This practice continues to make me sick. I'd much rather they just raise the price and stop trying to deceive consumers.

I'm suprised they aren't claiming it's using less plastic and better for the environment...

Maybe its more concentrated? Yea, this time around they made it more apple-y. Or something.

I personally think store brand works just as well. And why would I want my dishes to smell like apple while I wash them? Dishes aren't supposed to smell like anything when they come out of the dishwasher or get put away, is the apple smell while I'm washing dishes for my own benefit?

@Foibles and Weebles: Wow, yeah I missed the part where it's "hand soap," which can definitely be acceptable if it smells like apple - as far as I know, they don't make apple scented soap for dishwashing liquid. Or at least I hope they don't...but they do make lemon, so my opinion still stands.

@Foibles and Weebles: it's hand soap. Says so right under "Antibacterial". Which is the thing that would stop me from using it. (insert George Carlin immune system quote here).

I've had to warn my grandparents about this several times. They still function on the belief that there are companies that you can trust, when I really don't think there are anymore.

@Ayanami:

1) Costco(their Kirkland Signature brand?)...

[www.nytimes.com]

[www.nytimes.com]

2) ???

@Ayanami: My kids are going to be taught that overall, mankind is good, with the exception of credit card companies and people in charge of the shrink ray.

They're advertising the new size right at the top of the label, but in such a way as to make people think they're now getting more for their money instead of less.

@tekmiester: Actually, if the packages appear to be the same size, they are probably using more plastic as it would take a greater surface area to get those grooves and crevices deeper.

All this to save 21mL?

If you buy Apple Blossom soap you deserve to be sad.

@Foibles and Weebles: @larrymac808: It also says "Concentrated Dishwashing Liquid" under the "Dawn" logo. Anyone who buys something called "Ultra Concentrated Dawn Concentrated Dishwashing Liquid" to use exclusively as handsoap is an idiot... with really, really dry cracked hands

@Foibles and Weebles:
It does say hand soap at the bottom, but under the word Dawn it says "Concentrated Dishwashing Liquid." And you'd probably be surprised how many scents dishwashing liquid comes in..apple, lavender, citrus, spring flowers.....

@squatchie44: Some one could like to smell like an apple blossom? I am sure someone does.

@Mfalconieri:

That's 6.5% less that tends to add up when you're bottling millions of bottles.

Why 10.3oz? That's just...weird.

Oh, but the people who design the bottles deserve a high five because the bottle sizes look the same.

Yeah, it's lame, but at least they're not trying to hide it. It has a big "New size" splash on it, after all. Maybe consumers found the old size too large to handle (LOL!)

Well, as you can clearly see, the new 10.3 OZ version is 'Concentrated Dishwashing Liquid' while the old 11 OZ version is merely 'Dishwashing Liquid.' Therefore the 10.3 OZ version is at least .7 OZ better because it has another adjective used to help describe it.

As an aside, to clear up any confusion...this is a dishwashing soap that has antibacterial properties that apparently make it double as a handsoap. That antibacterial agent (triclosan) is at such a low concentration, though, that it is effectively ineffective (except when it comes to making antibiotic-resistant bacteria...but I digress).

@shepd: Its quite brilliant really, if you didn't know what the original size was, normal common sense would be "hrm, why would they advertise a smaller size, naw, must be a better value!".

@Foibles and Weebles:

i'm with you, i pretty much always purchase store brands.

@Heather A: We need to start a site or at least a listing of products that have been shrink ray'd and we just encourage people to stop buying these products. It'd be really fun to produce a roll of labels (kinda like the one's they slap on your window when you park illegally that take forever to remove)that whoever wants to, can carry with them in the grocery store and slap on the products that Consumerist has brought light to. I'd buy a roll of 100 or so.

Just to be picky, for this to be gen-yoo-ine grocery shrink ray, we'd need to know that the price remained the same before and after the change in size.

Let's not forget that some of the store brands are actually name brands with store brand labels. The stores get a deep discount by purchasing the unused production capacity from the name brands and the name brands make some money to cover the rest of their fixed costs that they would have to pay regardless if they make a product or not.

Large image is large.

It's everywhere. Thanks to the consumerist I pointed it out to my parents who are keeping tabs as well.

I didn't submit this, but Doritos Cool Ranch (among other brands) have taken quite a large drop as well. Nearly 30 grams I believe.

@Squeezer99:
Quite literally, the only thing I buy with is not store-brand is instant mashed potatoes. And that is a whole $.06 more per box.

@shepd:
I don't get the criticism here. Isn't the grocery shirk ray about deception? Now it seems like we're saying they can't change the size even if they're open about it.

The reason why this and similar products say "hand soap" on them is they cannot claim the antibacterial ingredient will be effective on dishes, but if you use it to wash your hands, it will be. I've never bought any fancy brand of dish soap unless it was cheaper than the others. Who cares what the soap smells like?

Come on....it's the high cost of oil that's the cause of the shrink-ray....oh, wait, that excuse was sooooooo summer of '08.

@Heather A: And they tried to make it sound like a *benefit* by claiming "new size," insinuating that the old size was "worse."

@Adisharr: Kind of like when the airlines saved millions of dollars by taking out 2 olives from every salad.

To be fair, they aren't touting the new size like it's some sort of benefit.

Just that it's a new size.

@tekmiester: Probably the reverse is happening -- volume scales roughly as height cubed, and surface area as height squared, so when you take out 0.7 ounces, I bet you have more plastic packaging per ounce of soap.

@taking_this_easy:

Blue Bell ice cream.

11 ounces sounds like kind of an odd size. Did it used to be 12? (The shrink ray isn't exactly new.)

@Heather A:

Sadly, they are doing both. Making the sizes and portions smaller and raising prices.

@LandruBek: Brilliant!

@Charybdis: Reminds me of 1984 when they "raised" the chocolate ration to 5 grams a week.

@mbz32190: I only care that the soap doesn't smell bad like rotten eggs...past that, I only care about its effectiveness.

Regarding the lead text "nearly and entire ounce" is 30% short of "an entire ounce". I for one wouldn't consider 70% "nearly" 100% by any measure.

Why hasn't someone covered the shrink ray hitting pepsi 12-packs (now 8-packs)?

I'd usually agree with all of the 'buy the store brand comments' but i have found Dawn to be a superior product for greasy clean ups. I keep a bottle of it for just these cases and use generic brands for general cleaning. Want an endorsement for my use of Dawn? you need to go no further than any large bike race and ask the bike techs what they use for greasey-grime cleanup on the bikes and many will say Dawn. There is a better bike-specific product just recently released though, by a company called 'Pedros' that is 'green' and biodegradable...

Next will be 3 1/2" nails that measure 3 1/4" and 60 oz. milk jugs.A great majority of shoppers don't bother to look at 'use before' dates, why would they look at content size? Producers know this and exploit it fully.

Shrink ray hit Tony's frozen pizza too.

@Heather A: Amazing is it not? I agree with you so much. Why can't we, the customers, have a standard size of everything? What is wrong with a 16oz (note: not metric size) or a 1/2 gal (again, not metric) size for what WE consume? It started with 1/2 gals of ice cream going to 1.75 liters and off to "I bet I can out confuse my customers faster and better than you."

@TonyTriple:

If this were the case, I bet they'd be plastering it all over that plastic bottle of theirs.

The oldest and largest shrink ray I remember is Wise Potato chips. In early 90's you could get 6 ounces of Sour Cream an onion for $1. Every few years the decreased the size now you get 2.5 ounces for a $1