The grocery shrink ray is a phenomenon that you may have noticed, where companies make their packaged products slightly smaller, charge the same price, and hope that no one notices. It’s not a new phenomenon, but the Office for National Statistics in the United Kingdom recently tallied up shrunken products in the last five years. [More]
Search results for: grocery shrink ray
United Kingdom Discovers 2,529 Products Hit By Grocery Shrink Ray, Calls It ‘Shrinkflation’
By 7.28.17
Federal Lawsuit Over Under-Filled Whoppers And Reese’s Pieces Boxes Goes Forward
By 5.19.17
Sure, it’s vaguely annoying that boxes of candy aren’t full all the way to the top, but most people don’t file federal class actions over a lack of peanut butter candies. A man in Missouri has done exactly that, claiming that boxes of Reese’s Pieces and Whoppers that he purchased were dramatically under-filled. [More]
Honest Co. Replaces Under-Filled Dish Detergent Bottles With Accurate Ones
By 3.24.17
We know when we go shopping that containers will usually have a bit of empty space at the top, a phenomenon called slack fill. In the case of Honest Co.’s popular dish detergent, bottles were under-filled by about 10%, and may have contained less detergent than stated on the label for years. [More]
Grocery Shrink Ray Strikes Cascade Complete Pods, Febreze Air Effects
By 3.15.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
When companies slightly reduce the size of a product instead of raising the price, that’s called the Grocery Shrink Ray. It’s often deployed at the same time as a packaging redesign to make the shrinkage harder to notice. Two brands from Procter & Gamble, Febreze and Cascade, have done this with their products recently, and our observant readers noticed. [More]
Are Nestlé’s Raisinet Boxes “Recklessly” Under-Filled?
By 1.6.17
By now most Consumerist readers are familiar with the Grocery Shrink Ray, where the amount of a product in a package shrinks over time to keep the price of the product consistent without decreasing profits. Sure, that’s annoying and perhaps a bit misleading, but the Shrink Ray’s sneakier twin — slack-fill — is even worse, and now it’s the reason for a class-action seeking lawsuit against Nestlé, accusing the candy company of “recklessly” underfilling its Raisinets boxes. [More]
Grocery Shrink Ray Makes Yogurt Smaller, Salt Slightly Bigger
By 1.4.17
When food companies shave a little bit of their product off to save money and avoid a price hike, that’s called the Grocery Shrink Ray. We’ve followed how it’s been blasting through food products for over 100 years now, and it made two small hits in Dannon brand yogurt and Aldi’s store-brand sea salt. [More]
Our Picks From 2016: Editors’ Favorite Stories Of The Year
By 12.31.16
We write thousands of posts every year at Consumerist, and before we hit “publish,” we tell each of them that they’re our favorite. That’s a lie, though: when we look back, there are always posts that stand out. Whether it’s because of their real-world impact, important insights, important topics, or use of the phrase “Underwear Time,” we each have our favorites out of our work for the year. Each of our writers chose theirs along with some honorable mentions, and explained what made them love that post just a little more than the others. [More]
Kraft Scoops .5 Ounces Out Of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Bins
By 11.21.16 — Updated: 1.4.17
If you’re expecting guests for the holidays, you might pick up some bagels and tubs of flavored cream cheese to feed them. An 8-ounce tub of Philadelphia cream cheese soon won’t go as far as it used to: tubs that have been hit with the Grocery Shrink Ray and downsized to 7.5 ounces have been spotted in stores. [More]
Toblerone Fans Are Not Happy With Mondelez’s Decision To Change Candy Bar’s Shape
By 11.8.16
It’s always a gamble when companies mess with a product beloved by consumers, as Mondelez found out when it decided to change the shape of its Toblerone chocolate bar in the U.K., pulling a bit of a Grocery Shrink Ray move in the process. [More]
The Grocery Shrink Ray Hit Seattle Bakeries In 1916
By 10.26.16
Did you think that the Grocery Shrink Ray was a modern phenomenon? It turns out that shrinking down food and hoping that no one notices is a venerable tradition, and was front-page news in Seattle a century ago. [More]
Watkins Lawsuit Over Pepper Tin Sizes Will Go Forward In Federal Court
By 10.20.16
If the outside of a food package is the same, especially for a food you don’t buy very often, do you notice? Longtime Consumerist readers might, but most people wouldn’t. Last year, spice giant McCormick quietly shrank down the contents of its boxes of black pepper, but kept using the same size container. Tiny competitor Watkins noticed, and filed a federal lawsuit against McCormick accusing it of false advertising. A judge decided this week that the lawsuit could go forward. [More]
Grocery Shrink Ray Swipes A Few Junior Mints
By 10.13.16
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. [More]
Weight Watchers Giant Fudge Bars Lose A Dramatic Amount Of Weight
By 6.6.16
Last year, reader M. sent us pictures of her favorite low-calorie ice cream bars from Weight Watchers, noting that the bars had each lost a few milliliters. Apparently, the Giant Fudge Bars have stayed with their program, and have now become less giant. [More]
FDA: ‘Evaporated Cane Juice’ Is Just Sugar, Deal With It
By 5.26.16
What’s “evaporated cane juice”? It’s a sweetener produced from the liquid that comes out of sugar cane when you cut or shred it. However, the Food and Drug Administration notes that it’s also a term that food producers use in ingredients list to avoid using the word “sugar.” The FDA has had enough of this, and issued guidance telling food marketers that they need to just call ECJ what it is: sugar. [More]
Pepsodent Shrinks Toothpaste Tubes Slightly To Keep $1 Price Point
By 4.8.16
The Grocery Shrink Ray is what happens when a company wants to cut their expenses, but not raise their prices. Pepsodent is a bargain-brand toothpaste that you can pick up in most stores for $1, but reader Tony noticed something when he bought his last tube: it was half an ounce smaller than the previous one, which he still had handy. [More]
Sargento Shortchanges Customers Who Prefer Sharp Cheddar Cheese
By 2.23.16
Megan was shopping for cheese at Target over the weekend, as many sensible people do, and she noticed something strange about the pre-sliced packages of Sargento cheddar. It came in two different sizes, which had the same price. Yes, it turns out that one of them was the victim of the Grocery Shrink Ray, taking the total from 20 slices to 18, depriving customers of enough slices to make an entire grilled cheese sandwich. UPDATE: The different sizes may represent different package sizes between cheddar types, which is confusing. [More]
No, Pepperidge Farm’s Milano Cookies Aren’t Victims Of The Grocery Shrink Ray
By 2.18.16
Chris wrote to Consumerist upset about one of his favorite desserts, Pepperidge Farm’s Milano cookies. The cookies seemed smaller, he said, estimating that they had “reduced the size of the cookies by about 25%.” Was that true? We took his question to the brand’s headquarters, which is not in a farmhouse in Maine. [More]
Starbucks Shrinks A Whole Serving From Iced Espresso Classics
By 2.1.16
Good morning! It’s time to stumble to your kitchen and make something caffeinated to aim at your mouth. One handy way to do that when you’re especially sleepy is to buy pre-mixed iced coffee or espresso and milk drinks at a grocery or discount store. Only Starbucks, a popular maker of those drinks, has shrink rayed an entire serving out of their iced espresso drinks. [More]
