The Incredible Shrinking Package

[Diggin It]

Ustacould find most everything in packages of uniform unit sizes, quarts, gallons, pounds, etc.

Then they started half units, pints instead of quarts. Strawberries and blueberries were in quarts or pints. Now I see blueberries in 6 ounce packages. Corn was always priced by the dozen. Then came half dozens. Now I see it priced by the ear. Bananas, peaches oranges and apples are priced individually in some places.

Canned and jarred groceries are in 30 ounce units instead of 32, or 15 ounce instead of 16. Soups are 10-3/4 ounces. Really?

Eggs in half dozens?

Some cheeses are in 6 ounce packages or smaller. I've seen 4 ounce packages.

I'm sure y'all can come up with a whole lot more examples.

 

[KennyG]

I'm sure a lot of this is trying to squeeze out a little more profit without increasing the shelf price, but some of it is responding to the market. We now have a much larger segment of one and two person households than we used to have. If you want to see small sizes, go to Europe where they don't "overconsume" as much as we do. You often buy eggs in 4 packs there and very small packages of all sorts of items.

 

[oosik]

But - its still nice to see items come in large "bulk" packaging. I will buy items in large quantities simply because I don't like shopping and it's a good long drive to the Costco store.

Now if the grocery store could be made more like the local hardware store or tractor store..........."special today on a dozen eggs and a six pack of moly grease". "Special this week - half dozen lynch pins or five pounds of grapes"

 

[LD48750]

But - its still nice to see items come in large "bulk" packaging. I will buy items in large quantities simply because I don't like shopping and it's a good long drive to the Costco store.

Now if the grocery store could be made more like the local hardware store or tractor store..........."special today on a dozen eggs and a six pack of moly grease". "Special this week - half dozen lynch pins or five pounds of grapes"

You need to shop at Rural King, you can get those combinations there.

I have noiced my 1/2 gal. of Ice Cream doesn't seem to last as long even though it is more expensive now.
Could have something to do with it's only 1.5 Qts. now.

 

[orezok]

Im still trying out figure out how they get 5# of sugar in the 4# bag

 

[shooterdon]

Most people do not check cost per unit. My fiancé is one of them. I have been doing it all my life...keeps the brain active and can save a few pennies here and there.

Occasionally, the smaller package is less than the "economy size"!! Go figure....but most do not.

 

[Big Barn]

Nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s just part of the aging process. (Apparently).

 

[Oldoak]

I'm sure a lot of this is trying to squeeze out a little more profit without increasing the shelf price

I'm not so sure about that. Some manufactures are producing smaller packages and increasing their price. And then there is always the exception like shooterdon pointed out "Occasionally, the smaller package is less than the "economy size"!!".

Unit price is the only price to go by when comparison shopping.

 

[3Ts]

like shooterdon pointed out "Occasionally, the smaller package is less than the "economy size"!!".

Typically a store will buy "by the pallet" - multiple pallet purchase (per pallet) is less than one pallet. So if the store buys one pallet of "economy size" and 10 pallets of "miniature packages", the price for "minatures" will be less.

 

[mrmikey]

Annoying to say the least. What really ticks me off is when they say something like, "now, smaller size but more concentrated, still makes the same amount of...." what came to mind was hot chocolate powder in a plastic bag, Carnation I think it was. I think I have seen tea bags labeled the same way. Paint...used to be IMP gallon, than went US gallon, then went liters..... .....Mike

 

[turnkey4099]

Ustacould find most everything in packages of uniform unit sizes, quarts, gallons, pounds, etc.

Then they started half units, pints instead of quarts. Strawberries and blueberries were in quarts or pints. Now I see blueberries in 6 ounce packages. Corn was always priced by the dozen. Then came half dozens. Now I see it priced by the ear. Bananas, peaches oranges and apples are priced individually in some places.

Canned and jarred groceries are in 30 ounce units instead of 32, or 15 ounce instead of 16. Soups are 10-3/4 ounces. Really?

Eggs in half dozens?

Some cheeses are in 6 ounce packages or smaller. I've seen 4 ounce packages.

I'm sure y'all can come up with a whole lot more examples.

The one I remember is the sudden, unannounced AFAIK the increase in the size of a paper towel, from a square sheet to a rectangle but the price of the roll remained the same. Brilliant, get the consumer to use a bigger sheet and we sell more the same size roll but it only lasts 2/3 as long.

