Grocery Shrink Ray has struck again!

[captpackrat]

I found an old box of Tuna Helper buried in the back of the cabinet.  The expiration date on it is from 2008.  I'd just bought a ton of * Helper, and this box seemed unusually heavy.  I checked the weight and it said it contained 8.4 ounces.  I checked the other * Helper boxes, and they were all 4 to 6 ounces!

The instructions also call for a 7 ounce can of tuna.  Good luck with that, since almost all tuna comes in 5 ounce cans now.

Nothing like a little time capsule to show just how much the manufacturers have been shrinking their products.

Comments

[twigmouse.livejournal.com]

Annoying, isn't it?

Another thing along those lines that always bothered me was renaming sizes. I've been to several pizza places that cycled all their sizes down. Large is now "Family", Medium is now Large, and Small is now Medium. It break the rules, since "Medium" is defined as "around the middle of a scale of evaluation". So by definition, medium =/= small!

Grrr. I hate it when retailers and/or advertisers insult my intelligence.

[mikosquirrel.livejournal.com]

Weeeeeeell.. in olden times, ordering a "medium" pizza in America was a bad idea for anyone not used to ramming American-sized portions down themselves, unless they were going to have help eating it. "Medium" may be the wrong word, but you can't just go around calling enormous things "small". That doesn't wash either.

[twigmouse.livejournal.com]

Agreed!

Portion sizes here in Australia are more reasonable (though no less expensive) ;-)

[mortonfox.livejournal.com]

I noticed that effect in ice cream first. Where you used to have half-gallon cartons of ice cream, those shrank to 1.75 quarts and then to 1.5 quarts.

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

Specifically with the HHs, that changed recently, in the last six months. I noticed it when I made Tuna Helper a few weeks ago and it called for two cans of tuna instead of one. It used to say to add the tuna late to lighten the flavor, and now it says to only add one can of tuna.

On the plus side, less sauce mix means less sodium, hopefully.

[equusmaximus.livejournal.com]

It's all a system of Universal Balance...

Portion sizes in the grocery stores have to go down to offset the increase in portion size in FAsT-Food restaurants. With the exception of the pizza-places that twigmouse mentioned, I've seen the sizes on a constant increase. Using McDonalds as an example, What used to be Large is now Medium, what used to be Super-Sized is now just Large, the former Medium is now a Small, and I think the previous Small is now the Kiddie-Sized drink that comes in a Happy Meal. The size of their burgers hasn't changed that I've noticed, but the prices has sure gone up. :\

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

Remember coffee in one pound cans? Or three pound plastic coffee containers (last check it was two pounds, ten and a half ounces)? Shrinking volume keeps the price constant or slow to increase while maintaining the appearance of identical product.

A co-worker brought Suzy-Q's in for break the other day and I couldn't believe how small those had gotten to!