The Great 'shrinking food and other items' Hunt

PlymouthMaid

When we have finished our shrunken food, we will now be able to wash up with our smaller Fairy liquid! I got my new supply in my online shop and it is now sat next to its big brother (same price but around 50 ml less - not getting up to check). Cheeky so and sos.

rosalie-lavender

I buy Tesco value washing up sponges. They used to be a pack of 10 and now are a pack of 8 for the same price.

Growurown

martparkes wrote: »

I have found that Bakers dog food has also decreased in size, and I just about caught it before I brought! They used to sell 1.5kg packets, and now they are 1.35kg, and 3kg bags which are now 2.7kg, I think the 6kg bags are now 5kg so losing a whole 1kg and they are still charging the same! Same size box/bag though which is deceiving, and in small print near the bottom you will find 'new size!' but its the same price as before in Tesco, and ive seen the new size charged at a higher price in other shops, I dont mind things decreasing in size if the packaging does too!

I bought a 2.7kg bag of Bakers Complete in Morrisons, cost £6. The following day saw a 5kg bag for £5.95 in Farm Foods. Almost double the amount for a 5p difference. Needless to say I took the 2.7kg back and got a refund.

ElkyElky

I can understand why they are shrinking foods and not the price but I'd be less inclined to hate the company if they left their products as is and increased the prices because price increases are inevitable in life but...

What I don't get is why they are delaying the inevitable? They are going to have to increase prices eventually, so why not just do it now? They can't keep shrinking foods until they are left with an empty packet costing the same amount.

maman

ElkyElky wrote: »

I can understand why they are shrinking foods and not the price but I'd be less inclined to hate the company if they left their products as is and increased the prices because price increases are inevitable in life but...

What I don't get is why they are delaying the inevitable? They are going to have to increase prices eventually, so why not just do it now? They can't keep shrinking foods until they are left with an empty packet costing the same amount.

I believe that when challenged about shrinking products companies do say that they do it because customers prefer to keep the prices low. Reading your post, you might be one of them.


Unfortunately, it's hard not to suspect that they also think we're mugs and we won't notice!


There's also the feeling that they put prices up because they can not because they have to. Of course there will be seasonal fluctuations with certain goods but I doubt many of these companies are, for example, increasing employees wages. Similarly they don't put prices down when there are gluts of some crops. What seems to be protected at all costs is profit.


I bet George Osborne hugely regrets saying 'we're all in this together'.


Sorry for rant but I feel very strongly that the people who caused this recession (bankers et al) are not the ones being made to live in austerity and pay for their mistakes.

System

The reason why many companies shrink their products is that most people may not notice a 4% reduction in size and will notice a 4% price increase.

We are not stupid as most of us buy the next jar/bottle/pack before the one we are using runs out.

JuzaMum

Iceland frozen chips - crinkly or skinny american ones. £1 at pack, used to be a 1.8kg bag but now 1.5kg

lovingtescoforever

mandy47 wrote: »

asda have redesigned loads of their packaging but I've noticed the weight has been reduced as well. bacon and various ready meals.

Noticed a 7pack of bacon in tesco the other day.
It always use to be 8 in a pack! :mad:

supermum4

mc'coys multi bags of crisps now only have 5 not 6 in

thor

ScarletMarble wrote: »

The reason why many companies shrink their products is that most people may not notice a 4% reduction in size and will notice a 4% price increase.

We are not stupid as most of us buy the next jar/bottle/pack before the one we are using runs out.

Well I reckon they would find it hard not to notice the latest little piece of deception brought to us by Cadburys(or at least I think it's them).
I usually only buy 4 packs of Wispa bars when they are on sale for a quid - a quite regular occurrence. I was going to put such a pack in my shopping basket yesterday when I instantly saw that they looked a lot smaller. Remembering I still had a partly finished wrapper at home, I elected to return the pack I was going to get and instead noted it's weight which was 120g. When I got home I took out my old pack and lo and behold the weight was 154g. So an individual bar had been cut down from about 39g to 30g while retaining the same sale price. I'm not buying Wispas again even though they are my fave choc bars.