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]
tropicana
United Kingdom Discovers 2,529 Products Hit By Grocery Shrink Ray, Calls It ‘Shrinkflation’
By 7.28.17
17 Commercial Failures From Brands With Spectacularly Bad Ideas
By 6.30.16
While Keurig is surely hoping there will come a day when its failed KOLD soda-making machine is but a misty, sparkling memory, it’s not the first company to reach for the stars, to fly too close to the sun, to try to capture lightning in a bottle… and fail utterly and completely, thereby forever securing a spot in the brand failure hall of fame, never to be forgotten. [More]
20 Lawsuits From Across U.S. Say Tropicana's "Natural" Claim Is Pulp Fiction
By 5.31.12
Back in January, we reported on a lawsuit from a California woman against Tropicana, claiming that the juice makers shouldn’t be marketing its products as “natural,” as extensive processing changes its “essential nature.” Now a slew of around 20 lawsuits from across our fair nation have popped up to chime in, claiming the company adds chemically engineered “flavor packs” to the juice. [More]
Lawsuit Puts The Squeeze On Tropicana Orange Juice's Claim Of 100% Natural
By 1.10.12
Consumers don’t like juiced up claims of natural ingredients, which is why one California woman is suing Tropicana’s parent company over its claims that their orange juice is “100% pure and natural.” [More]
Florida Department Of Citrus Sends List Of Facts About Orange Juice
By 8.2.11
The Florida Department of Citrus sent over a few paragraphs of information in response to my post, “The Flavor Of Your OJ Is A Chemically-Induced Mirage” from last week. [More]
The Flavor Of Your OJ Is A Chemically-Induced Mirage
By 7.29.11
There’s a dirty secret in your glass of orange juice. Even though it says “not from concentrate,” it probably sat in a large vat for up to year with all the oxygen removed from it. This allows it to be preserved and dispensed all year-round. Taking out all the O2 also gets rid of all the flavor. So the juice makers have to add the flavors back in using preformulated recipes full of chemicals called “flavor packs.” Mmm, delicious, fresh-squeezed ethyl-butyrate! [More]
Grocery Shrink Ray: New Tropicana Pseudo Half Gallon Jugs Spotted In The Wild
By 6.2.10
We told you that freezing in Florida was going to take a toll on OJ starting in May and according to MousePrint.org, the shrink ray is on. Edgar got a hold of some before and after examples and did the usual postmortem. [More]
By 4.2.09
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Forget all that spin about listening to customer complaints: it looks like the real reason Tropicana killed off its rebranding push after only two months is because sales dropped by 20% during that period, while some big competitors posted double-digit gains. We have a feeling Tropicana is going to end up in a lot of business and marketing textbooks in the future. [AdAge] (Thanks to Ross!)
By 2.26.09
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One final Tropicana thing: this video clip from 5 weeks ago shows Peter Arnell explaining the thought process behind the Tropicana redesign. It’s a peek behind the curtains at how much thought goes into packaging, and how it’s designed to communicate to you subconsciously. [AdAge] (Thanks to wanda!)
Tropicana's Failed Packaging Design Was A Real Life Poochie
By 2.26.09
The Tropicana redesign disaster seemed strangely familiar to us, and we just now realized why: the Simpsons already did it.
"Loyal Customer" Backlash Forces Tropicana To Abandon New Packaging
By 2.23.09
The New York Times says that “loyal” Tropicana customers are up in arms about the new packaging, calling it “ugly,” “generic” and claiming that it looks like a store brand. Others say that the packaging makes it difficult to distinguish between the different varieties of orange juice.
Tropicana: Our 100% Juice Could Contain "Anything From Nature," Even Dairy
By 9.5.08
It’s apparently a whole lot of fun to try to get a straight answer out of Tropicana as to what “natural flavors” are in their 100% juice.
15 Victims Of The Grocery Shrink Ray
By 8.1.08
The Grocery Shrink Ray continues its miniature spree across the supermarket aisles of America. Here’s 14 more victims that have surfaced in the past week, as spotted by our watchful bands of deputized Consumerist reader-investigators…
Complain About Tropicana's Shrinking Containers, Earn A Free Carton Of Juice
By 5.17.08
Joel loves his orange juice and is none too pleased with Tropicana’s recent decision to shrink their containers by 7 oz. He fired off a complaint through Tropicana’s website, and was pleasantly surprised when the company responded with a coupon for a free carton of shrunken sweetness.
New Tropicana! Now With Less Orange Juice!
By 5.7.08
Reader Linda is unimpressed with Tropicana’s new “easy pour pitcher” because it means she’ll be getting 7 oz less orange juice for the same price. So, she called them up and gave them a piece of her mind.
