Calorie-conscious consumers may not realize that 100-calorie snack packs slim both your waist and your wallet.

As a business concept, the idea is simple. Take an existing product, portion smaller amounts of it into single-serving bags, and sell several of the bags for about the same or more as a regular-size package.

Consumers do not seem to mind paying more even though they are getting fewer Goldfish.

“It’s the smaller bite sizes that resonate with people,” said Michelle Barry, a vice president of the Hartman Group, a food market research firm based in Bellevue, Wash. “I don’t think we see a lot of small sizes in this country. Everything tends to be supersized.”

“The irony,” said David Adelman, who follows the food industry for Morgan Stanley, “is if you take Wheat Thins or Goldfish, buy a large-size box, count out the items and put them in a Ziploc bag, you’d have essentially the same product.”

Instead of less junk food, try more fruit: it’s cheaper and healthier. Would you pay more for snack-size portions as a convenience food, or do you see them a waste of money? Tell us in the comments.

In Small Packages, Fewer Calories and More Profit [NYT]

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