have been reduced from 24 slices to 22 slices. Toilet tissue downsized by nine percent.

Kraft packages of Macaroni and Cheese elbow dinner (the Cheesiest) is a 7.25 ounce package and Macaroni and Cheese Spirals in a 5.5 ounce package. The shape of the spiral pasta makes it more expensive to manufacture so the company downsizes the amount and packages it a slightly smaller box and sells it for about the same price of the regular elbow macaroni. To save money, buy the regular elbow macaroni, it is cheaper to make, therefore, they make more of it and sell it for less and the kids really won't care about the shape of the macaroni.

Downsizing can also mean the product container may be the same size but the product contained within has had air whipped in to fill the container with what amounts to more air and less product. For example look at yogurt: The Yoplait Original container holds six ounces and Yoplait Whips contains a mere four ounces for about the same price, a difference of minus 33 percent.

There may be nothing we can do about the package sizes, however we can protect our spending from increasing and still enjoy our favorite products. In a survey taken by Consumers Report several years ago, those surveyed noticed that package sizes were shrinking. The reason is most likely to hide the increase in price.

Most people will notice a price increase before they notice the size of the package. Clever packaging and new, improved labels may keep most of us from noticing a price hike or being aware that we are getting less product for the same price of the former size package. Since most products come in a large range of sizes it is often difficult to notice the smaller packaging.

Protect your food budget by comparing prices. Look for price per unit, per ounce, quart, sheet, or pound. Compare name brands with store brands. Store brands are usually 25 percent less and the quality is just as good.

Most stores offer sales on certain items to get you in the store. Items such as soup, cereal, laundry soap and paper products are most often offered on sales fliers.
Warehouse stores such as Sam's Club or Costco offer items in bulk at reasonable rates which may allow you to stock-up and avoid waiting for sale prices.

Companies cannot afford to lose you as a consumer. Call the company, if enough people complain it may actually make a difference. When inquiring about price increases or product down-sizing the customer-service representative may offer coupons for your next purchase.

Source: Personal experience , Consumers Reports - February 2011