The Chicago Tribune quoted me in a piece on the Grocery Shrink Ray. Paraphrasing a food science. expert, it says, “Broadly defined, packaging costs often outweigh ingredient costs, Hotchkiss said. And a penny shaved off packaging can translate into millions of dollars in savings for a high-volume consumer product.” This is interesting because it means the greatest cost savings come from reducing package costs, rather than ingredient amount. Which means if they’re reducing ingredient amounts, they’ve got to be really hurting. Maybe if I really wanted to do my part to help the economy I should have spent that stimulus check on juice, cereal, paper towels, mayonnaise and ice cream.
grocery shrink ray
By 7.29.08
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Colgate-Palmolive has reported a 19% increase in quarterly profits, and says it’s partially due to price increases (but also greater volume sales and a weak dollar). [Reuters]
Wegmans Grocery Store Admits That The Dreaded Grocery Shrink Ray Exists
By 7.28.08
Wegman’s a grocery store chain in the northeast has addressed the issue of the grocery shrink ray, and shed some light on why even store brands are affected by its malevolent beam. Wegmans says that their store brand merchandise is manufactured by companies that also make products for other stores — so they have little say about the size of their products.
By 7.24.08
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I will be in a roundtable discussion guest be on KCRW’s “The The Point” at 2:10 PM eastern today. You can listen here by clicking on the “LIVE” link at the top left, or tuning into your NPR affiliate station if they carry it. We’ll be talking about the economy, the growing pressures on consumers, the grocery shrink ray, and what, if anything, you can do about it.
Get Ready For More Supermarket Price Hikes
By 7.23.08
The notorious Grocery Shrink Ray was supposed to help prevent this, or so we were told by apologists for it, but Datamonitor is reporting that Kraft Foods, Kellogg’s, ConAgra, Sara Lee, and Tyson “are all expected to announce a hike in the prices of their products” in the near future. Here are some of the hikes you can expect, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Grocery Shrink Ray Hits Bausch & Lomb Contact Solution
By 7.21.08
Joe spotted this box of Bausch & Lomb Boston contact solution at his Target, another victim of the Grocery Shrink Ray. “Someone at Target wasn’t smart enough to change the original price label…4oz down to 3.5oz is significant when you are dealing with an everyday item like this at $7-7.99 per bottle,” he writes. Full pic inside.
How Would You Like Your Inflation Served?
By 7.20.08
The Mexican restaurant chain Chachos is now charging a 7.5% inflation surcharge on all meals with cheese. Skyrocketing commodity prices present restaurants with a menu of unappetizing choices: raise prices, levy surcharges, reduce portions? How would you like your inflation served? Vote in our poll, after the jump.
Grocery Shrink Ray Zaps Skippy Natural Peanut Butter
By 7.18.08
Pew! Pew! Grocery Shrink Ray zapped Skippy Natural Peanut Butter. You know what’s really going to be something? When they start raising the prices on all the products they shrunk. Then we’ll see some real purchasing power loss.
Grocery Shrink Ray Hits Faultless Spray Starch
By 7.16.08
Mark says he’s found fault with Faultless spray starch. The bottle shrunk by two ounces and is being sold for the same price, another victim of the Grocery Shrink Ray. Compare the products here and here. What’s interesting is that when he called his mom, she said she had a different brand of starch spray. It too had shrunk by two ounces. Could manufacturers be colluding together to all decrease their products by the same amount at the same time? I’ve heard of price-fixing, but what about the legality of size-fixing? In any event, Mark emailed customer service about the new package. Their cheery reply, inside…
Grocery Shrink Ray Hits White Rain Shampoo, But It's Still "33% More"
By 7.16.08
Reader Luke noticed that the grocery shrink ray mercilessly zapped his bottle of White Rain shampoo– but mysteriously left the “33% more” label untouched. 33% more than… what exactly?
By 7.15.08
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This morning, very early in the morning, we were on KTLK in Minnesota talking about, yep, you guessed it, the Grocery Shrink Ray. Clip is here. And earlier this week we were featured in an article in the UK’s Observer.
3 Ways To Beat The Grocery Shrink Ray
By 7.15.08
Is your supermarket the victim of The Grocery Shrink Ray, the force that is shrinking how much product you get while keeping the price the same? Here are three antidotes:
Lucerne Yogurt Fails To Escape The Clutches Of The Grocery Shrink Ray
By 7.13.08
Nothing is safe from the Grocery Shrink Ray: not babies; not household brands backed by expensive ad campaigns; and apparently, not even discount private labels.
This Colgate Toothpaste Packaging Is Awfully Deceptive
By 7.12.08
Logan thought this bonus pack of Colgate contained two equally-sized tubes of toothpaste. After all, the boxes are exactly the same size. Yet when he opened the bonus box, he found a smaller box containing a mini tube of toothpaste.
By 7.11.08
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For those of you who wanted a transcript of the NPR interview I did yesterday about the Grocery Shrink Ray, we added one here.
Grocery Shrink Ray Hits Kraft Swiss Cheese Singles?
By 7.11.08
Bruce sends in what he thinks is another victim of the Grocery Shrink Ray’s fell and indiscriminate wrath:
Ben Popken On NPR Talkin' 'Bout Grocery Shrink Ray
By 7.10.08
NPR’s Michele Norris on “All Things Considered” did a nice interview with me about that deadly Grocery Shrink Ray sweeping supermarkets across America. It looks like it just aired, you can listen to it online here. If you want to look at previous stories in the Grocery Shrink Ray series, check ’em out here. And if you have a example of a product that is shrinking in terms of volume or net weight and you want to submit it to us for a possible post, just send it on in to tips@consumerist.com.
