Reader Bill noticed that someone hit Breyers Ice Cream with the grocery shrink ray… again:
I’m just getting over the first wave of ice cream shrinkage (from 1/2 gallon to 1.75 quarts) when I noticed today that Breyer’s is upping (or rather shrinking) the ante – they’re beginning to roll out 1.5 qt packages!
Bill
We checked Breyers’ website and noticed that they haven’t updated from the last time they shrunk their package:
Why have you downsized your Breyers 1/2 gallon cartons?
Over the last two years or so, a number of our ice cream competitors made the decision to reduce the size of their 1/2 gallon containers. At the current time, the price on all of our ingredients, most of all the fresh cream we use in our products, has gone up dramatically in cost. In order to remain competitive, Breyers has made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our basic pack to 56 oz. We believe this change is a way of mitigating the level of future price increases compared to what otherwise might have been the case. As always, you can expect the same great Breyers quality which has been our standard for over 135 years.
They are, according to Bill’s photograph, now down to 48 oz. At this rate, Breyers ice cream boxes are going to be about as full as potato chip bags.
(Photo:Bill)
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Tropicana did the same thing with their big plastic jug of not-from-concentrate OJ. It used to be 96 ounces (three quarts). Now, they’re highlighting a new package with a new spout and the package just happens to be 89 ounces.
Some Breyers flavors are even smaller at just 48 ounces.
@thebigbluecheez: Oh man, I love the Tillamook–but its not available everywhere. I used to live in the Northwest but now I’m in Arizona and I can’t find it here. Thankfully, the cheese IS available or I’d be having relatives ship it to me.
i totaly noticed this last week. my husband bought two boxes of ice cream. ours which was chocolate/vanilla was 1.5, and my MIL’s which was butter pecan was 1.75. how long had that butter pecan been hanging around the freezer case is what im really wondering.
wow, the exact opposite happened to me.
i went to get a dozen eggs, but lo and behold, the eggs were GIGANTIC…each easily weighing in at 10-15 lbs each, although the package, clearly busting at the styofoam seams, said 12 eggs 27oz.
now, you might ask, “is this for real?” and the answer my friends is, “no.”
what?
just so you know, saying “my friends” is the john mccain way of speaking down to you!
Why have you downsized your Breyers 1/2 gallon cartons?
Because everyone else is jumping off a bridge, we felt our customers would expect us to do the same.
In order to remain competitive, Breyers has made the difficult decision to give you less, charge you the same and try to fool you into thinking nothing has changed.
.
@AaronZ: Though this is probably just setting the new standard that Edys and Turkey Hill are going to follow
Edy’s already began going this route. My local shop really only sells their slow churned and “Loaded” lines. The Loaded line is a “frozen dairy dessert” and has the texture of being infused with air. you can compress a scoop into a tablespoon. VERY disappointing.
These round of hidden price increases via de-sizing is the same thing that happened in the 1970s. Then, as now, there was a commodity price spike. Look to see more of the same until the, inevitable, commodity price bust. (bust always follows boom).
Another reason I’ll stick with the store brand (Wegmans). Priced way lower than the competitors, equal quality, and still a true 1/2 gallon (for now). Other store brands are similar…or Turkey Hill since I can usually dig up coupons for them. Breyer’s and Edy’s are rip offs.
Breyers is currently owned by Unilever, the same people responsible for the country crock butter shrinkage.
surprised? no.
I’m willing to pay more for quality, even if it means less.
Unfortunately, Breyers isn’t what comes to mind when I think of quality.
I get pints from the local icecream shop down the street. Yum!
Like I said in an earlier post, Breyers is much more sneaky when it comes to their ice cream downsizing. Next time I’m in the grocery store, I’ll see if I can take pictures of an Edy’s pair and a Turkey Hill pair, both of which shortened the tub. Breyers shrunk the bottom, but not the top, and appropriately sloped the container to match.
This is a good thing for me. I tend to eat the whole tub in 2 days. So, less in tub = less in thighs.
I’d be upset if Breyers hadn’t started adding all the “natural” corn syrup and gums and garbage that makes it really disgusting.
So now I have no incentive to spend more money to get less fake ice cream. No problem.
How soon before this catches on in the gasoline business? “Wow, that gallon of gas is cheap!”
@etherealclarity:
Is the 13oz “pound” of coffee at 10oz yet?
@scoosdad: Metric,baby, metric for the ol’USA.
“Whoa there, gas is only $1 per liter at that store?”
