These incredibly shrinking products are putting a stealth squeeze on our already thin wallets.
More companies are downsizing their packages — but many consumers don’t realize they’re getting the shaft because price and size changes are carefully camouflaged.
“We get a ton of examples of these from readers,” said Chris Morran of the Consumerist Web site. “You pay the same price but you get less product.”
Not even supermarket standards like the 5-pound bag of sugar are safe from shrinkage. The new normal: 4 pounds of the sweet stuff per bag.
Ivory Soap bars have slimmed down — going down from 4.5 to 4 ounces.
Toilet paper, once sold in standard 4.5-inch-square sheets, now may be so narrow that it slides out of your wall holder.
And you can’t buy a pound of Oreos anymore — they’re now just 15.5 ounces to a package.
“Companies do a lot of research to find out what’s more palatable to consumers,” said food-industry analyst Phil Lempert.
“They’re always trying to figure out the balance — raise prices or decrease sizes. When commodities prices rise, somewhere somebody’s got to pay for it.”
Large-scale studies confirm that consumers are extra-sensitive to price changes, leading more manufacturers to maintain steady prices — while miniaturizing products.
Some companies try to bluff their way past shoppers’ rip-off radar.
Mueller’s 25 percent downsize of its spaghetti packages, from a pound to 12 ounces, features a box design that flags its “NEW — 6 servings” quantity. Of course, that’s two fewer servings than the old box contained.
Those classic stacks of Premium saltine crackers proved too easy to count when Nabisco tried marketing smaller packages, and consumers protested.
So the company rolled out a line of round saltines, packed loose in a bag.
Both square and round versions sell for the same price — but the “new and improved” crackers come in much smaller packages, boosting the unit price that shoppers pay. And some local markets offer only the more expensive option.
Consumer advocates like Morran recommend checking the unit price, not the price on the package, so that you know what you’re paying for each ounce or pound of a product.
“I just wish companies would be honest about this,” he said.
“What really irritates people is that the sizes almost never go back up.”