Scott was buying three boxes of Kashi Heart to Heart, because it was on sale and apparently time to stock up. He wouldn’t have noticed the difference if he had only one box, but he realized that the three boxes weren’t the same size.
I picked [up] 3 boxes of Kashi Heart to Heart at my local Hy-vee. Lucky me, it was on-sale. While standing line at the checkout I noticed that the boxes were not the same size. One box was partially crushed. I thought this was probably the culprit. But, when I straightened it out, it was still larger. Upon further inspection I noticed that one box was 12.4 oz and two were 12.0 oz. Curious! I wonder what the shelf tag says. It turns out the damaged box was the only one (of 10) that matched the shelf tag. And the only one I took home.
If the larger box is the one that matched the shelf tag, could it be that the boxes have become bigger? …no, someone probably would have bragged about that somewhere.
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I only see 2 boxes.
Nevermind, two were the same size and one was different. The shrink ray is at it again.
Kashi doesn’t love my heart as much as it used to. I’m sure there are reasons they will spin this as a benefit for consumers; I just can’t think of any right now.
Kashi has shrunk all of their cereals I believe. I know that the boxes for all of their shredded wheat type cereals shrunk in the last few weeks.
So he was going to buy three boxes, but he decided to buy only one because the other two had a whole 3% less food in them?
the sale was only on the last remaining larger box.
Although, the others may have been on sale too. Lots of places around me will have a sale on differnt sizes and it will say any 7.4 oz-9.2 oz or something like that.
There comes a time when you have make a decision about buying a product, and he made the decision to not buy. Believe it or not, 3% adds up over time.
I used to work for a big cereal company. One of the inside jokes was that the ultimate cereal box was basically 2 dimensional with maximum front panel area for marketing and minimum carton depth, filled with a product that had air as its #1 ingredient.
I was going to make some sort of sassy comment about Kashi not being a food, so there’s no loss when the shrink-ray is applied; but yours is better.
One of these things is not like the other.
They could get away with shrinking the box if they labeled the cereal as “NEW! BITE-SIZE FLAKES!”
It’s 12 grams. Get over it, that amounts to less than a mouthful probably.
At least they were honest about it, and if the box is smaller, they are prob trying to cut back on boxing/packaging costs.
So when Bunk of America wants to charge you $5.00 a month to access your own money, what’s your response? It’s no big deal, it’s only $5.00? Companies LOVE sheep with views like that.
Have you ever seen a ceral box that didn’t have a couple of inches of empty space on top of an air filled bag thats got another inch of space before the ceral starts? You want to save on packaging then get rid of that. Don’t then take out product to make the same situation.
This just happened to me on Saturday. My local grocery also had Kashi on sale, and I could get a box of Autumn Wheat for the same price as the store brand generic shredded wheat squares.
Picked up 3 boxes, got to the checkout and put them sideways on the belt, and noticed while they were all the same height, one box was a little narrower. Being aware of the ever present shrink ray, I looked at the weights: 2 boxes were 17.5 oz, and the third was 16.3 (if memory serves). I asked the cashier to wait while I went back to the shelf, and exchanged the smaller box for one that had the full amount.
I just hate this.
I’m on Kashi (owned by Kellogs) mailing list. They send coupons now and then. I recently “earned” a $2.00 off coupon by completing a survey. BUT their coupons require you to download and install a ‘coupon printer’. Sorry, no thanks Kashi.
Curious about who own organic and ‘natural brands? Great graphic at:
http://www.msu.edu/~howardp/organicindustry.html
The coupon printer thing is SOP for online coupons these days. It basically prevents the casual consumer from getting more than the allowed number of coupons. If heard there are ways of getting around it but to be honest I’ve never bothered since it isn’t worth it to me. If you want an online coupon though, you pretty much have to install a coupon printer. Most places I’ve seen use the same one at least so you don’t have to install something for every new website.
Make sure to check serving size info. Since they are shrinking the contents, Kashi may be trying to pass the smaller one off as a newer, healthier option. Personally I could care less about the volume of contents; its the health benefit per serving that interests me.
0.4 oz hardly seems worth it to have to redesign the box. What’s the payback period on that? (rhetorical question)
Playing devil’s advocate..
This might be one case where the “Shrink Ray” is a good thing. If you divide that 0.4 oz among the number of servings of cereal, you’re talking about a few pieces of cereal per serving that you are now missing (almost imperceptible).
So if your box of Kashi costs $3.99 where you live (as it often does here) it now gets to stay $3.99 and does not have to pass the $4 mark which would immediately turn off more customers than the loss of the 0.4 oz. $4+ cereal is *expensive* where
I worked at a Hy-Vee all throughout high school and most of my college breaks when I was at home. It was a really great place to work. I worked in the food service area (Hy-Vee’s Kitchen) and they always needed extra help during Thanksgiving and Christmas because of all the heat and eat meals that people ordered.
People ordered entire meals that included meat (turkey, prime rib, ham), rolls, desserts and side dishes (mashed potatoes, stuffing, macaroni & cheese, green beans, cranberry sauce etc).
I don’t understand how a change in product size of 0.4 ounces is a story, and the tip I submitted a few weeks ago about how I found a giant shard of glass in my jam isn’t (I included a clear photo — the glass was 1/3 the size of the jar itself… huge). Haha. I will never understand the Consumerist story selection process.
Do people really have time to worry about .4 ounces? I buy a product based on whether I perceive a good value, and .4 ounces won’t change that determination.
But go ahead and boycott them if it makes you feel better.