Product Portions Shrink as Companies Downsize
No, it’s not your imagination. There really is less cereal in your Cheerios box than a year ago. Manufacturers are scaling back the sizes of products ranging from dog food to chewing gum. And although some prices are staying about the same, “package shrink” could hurt your wallet.
Downsizing is not new, but the economy has made this practice more prevalent in the consumer package good industry. Ice-cream cartons now contain 1.5 instead of 1.75 quarts and bars of soap are ounces smaller than previous versions, are a couple of examples.
Because costs are rising, manufacturers can raise the price and possibly lose sales, or they can take out some content and hope the consumer doesn’t notice. But some manufacturers come right out and announce that their products are getting smaller:
• Last summer, General Mills told investors about its new “Right Size, Right Price” program in which prices of cereals such as Cheerios, Wheaties and Total went up while portion size went down 1.5 ounces per box.
• Wrigley recently announced that next year it will gradually replace current gum with reformulated Doublemint, Juicy Fruit and other flavors in packages that will contain 15 instead of 17 sticks.
• Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Shamrock Farms and the Kroger Co. have plans to start packaging soda in 16-ounce bottles and milk in three-quarter-gallon jugs.
Prices for these products will be lower than 20-ounce sodas and full gallons of milk.
Other manufacturers have shrunk products with no price reduction — or publicity. Examples include dog food, bathroom tissue, mayonnaise and ice cream.
In some states, there have been some formal customer complaints about shrinking product sizes. But with the economy many shoppers looking for smaller sizes, thus, reducing the number of complaints.