I mentioned it on several forums. My solution was to cut every sheet in half rsulting in my getting about 1/8 more use out of each roll = less money per sheet....Then they came up with the "choice", perforated the retangular sheet in half also. At least it saves me the time to cut full sheets now.

 

[Oaktree]

Then they started half units, pints instead of quarts. Strawberries and blueberries were in quarts or pints. Now I see blueberries in 6 ounce packages. Corn was always priced by the dozen. Then came half dozens. Now I see it priced by the ear. Bananas, peaches oranges and apples are priced individually in some places.

Canned and jarred groceries are in 30 ounce units instead of 32, or 15 ounce instead of 16. Soups are 10-3/4 ounces. Really?

Eggs in half dozens?

Have you checked out tuna fish lately? It doesn't seem like all that long ago that it came in 7oz cans, now it's down to 5. Also, instead of one large piece in the can now it's a bunch of shreds and probably 40% water.

Some stuff, packages dropping an ounce or so are mostly to maintain price, not many people look closely or calculate unit price. What really gets confusing is when stores use different unit prices for similar products...I'll use sliced cheese as an example...2 packages, different brands, one unit price is $/lb, a competing brand is $/dozen slices. Sure makes it hard to comparison shop.

Produce has always been oddly priced...even in the same store some items are each, others by the pound. As far as corn goes, I've only ever seen it priced each or by the dozen.

I wish they'd sold eggs by the half dozen when I was single. I don't like them, and they don't particularly agree with me but sometimes you need one or two in a recipe. Hate to have to buy a dozen and have to throw 10 away a year later because they went bad.

 

[bunyip]

Some years ago spirits went from 750ml to 700ml but the price didn't change, Euro beers come in 330ml and our locals are creeping down from 375ml to 345ml and I suppose they will be 330ml soon.
Speciality cheeses and suchlike are always quoted at the kilo price then the weight and price is on the individual labels, with metric it is quick and easy to work out although block cheese comes in packs of 250g, 500g and 1kg.
Egg cartons are 1 dozen but have a division in the centre so you can break off six easily, there are also 36 trays which are quite popular if you like that many.
Chickens come in metric sizes number 1, 1.5, 2 etc which is the Kg weight.
Cigarettes (I don't smoke) come in 20, 25, 30 and 50 and start at about $30+ a pack of 20 (A good reason not to smoke).
Chocolate bars are shrinking in weight but not price.
Coke can are available at around $20 for 24, Pepsi about $12, why the difference I have no idea and I don't like coke but have the odd pepsi.
My tax has never shrunk, be nice if it did, same for fuel.

 

[Diggin It]

Has anybody noticed that some packages appear to be the same size and fit ion the same places on your shelves, but suddenly have odd sized detents in the bottom? They want the containers to appear full and seem the same size, so they push the bottom up another inch inside to reduce to volume.

I got some coffee that was something like 29.5 ounces though the blowmolded package looked the same as the 36 ounce cans next to it from the front. Then you saw the back half pushed in for a grab handle.

 

[Diggin It]

Egg cartons are 1 dozen but have a division in the centre so you can break off six easily, there are also 36 trays which are quite popular if you like that many.

But they calculate out to almost eggsactly ... err ... exactly the same price per egg. Ustabe that if you bought a quantity, you got a better price per unit. Buying 18 or 36 should work out better than buying 6.

Candy you mentioned ..... notice all the extra space around each piece now in the assortments?

 

[Diggin It]

I don't remember the items details now, but I remember pricing something in a big box store (might have been lightbulbs, not sure) where buying a case of six cost MORE than buying six identical individual items.

 

[orezok]

We do a lot of shopping at the Marine Commissary. All the items on the shelf have an electronic price display below them and a cost per oz/count for each item. Makes it easy to compare value.

I’m guessing that the price display is Bluetooth or similar and can be computer controlled.

 

[Ritothebull]

Anyone notice that the toilet paper rolls are getting shorter, just look at all the extra space on the sides of the roll when you put it in your holder. :confused3:

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^^

You need to listen to Sheryl Crow, and only use one sheet per visit. :thumbdown:

 

[Ken]

Remember when the Buck was worth value of a dollar and now takes almost 14 to have the same value.