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Curious!
I just bought a 5# bag of Domino sugar. Even the store brand is 5#.
I wonder why they downsized sugar in some areas of the country but not in others??
I miss the happy Domino's label...
Anyhow -- our grocery stores have a real push to premade foods, and from the amount of boxes of said foods in the trash we see, it appears people don't really cook anymore.
And aside from the growing frozen aisles, and the deli premade section also growing, "ingredients" food aisles are shrinking.
It's not like we arbitrarily survey garbage.... we push out trash dumpsters and usually end up redistributing the garbage in said dumpsters daily. Gives us a real up close clue as to what people do in our area.
I don't have a problem with sizes shrinking in principle.. it's just that the packaging needs to shrink along with the contents.. why should I pay extra for excessive and unnecessarily bulky packaging?
I don't have a problem with sizes shrinking in principle.. it's just that the packaging needs to shrink along with the contents.. why should I pay extra for excessive and unnecessarily bulky packaging?
I agree - I dont' think for the most part (aside form my box cake mix rant, LOL) people minding the shrinking - it's the "sneaky" aspect of it..... when things are made to look bigger than the are..
Last year, at the State Fair - I went up to a booth and bought a froz yougurt, the picture on the booth showed what looked like a regular swirly dish of soft serve. However - one you dipped the spoon in - the whole thing was hollow inside. It looked like twice as much yougurt as it really was! I didn't complain as I didn't really want as much as they looked to be serving , I just want some to cool down my toddler but man, it was sneaky!
Most of the items, I noticed but it didn't bother me too much..
except
CAKE MIXES ! grrrrr....the amount in a box now doesn't make anywhere near a nice two layer cake. Of course - the picture on the box still shows a "regular" looking two layer cake, but when I baked one the other day, the batter barely coverd the bottom of the two cake pans.
This one is a perfect example of something that is better off with having the prices raised than tamper with the quantity.
Well, actaully I do back from scratch, I'd say boxed cake mix and the odd batch of slice and bake cookies (again for the kids) are pretty much the only processed foods I buy.
The kids are very young and using the boxed mix makes it easier - the directions are pretty simple, ie - pictures of three eggs and the masurings cups, etc... So the whole process is done before they lose atttention. Plus sometimes the cake is for a birthday(one of the adults or aunt or uncle - these are for "family parties", it kinda gets them involved in getting things ready for the party.
I have an idea. Since cakes are pretty much mixed dry ingredients and wet ingredients and dump one into the other, you could easily mix up the dry goods in a zip lock bag and then draw pictures on construction paper for the wet goods, just like the back of the box. The dry stuff you could do a couple of days ahead (and out of their sight if they are inclined to get all worked up about it) and pull it out like a cake mix.
That way you get a real sized cake and not something that looks like it should come out of an Easy Bake Oven and the kids get the fun experience of making the cake...
I too am angry at the shrinking packages of food in the grocery stores and the deceptive packages (hollowed out peanut butter plastic jars, the 1" lip around the bottom of ice cream containers to make them look bigger than 1.5 quarts--used to be 1/2 gallon, etc). Oh, and the 4 for $5.00, 3 for $5.00, etc. Just give me the unit price! I don't need 4 avocados! I've even had elderly shoppers ask me if you had to buy all 3 of something advertised in order to get the discounted price. I said "NO." You only save pennies buying all 3 for $5.00 rather than what you need, maybe 1? You save NOTHING buying 4 for $5.00 compared to buying 1 at that price ($1.25 each). It's terrible. JUST GIVE ME THE UNIT PRICE!
The shrinking packages have been going on for a few years, at least since the 2008-09 crash. Shoppers are not stupid and I resent being thought of that way by companies who think we don't see the smaller boxes of pasta, smaller cans, smaller containers of juice and on and on. Now, they are charging more for a "luxury" item that is really just what the item was normally a few years ago. Take Scott toilet paper. The 1000 sheet rolls are so thin, they practically disintegrate taking it off the roll. Scott now offers "luxury" brand toilet paper for a premium price that is the same as the regular used to be!
And, have you noticed the size of bagged produce, such as a bag of apples? They call them "lunch box" apples and they are 2.5" in diameter, kind of like mini apples. Same thing with oranges, onions, etc. All the bagged stuff is shrinking in size, tiny produce. If you buy the apples, oranges or onions loose in the piles per pound, they are huge sizes and very pricey. I remember when bags of apples, oranges and onions were a normal size, not miniatures and a fair price. I've purchased the same bags of shelled almonds for years and the nuts are shrinking too, not just the package size. They are skimming off the larger almonds and putting those in a different package labeled: gourmet almonds and jacking up the price. Too much upscaling (and up-pricing) of everything that used to be considered normal. I need to find a place to live where I can grow some of my own food. I'm tired of grocery store rip offs and "boutique" farmer's markets.
just came in from shopping,and noticed the fun size package of the already miniature sized mars candy bars has gone from 8 to 6. I remember the days when they were 10 per pack. Pretty soon it will be four.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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I despise the 'portion police' via manufacturer
How responsible for good health are THEY???
More excuse to add 'fluff' (cheap) ingredients that make US 'fluff' - too
As an official 'Ice Cream connoisseur' (been making homemade for 50 yrs...), and CONSUMING far longer than that
The packaged stuff is getting out-of-control dinky '1/2 gal' and 'slow-churn' (Hint; please buy some extra AIR... i.e. chips).
Fortunately, we have a couple local 'producer co-ops' who have bucked the trend (for the most part). They get my excess dollars, and provide me with excess weight, a 'win-win' of sorts.
So BabyGirl is mostly on milk but we buy the Toddler Formula every once in while to have on hand (we travel alot and had a big blackout here last year). Anyway - the Husband grabbed it off the shelf and put it in the cart. When we got home, I took the old package out to pour the last bits into the new container... my first thought was that he had bought a larger size than normal - the canisters were the exact same size around, but the new canister was a good 2 or 2 1/2 inches taller. Both were still 24oz.... when I took the seal off the new canister there was a good two inches of "head space" .
I don't think the price had changed much , if at all.... but again it seems so sneaky.
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), and CONSUMING far longer than that
who have bucked the trend (for the most part). They get my excess dollars, and provide me with excess weight, a 'win-win' of sorts.
