Lately, I’ve gotten more adventurous in my culinary life, and I’m trying out various recipes just for fun. It’s pretty obvious that some were written years ago when canned goods came in slightly larger amounts.
For example (this isn’t a new venture, just the first thing I thought of) pumpkin for pie used to come in 1# cans, and that’s what the recipe calls out. Unfortunately, today you can only get 14.5 oz cans, for the same price as the old pound can. So, do I buy 2 cans and just use 1.5 oz out of the second one. Do I scale down the rest of the recipe (what is 90% of 4 large eggs??) or just pretend it’ll still work with slightly less pumpkin? Turns out, it works fine, but still…
And what about half gallon containers of ice cream? Now it’s either 1.75 or 1.5 quarts. Dammit, I want my full half gallon!! And canned tuna - it used to be 6.5 oz - now it’s 6 even. No wonder my tuna-noodle casserole isn’t quite what it used to be. And don’t get me started on all the water that seems to cook out of the ground beef when I’m making spaghetti sauce. I really don’t like paying $2.89/lb for water. :mad:
It’s not just food. I’ve seen my favorite shampoo go from a 16 fl oz bottle to a lesser amount. Same with cleaning supplies - you can call it “Ultra” all day, but it’s still less for the same price.
Then this week, I almost lost it. Olympic Paints no longer come in 5 gallon buckets. It’s 4.84 gallons. Yeah, no biggie - 3% reduction. For the same price. Couldn’t you just charge a little more and let me buy 5 gallons?? Because if I come up a pint short due to you removing 20-ish oz, I will be mightily pissed! In fact, just writing this is getting me pissed!! Once I post this, I’m going to find their website!
Prices go up - it’s a fact of life. Quit messing with the consumer. We are not amused!
I thought this would be about airlines nickel-and-diming customers on “luxuries” like luggage and a cup of soda.
I’m with you on the sizes, though I should point out that most older baking recipes assume smaller eggs than the large or extra-large which seems to be all you can buy now.
Go ahead, Dr. Drake, and include the airlines - why not? I keep wondering the same thing. Heck, since fuel is directly linked to the weight of the plane, have passengers and their luggage on scales and charge accordingly. That’s fair, right? <snickering at the stink that would raise…>
I’m with you on the yogurt, too. I saw one advertising “25% Fewer Calories!!” - well duh - the container holds 25% less product. Sheesh.
Oh, I don’t have any bitter personal experience to post, I’m just watching the news.
I suspect a lot of this relies on consumers who are both unobservant and bad at math. A lot of my friends, very bright people, still wouldn’t understand that six is 25% less than eight.
I remember being annoyed when Food Lion reduced the size of their house brand yogurt from eight ounces to six without, of course, any reduction in price. It’s still cheaper than the other brands, though, and way cheaper than Dannon Activia, considering that DA comes in four ounce containers.
I’m still waiting for eggs to start being sold in packages of ten instead of a dozen.
When Dannon first cut its yogurt size from 8 to 6 oz., they actually advertised on the containers the fact that there was now room for you to add your own mix-ins such as Grape Nuts, raisins, etc.
It’s not just food. My ISP recently decided that not enough people were using usenet and so dropped usenet service. Since I can browse the web at work (within reason), I estimate that anywhere from a third to half of my internet time at home was on usenet. Of course, there’s been no change in my internet bill.
At one time, I filled vending machines for a job. It was really noticeable that the candy bars would shrink & shrink. Then a NEW BIGGER BAR would come out at a higher price. Then the shrinkage would start again. Rinse. Repeat.
I consider this another of the unintended benefits of higher gas prices. I’ve lived in several other countries and one of the biggest differences between the US and the rest of the world is how much bigger all the food portions are. Sucks getting less for the same price but it might lead to us not being known as a nation of fatties.
I wouldn’t mind if restaurant portions shrank a bit, but that’s not the same as messing around with what used to be standard sizes. Certain recipes need to be precise, especially for baked goods. If your recipe was written when one ingredient was typically sold in 6 oz packages, and suddenly it becomes a 5 oz package, it can throw your dish off. That’s what pisses me off.
That and the 4.84 gallons of paint. The more I think if it, the angrier I get. Off to find Olympic’s site… grrrrrrrrrr
local news caught this recently, two identical product on the shelf right next to each other. identical except for the size. I think it was the little containers of ice cream. Both selling for the same price.
The vendor had some weasely excuse about needing to reduce the weight of its freight to keep fuel costs at a constant :dubious:
I still remember (and resent) when Tampax downsized their 40 count tampons–now it costs more to buy a 20 count box than it did the 40 count back in the day!
Flour, sugar, ice cream–seems lots of products are doing this now. (NPR did a bit on it last week). It still makes me :mad: