Everything is getting smaller!

Yep, watch the jar stuff too, they are using concave jars, the bottom center goes IN, thus reducing the amount you get.

 Absolutely.  A cracker box used to fill the shelf, and now you can get three rows of soup cans in with it.  Everything that was 16 ounces has gone to 15.  A pint of ice cream isn't a pint.  I keep wondering what they will do when we have to take our can of tuna home in a thimble.

Truley

Yep, watch the jar stuff too, they are using concave jars, the bottom center goes IN, thus reducing the amount you get.

I actually like the fruit juice in jars that I can actually pick up because they have "waists". but when the amount goes down and the price stays the same, it bothers me.  There's something less dishonest about just raising the darn price and taking your chances as to whether the consumer still thinks your product is worth buying.

I feel like the manufacturer's are treating the consumer like he's too dumb to figure out that he's getting less and paying the same or more in some instances.   Coffee is another good example that has been reduced in quantity but certainly not in price. :(

  I like the "waists" too even though I'm paying for "space".  Beats spilling it all over the place, which I've done a time or two. lol

JackieG

I feel like the manufacturer's are treating the consumer like he's too dumb to figure out that he's getting less and paying the same or more in some instances. 

The dish soap I mentioned advertised the "new size" like it something to be happy about!  It was the same size container, but they filled it less full.  I guess it beats hiding it like the propane tanks.  We wondered why we couldn't get one to last as long -- it was shrinking!  I should have known something was amiss when I could actually pick the tank up and move it reasonably easily....

In some ways, I like small sizes -- we don't always finish something so theoretically it wastes less -- however, not for the same price.  I also hate something that is meant to be put in a lunch, for example, and it comes in a 4, 6 or 8 pack.... c'mon folks, there's 5 work days in a week!  Or you buy hot dogs in a 10 pk and buns are an 8 pk.  I swear they do that just to cause trouble and make waste.

I've been noticing things that used to go on sale 10/$10 are now 8/$10 and such.  And once prices go up, they certainly never come back down.

Also, cereal is a big one for us -- they now make the boxes as small as 8oz!  That's about 2 bowls of cereal! 

I understand that people need to get creative since the economy has been so bad, but I bet everything stays even if we get out of this slump, and just makes it worse.

 Oh how I dislike changing out toilet tissue rolls.  I liked the huge ones, but they have disappeared, and the smaller ones are smaller than before.  It's a plot...

It's a hidden price increase and it happens all over the place -- this isn't anything new, and it's happened for years ... but rather than changing the label, calling it "improved" and charging MORE they now know they gotta not raise the price so they give you less.  Yes, it's shifty and dishonest but it has ever been the case ... most people are just noticing it more.

Going out to eat, you see plates are SMALLER.  It's amazing how many restaurants I've seen that have gotten "new china" -- and the plates are smaller.  So they cut down on portions and charge you the same.

sl2crmeg

But has anyone noticed at the grocery store that the carts seem HUGE? I was wheeling mine around Wally tonight and I noticed that they had new carts, and then I was sad about how empty mine looked :(

I get that way at Costco!  However, they NEED the giant carts.  I did notice even they changes their packaging... tuna used to be 16 6oz cans, now it's like 12 7 oz cans or something goofy.

I don't have a problem with jars or containers that have "waists" I too like to actually hold them. What I was talking about was the bottom on jars, mayo and peanut butter for example, the bottoms are not flat, they curve into the jar, and that means less in the jar.

My mother thinks im crazy because I will go to a store for just a few items and another for a few more, all are close together or on my way home so there is no extra cost for gas, I go for the savings and the savings only, I am no longer brand loyal or even store loyal. I go where the deal is.

We, too, try to combine trips in general, but it means we may pass more than one grocery store so then I'll go to more than one if there's good deals.  Seems like one store more than other has better sales, but their regular prices are higher.  But since jars and sizes of things are shrinking, you have to know your prices more to be able to comparison shop.

Truley

My mother thinks im crazy because I will go to a store for just a few items and another for a few more, all are close together or on my way home so there is no extra cost for gas, I go for the savings and the savings only, I am no longer brand loyal or even store loyal. I go where the deal is.

