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Supermarkets Grocery Shrinking
omen666
Posts: 2,206 Forumite
Shamlessly stolen from another forum..........
it would seem that the greedy gits are bamboozling customers using subtle resizing of grocery items while still keeping prices the same......so you fork out the same money and actually end up with less!!Nice!
some examples to keep an eye out for
* "Tescos have changed the packages for their Bakery "Tiger" bread - you now get 600g instead of 800g."
* Shredded Wheat - many of you pointed out that there are 27 in a pack instead of 30. All for the same price.
* "Muller Vitality yogurts were 150g they have just shrunk to 125g and are still at the same price."
"My wife used to buy Onken Lite fruit Mousses. These are now 1/3 smaller but are still the same price."
* "Organic Weetabix has recently reduced it's 'biscuit' size. Because it's sold as a multipack, there's no need to put a weight on the pack, but the nutritional information has changed and the pack is slightly smaller - but there are still 24 biscuits in a pack and that's how it's sold - very cunning!"
* "The obvious one is Pringles. They still come in the same size tubes but now hold 170g rather than 200g. There are still a few flavours with 200g in the tubes but most are now 170g."
* "Tesco sea salt that was in a 500g container was 93p is now sold in a 350g and is the same price."
* "Streamline jam was 480g for £1.19 is now 350g and is the same price."
Meat, fish, poultry, ready meals...
* "Tesco barbecue wings used to be 14 pieces--it's now 10."
* "I've bought Waitrose minced beef for years and it always used to be 550g but now all their minced meat is 500g for the same or more price."
* "ASDA ready meals was 6 for £4 now 5 for £4."
* "Birds Eye packs of what used to be 36 fish fingers have shrunk to 30 but the price has stayed the same."
* "Tesco changed their battered Cod fillets from 6 packs to 4 packs. They've changed the prices too but the net effect is an increase in price."
* "Look out for minced meat; beef, turkey and pork. 500g used to be the standard size but this has dropped to 450g in Asda. I also think salmon fillets have become smaller in Sainsburys but you don't notice because it 2 in a pack so you look at the quantity rather than the overall weight."
Alcohol, soft drinks, water....
* "Beer and lager from supermarkets is a culprit. I normally buy cases for cost effectiveness but the case size had already dropped a while ago from 24 to 20 but now it has reduced even further to 18 or 15."
* "The beer companies have been at it for ages with bottles. First it was a 24 pack of 330ml then it went to a 20 pack of 300ml, now its packs of 270ml and the price stays the same."
* "Strongbow have recently dropped from 18 to 15 cans in a case."
* "Tesco own brand cordial that used to be a 1 litre bottle had shrunk down to a 750 ml bottle but gone up in price by 20p."
Non-food...
* "There is more water in own brand items such as bath foam and shampoo to keep size and price the same."
* "Timotei has just changed the packaging of their product so that the cap is at the bottom - it looks smaller and costs 40p more."
* "Toilet rolls are now about three times the diameter and much thinner. The sheets have got smaller and by puffing them up with hot air in manufacture they are not as thick, and there are not so many on the roll."
* "Tesco value kitchen roll that I used to get 4 for 99p had shrunk down to just 2 rolls claiming that they are jumbo rolls."
* "A cheeky one from Tesco's as the hayfever season got under way..Tescos own brand of hayfever pills..I used to buy a box that lasted a month - one pill per day. One pill per day. The box had 2 blister packs each with 14 pills. NOW.. Same box but only HALF of the spaces are filled with pills.What a waste of packaging, what a bad consumer deal."
* "Rennie's is another brand that has shrunk package size. You used to get 96 in a box, now only 72 for the same price. And all this stress is giving me indigestion!"
* "Fairy liquid has an offer - buy 2 for £2. If you check the content its gone from 500ml to 400 ml. So we save 50p but lose 200ml."
it would seem that the greedy gits are bamboozling customers using subtle resizing of grocery items while still keeping prices the same......so you fork out the same money and actually end up with less!!Nice!
some examples to keep an eye out for
* "Tescos have changed the packages for their Bakery "Tiger" bread - you now get 600g instead of 800g."
* Shredded Wheat - many of you pointed out that there are 27 in a pack instead of 30. All for the same price.
* "Muller Vitality yogurts were 150g they have just shrunk to 125g and are still at the same price."
"My wife used to buy Onken Lite fruit Mousses. These are now 1/3 smaller but are still the same price."
* "Organic Weetabix has recently reduced it's 'biscuit' size. Because it's sold as a multipack, there's no need to put a weight on the pack, but the nutritional information has changed and the pack is slightly smaller - but there are still 24 biscuits in a pack and that's how it's sold - very cunning!"
* "The obvious one is Pringles. They still come in the same size tubes but now hold 170g rather than 200g. There are still a few flavours with 200g in the tubes but most are now 170g."
* "Tesco sea salt that was in a 500g container was 93p is now sold in a 350g and is the same price."
* "Streamline jam was 480g for £1.19 is now 350g and is the same price."
Meat, fish, poultry, ready meals...
* "Tesco barbecue wings used to be 14 pieces--it's now 10."
* "I've bought Waitrose minced beef for years and it always used to be 550g but now all their minced meat is 500g for the same or more price."
* "ASDA ready meals was 6 for £4 now 5 for £4."
* "Birds Eye packs of what used to be 36 fish fingers have shrunk to 30 but the price has stayed the same."
* "Tesco changed their battered Cod fillets from 6 packs to 4 packs. They've changed the prices too but the net effect is an increase in price."
* "Look out for minced meat; beef, turkey and pork. 500g used to be the standard size but this has dropped to 450g in Asda. I also think salmon fillets have become smaller in Sainsburys but you don't notice because it 2 in a pack so you look at the quantity rather than the overall weight."
Alcohol, soft drinks, water....
* "Beer and lager from supermarkets is a culprit. I normally buy cases for cost effectiveness but the case size had already dropped a while ago from 24 to 20 but now it has reduced even further to 18 or 15."
* "The beer companies have been at it for ages with bottles. First it was a 24 pack of 330ml then it went to a 20 pack of 300ml, now its packs of 270ml and the price stays the same."
* "Strongbow have recently dropped from 18 to 15 cans in a case."
* "Tesco own brand cordial that used to be a 1 litre bottle had shrunk down to a 750 ml bottle but gone up in price by 20p."
Non-food...
* "There is more water in own brand items such as bath foam and shampoo to keep size and price the same."
* "Timotei has just changed the packaging of their product so that the cap is at the bottom - it looks smaller and costs 40p more."
* "Toilet rolls are now about three times the diameter and much thinner. The sheets have got smaller and by puffing them up with hot air in manufacture they are not as thick, and there are not so many on the roll."
* "Tesco value kitchen roll that I used to get 4 for 99p had shrunk down to just 2 rolls claiming that they are jumbo rolls."
* "A cheeky one from Tesco's as the hayfever season got under way..Tescos own brand of hayfever pills..I used to buy a box that lasted a month - one pill per day. One pill per day. The box had 2 blister packs each with 14 pills. NOW.. Same box but only HALF of the spaces are filled with pills.What a waste of packaging, what a bad consumer deal."
* "Rennie's is another brand that has shrunk package size. You used to get 96 in a box, now only 72 for the same price. And all this stress is giving me indigestion!"
* "Fairy liquid has an offer - buy 2 for £2. If you check the content its gone from 500ml to 400 ml. So we save 50p but lose 200ml."
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Comments
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Excellent post.
Also, the smaller boxes of Shredded Wheat have shrunk from 18 to 16 in a pack. With no reduction in price, naturally.
One of the worst culprits I've spotted is Cadbury's Fingers (which I adore). About 10 years ago there was 227g in a box (half a pound).
Then they did the famous metrication trick which has been deployed on numerous bags of sweets - they downsized from 227g to 200g.
But the cheeky sods didn't stop there! Every year over the last 10 years, they've shaved off another 5-10 grams.
Last year it was 165g, and to my amazement it's now 150g!
They have this crafty way of keeping the box the same size, but changing the dynamics of the inner plastic tray so it curves upwards like the bottom of a wine bottle, and spreading the fingers out more thinly.
So they've actually made the product over 50% more expensive, and that's on top of the increases in the price of the pack which have been roughly in line with inflation.0 -
Thanks for the more info, I know this has been going on for years by all the supermarkets but I think we are now more wary of their ploys. Am sure there are far more out there that others have noticed as well.
