The Great 'Shrinking Food' Hunt

sjw360

Nestle ice creams, Smarties, Milky Bar etc, has reduced in size over the last 2-3 years. It used to be 1L, then dropped to 950ml and now is 800ml. It still costs the same, £2, but you now get 20% less.

Asda's own brand ice cream is now 900ml and I'm sure it used to be 1L not that long ago, and of course the price is the same.

I also wonder what effect this isn't having on the retail price index. The supermarkets/manufacturers can say they're keeping prices down but in fact they're just fooling us.

Jesthar

Jayboy wrote: »

Schloer down from 1 litre to 750mls but same price.

Exactly that happened to Appletiser and it's various relatives a couple of years ago when they switched to the teardrop shaped bottle.

I still have some Old Style OXO cubes at home, plus some of the new - will try and remember to have a look at the boxes when I get home, see if they still make the same amount of stock, as in this case it is that which is the true measure of whether it has shrunk in size or not.

Morrisons reduced the number of slices in some of their prepackaged Carvery brand sliced cold meats from 5 to 4 slices per pack at some point over the previous six months, can't remember exactly when. No change in the price, though...

grad

This has shrunk too.... Together with Orange Barley Water it is the most expensive in their range, so the made it smaller !!!

glider3560

Many stores are now lowering the size of milk cartons.

1 pint (568ml) has become 500ml.
2 pints (1.136l) is now 1 litre.
4 pints (2.272l) is now 2 litres.

graemedl

Not quite shrinking in pack size but Dairylea "spreadable cheese" seems to have less cheese in it and more milk. Don't have th epacket in front but cheese content is only 20-something percent

It's so thin these days its spreads easier than flora.
The triangles are also much stickier than they used to be - though the ones shown in the current TV aren't -I'm more likely to squeeze it all over my hands when I pull on the little tape than end up with a perfectly formed wedge of processed cheese to put on my digestives.

horsechestnut

Large bottles of Lemon Juice have disappeared from Tesco and Lidl. When I couldn't get the 500ml size from Tesco, I felt that the 250ml size was too expensive so I went to Lidl, but they didn't have them either. I bought the Lidl smaller size but having just looked at it I realise that it only contains 200ml!!!
You really have to watch out for minced meat as the packs vary from 300, 350 400, 454 (1lb) 500, 600 to 1000g. This happens particularly when they are on "offer".

passatrider

I noticed that 'Cadbury Chocolate Trifle' had been launched as a handy twin pack in some smaller tesco stores, yet the size had shrunk and the price per pot had remained the same!

Only way to send a message to the big brands is to shun them and make your own produce from scratch!

moneyspendingexperts

Beck's came in boxes of 20 then 18 and now 15. The reduction in size has happened in about a year. The prices don't seem to have been reduced.

kalimai

Finish dishwasher tablets. Went to pick up the boxes of 45 tabs the other day at Tesco as they were doing bogof. Half the boxes were 40 tabs, but the same size box and price. Obviously they are getting rid of the higher quantity ones to replace with the smaller ones.
I know it's only 5 tabs, but they are expensive. Every penny counts!

rjhempel

Tesco have done this little trick with the finest frozen king prawns.
They used to sell for £5 for a 250g pack, then they upped the price to £5.50 and made the pack smaller down to 200g, as if people wouldn't notice.

Clearly someone noticed as the price has stayed the same, but the size is up to 225g, which is still not what it was.

So Tesco are being rather naughty with something that some might consider a luxury, but when you work out how much extra they are making per pack, it is quite a shock.