1 gallon= 3.785412 liter and gas is now about $3.79/gal or more in some places…
MadameX, do you live near a Winco Foods? All the top-notch food brands based in the Pacific N’West are deep discounted there
Rite-Aid did this with the Thrifty brand ice cream(@ least the new tub-style package design is nifty)
@Bladefist:
Same price for smaller portion = higher price.
It’s “just that simple.”
Ice cream has become so expensive that I only buy it when it’s on sale. I refuse to pay upwards to $5 for less than a 1/2 gallon. It has definitely become a luxury food item.
Um, isn’t giving the consumes less for the same amount of money the same as raising prices?
@segfault: They are all mostly preservatives now. At least many of the Breyers flavors still contain sugar and not corn syrup.
As for Ben and Jerry’s, they have been using preservatives forever. I don’t eat it anymore because i can taste the guar gum.
@Pinget: Hear hear! I have a Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe I’ve been using for years, but now that they’ve shrunken the packages from 16 oz to 12 oz, it throws off my recipe a bit.
For years I had to listen to my husband tell me that breyer’s was the best ice cream, all natural. Not True! Now my husband is calling the cheap bastards. I wrote to Breyer’s about a year ago complaing that they had changed their recipe…no response. I guess their mother’s never taught them to be polite. Now they cheapened their size and they think we are stupid and wouldn’t know the difference….surprize. We have noticed your new recipes as well as your cheapening packaging. I guess your mother’s are proud of you now, MAKE MORE MONEY FOR YOUR COMPANY! When they were small I am sure that their mother’s gave them treats of the original Breyer’s. It was important to be natural. I am in controll of my shopping list and Breyer’s you have just been crossed off my list.
We can controll what they do by not purchasing their product. I for one would rather shop for a product that gives back to our planet and cares what they put in our food.
My question is->
WHERE IS THIS ICE CREAM $3.59??? Where I am, not only did they reduce the size by 25% but they increased the price from $4.99 to $5.49 (10% increase)!!
@Baronzemo: Oh please don’t talk about Winco- sweet sweet Umpqua ice cream and low prices. I’ve been waiting for them to draw to the Silicon Valley since I left the Pacific Northwest.
I just found out that Bryers had reduced the size of their 1.75 quart “half-gallon” to 1.5 quarts. The package is the same height, width and depth, but the smaller package tapers a little more at the bottom. To me THIS IS A PRICE INCREASE of about 16% which the company has decided to try to hide. I hate that form of corporate dishonesty. When they try to foist nonstandard sizes what else do they do to the product itself to reduce costs? My only response is to boycott their products and publicize these underhanded practices as much as possible.
“As always, you can expect the same great Breyers quality which has been our standard for over 135 years.” This is complete bullshit. Some PR person probably got promoted over that bullshit line. Breyer’s is in no way as good as it used to be. But they’re proud to be able to lie like that.
1. Look who has bought Bryers – Unilever.
2., See what that group does to anything – reduce size, diminish quality.
3. They are clearly no longer “natural” in the sense that ice cream is just that: cream that has been iced.
Gums are natural: yes – but so is horse manure. Would you want that in your ice cream?
this time BREYERS you’ve gone too far. downsizing enrages comsumers. when you reach one pint, then what?
inevitably the product loses quality as well. my supermarket ice cream even at 56oz is better and cheaper.
Deeply disappointed. Breyer’s was the family favorite since my dad was a kid (decades and decades), and now not only is Unilever putting it into shortweight packages but the proud boast of “All Natural” isn’t even true anymore. Used to be Breyer’s vanilla was just cream, eggs, skim milk, sugar an vanilla. Now it’s loaded up with corn syrup, guar gum, annatto (whatever that might be) and other fakeosity. Sad, sad, sad.
How cowardly of Breyers Ice Cream to pull off their recent 33.33% price increase for their 1/2 Gal. container of ice cream! Rather than having the stones to come out and say, “We must increase our price by 33.33%,” they merely said, We’re dropping the carton size to 1.5 quarts for reasons of bla-bla-etc.” (But we’re charging you consumer suckers the same price as we were for the two quart container.)
Do the math folks. That’s a 33.33% price gouging increase disguised with smoke and mirrors. This move was done in concealment, underhandedly and in poor taste to their customer base that has been a loyal one for years!
I plan a personal boycott against Breyers, and I recommend that all of you readers do the same. There are plenty of honest merchants with as good, if not better products.
I also plan to copy Breyers’ competitors on this communication.