The pringles one was the one that surprised me most although I did notice that the crisps were far lower down than I remembered.0 -
This post is so well timed. My son counts out Pringles into piles for everone and today he said someone must have sneakily eaten some because he was short. It nearly started world war three!
Thanks for this post - I shall show them all in the morningDoing voluntary work overseas for as long as it takes .......
My DD might make the odd post for me0 -
It's nothing new though is it? Chomps were 10p for nearly 20 years as far as I can tell, so they had to get smaller.
People complain when prices rise, but when costs of production rise, what do you expect?Toyota - 'Always a better way', avoid buying Toyota.0 -
this all make sense to me. keep the price the same and the consumer will not have a clue that the item is actually more expensive (ie you get less)
Doesnt really matter, as I buy what i like and what i want. I could buy cheaper other items, but dont want too
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I have an old loaf tin stamped on the bottom '2lb loaf tin' and today I bought another which stated '2lb loaf tin'. It is just over 1cm smaller in width, height and length to the old. About as useful as a chocolate tea pot for making a 2lb loaf then!Doing voluntary work overseas for as long as it takes .......
My DD might make the odd post for me0 -
It's nothing new though is it? Chomps were 10p for nearly 20 years as far as I can tell, so they had to get smaller.
People complain when prices rise, but when costs of production rise, what do you expect?
I think you've spectacularly missed the point of this thread.
This isn't a rant about prices rising. It's about the deceitful tricks employed by supermarkets and retailers to disguise price rises.
Why did Chomps have to get smaller? They could have simply stayed the same size but gone up in price by the rate of inflation, so that consumers weren't confused and misled.0 -
They could have simply stayed the same size but gone up in price by the rate of inflation, so that consumers weren't confused and misled.
I'll tell you why because consumers will moan even more if they just put the price up!
You don't have to go much far back in this forum to see how consumers moan at price rises. This is partly due to the fact food is becoming more expensive at source therefore wholesale food prices are rising more quickly than the rate of inflation. There have been a number of threads (as I've said) in this forum where people have had to have that explained to them.
Is the consumer being mislead?
Well you can see how big it is, if you're blind you can feel how big something is or how heavy it is. It's perfectly legal to launch a different sized product which contains it's exact size/contents on the front. Is this misleading people, of course not.
Consumers being confused?
Given my above answer when you can see the actual size of something and read what it's contents are then if someone says their confused then they're just being confused for the sake of it.
It would seem that some consumers just want to turn a simple task such as shopping into some kind of soap opera.
It's marketing yes, but it's what the consumer wants, they don't like price rises. I know it doesn't make sense, but thats consumer logic for you. So whos fault that then!deceitful tricks employed by supermarkets and retailers to disguise price rises.
Interestingly enough most people blame Supermarkets, look at the title of this thread. If you look at the list however more than half are branded products, the Supermarkets don't make those! This just goes to show though it's the wholesale end where costs are rising. So the above quoted statement is incorrect.0 -
I think you've spectacularly missed the point of this thread.
This isn't a rant about prices rising. It's about the deceitful tricks employed by supermarkets and retailers to disguise price rises.
Why did Chomps have to get smaller? They could have simply stayed the same size but gone up in price by the rate of inflation, so that consumers weren't confused and misled.
Tim has pretty much said it all.
Chomps got smaller because 'they were 10p'. That was the thing about a Chomp, you knew that of you had 10p left to spend in your trip to the sweet shop, you could have a Chomp. Hence, they couldn't be 11p, 12p, 13p etc. That was Cadbury's, not Tesco, etc.
People need to stop and think, which is the problem. Morrisons may have a ready meal for 89p and another supermarket may charge £1.50 for their own one, but is the other one ripping people off or putting in more meat and better quality ingredients?
Stores have price labels that say how much 100g costs, deceitful would be in removing them IMHO.Toyota - 'Always a better way', avoid buying Toyota.0 -
People need to stop and think, which is the problem. Morrisons may have a ready meal for 89p and another supermarket may charge £1.50 for their own one, but is the other one ripping people off or putting in more meat and better quality ingredients?
This one made me laugh
"There is more water in own brand items such as bath foam and shampoo to keep size and price the same."
Did someone really expect a 20p bottle of Tesco/Asda foam bath to be as concentrated as a £2 bottle of Radox!
The lager one is wrong. The packs went from 24 to 18 but the prices went from £14/£15 to around £10 or 2 for £18.0
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