Frank and Ernest by Thaves for June 26, 2023

That sounds about right, plus poorer made packaging.

Somebody has to pay for it

In the old days (a few years ago) companies would increase revenue by either raising prices OR shrinking package size if they wanted to retain a price point. Now they do both. The “family”-size package of Oreos was recently downsized by a bit more than 6% (3 cookies). So they needed to re-make the plastic tray about 1/2" shorter and re-size and reprint the wrapper. At the same time, the regular retail price increased by 5%. Hello, consumers – welcome to an 11%+ bump that we hope you weren’t paying close attention to.

With New Improved Pricing!

I’ve also noticed that the product in the package is a lot smaller too!

Cheer up. The things you want aren’t available because of supply chain issues.

Less quantity. Costs more. Lower quality. Less value. What could go wrong?

Try Tuna, the 4 oz canned weight you get is about 2 Tbl spoon of meat, the rest is water or oil. 1 can used to make at least two sandwiches, now you have to open 3 or 4. When that happened I called it quits, went the coast, purchased several fresh off the boat and canned my own. Difference between Heaven and Hell.

These stupid packaging changes are why I stopped eating yogurt. Now I’d basically have to stop eating.

I remember when a half gallon of ice cream was a half gallon.

Unfortunately, that’s a bit too close to the truth

Most every item has done that recently. Those that didn’t do both, surely did one. They cannot tell me everything in the entire store increased. It’s called price gouging.

And there is the classic leaving the shelf empty of the cheaper in store brand of a product leaving only the expensive national brand of the same product that is legalized price gouging!

On this date in 1974 at a Marsh grocery store in Ohio the first item with a bar code was scanned. What was it? A pack of Wrigley gum.

Absolutely true! And it’s NOT funny, I can barely afford that costly s h i t anymore…

They’re victims of the fast lateral shuffle. Been in effect since at least the ’30’s. No matter the product or service, both are reduced, while the price is increased.

As to the tiny product info blocks, eventually there won’t be any and I doubt the government will ever require package inserts with the info printed so normal vision can read it.

Getting worse. Received a 4×5 post card from Nationwide Ins. It was covered to the edges in maybe 8pt type It included the announcement of the annual meeting but also all the info about the subjects to be discussed. A solid mass of black.

Tried reading it with a magnifying glass but had to give it up because of the smudges. They obviously were not interested in having us to either read it or to attend the meeting. Never had a truly professional firm pull this kind of stunt and call it ‘cost saving.’

two true to be funny… times everything…!

A bag of sugar has always been 5 pounds. Nope, now it’s 4 pounds.

It’s a good thing there is no such thing as market concentration and pricing power.

Canned goods like beans come in the same size cans as 65 years ago when I started going to the store: 14-oz, 19-oz, and 28-oz. That’s not to say that no packaging is ever reduced in size, but things have tended to get bigger: looking back to 1960 or so, the 7-oz coke gave way to the 10-oz, then 16-oz and 26-oz bottles came along, and now there are 2-liter and even 3-liter bottles. Another factor to keep in mind in those cases where the packaging has gotten smaller is that the average household size has gone down.

Oh yes. That makes it “NEW AND IMPROVED”. New package, improved profits.