The Grocery Shrink Ray is the reason why a “half gallon” container of ice cream is no longer half a gallon (with notable exceptions), and why toilet paper squares are no longer four inches. Products shrink almost imperceptibly over time, sometimes disguised by a package redesign. The latest place it has hit? Junior Mints.

Arguably, we as a species could stand to eat less sugar, but that isn’t really the point here. The point is that reader Jim happened to buy two boxes of Junior Mints at the moment when the candy was transitioning from 4-ounce boxes to 3.5-ounce boxes. This was a noticeable difference when he was holding both boxes at once, but probably would have been less noticeable if all of the larger boxes were gone.

CVS has already corrected its systems, though. “Naturally I bought
the larger ones,” Jim wrote (naturally), “but they rang up as 3.5 ounces, confirming the same UPC code.”

Keep an eye out for shrink rayage. Stay alert, and always pick the larger package when shrinkage is at hand.

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