Remember tho -- EVERY time you start your car it costs gas -- it's not just distance, but actually turning on the ignition costs significantly.

Also -- don't forget to factor in your time.    If you are saving $.57 on something and it takes 1/4 gallon of car to actually start your car, and if it takes you an extra 15 minutes to go in the store, get the item and stand in line (beyond the time you already spent at another store) and youget paid $12.00 hr -- it just cost you about $5.50 just TO stop, so your savings had better be significantly MORE than just $5.50 to make it worth your time and gas, not to mention what you don't get done at home or wherever because you stopped at another store.

Now if you can keep enough lists so that you know later in the week you'll need to stop at Store C **anyway** because they have Brand C that the other store doesn't even stock ... then you're helping yourself IF Brand C is actually worth that whole expenditure.

Such is being married to an accountant-type LOL  My husband will do a "cost-benefit analysis" on just about anything.

calliecritturs

it just cost you about $5.50 just TO stop

This isn't really a "cost" versus "potential earnings" -- if you work hourly, then yes perhaps you could have been making money rather than being in the store.  But, if you have no ability to work more hours, then it becomes purely a hobby, for example.  It's not feasible to work 24hrs a day, or else it would "cost" you $12/hr x 8 hrs just to sleep every night!

I thought about this too since I used to take the bus to work... but it would add xx minutes to my commute and if my time was worth what I made per hour, well then I was losing so much money!  But really, regardless of my mode of transportation, I could only work so many hours a day.

Hehehe, not to debate, but I do occassionally enjoy being devil's advocate.

For my aunt, her passion in life is getting "good deals" -- for her, it's much more enjoyable to go store to store and get whole cart fulls of stuff for only a few dollars, than it is to save a bit in gas.  It's almost like her second job.  She could afford to pay $0.50 extra for something, but that takes the fun out of it! 

And I'm salaried (which is like indentured servitude in many ways *sigh* because I have to work 'extra' for free) BUT my days once I get home are a blur anyway because I never have enough time to Do all I have to do at home -- so in many ways that time is even more precious to me than money.

I understand completely what you're talking about, but we tend to think of our hours at home as 'free' and typically they are anything but because we only have so many hours of energy and so much time to DO things in before other things in life intrude.

I don't think I've been "bored" an instant in my life because I do keep so busy ... so it's all relative, BUT we all have to calculate it with our own situation.

But people also tend not to think about the fact that "as long as I'm HERE I'll get this and this -- I didn't plan on it but gosh it's SUCH a good deal ..." and then you go home and maybe those things are used wisely and maybe not.

The whole idea of buying 8 rolls of paper towel instead of one ... the point from the manufacturer's eye is that if we have LOTS of paper towel we will use **more** than if we only had one roll and felt we had to be 'careful' with it.

When we have the threads about "saving money" it always makes me laugh -- when my grandmother came home from getting groceries if her fruit was in a baggie WOW -- she would turn it inside out, wipe it off with a clean dishcloth (which she bleached EVERY day) and then she'd hang it in the stairway over something so it would dry and she could GULP SHOCK HORROR ****RE-USE IT****!!!!

Paper bags?  They were NEVER thrown away -- they were neatly folded and put in their place and she would use them for trash bags or to carry something.  But THROW IT AWAY??? **NEVER EVER!!!** (she's rolling in her grave now as I type such a heinous thot!!!)

She was the queen of going to four different stores to buy groceries because if A&P had coffee 3 cents cheaper she was ON it ... however, she would likely go in with a list and out with **exactly** those items because you bet your boots she wasn't gonna get caught being "talked into" spending more money in a different store just because she saw a display of something that looked "good". 

But stores spend jillions of dollars on marketing techniques -- like those "impulse buy" things that are at the checkout!!!  Suddenly you see that thing and wind up buying it "while you're there".  That's part of the reason why they spend so much money on circulars advertising "loss leaders" (where they offer something SO cheaply the store actually loses money just selling it at that price) because the whole point of it is to get you IN there so you spend money on other things.

So if you are solid enough to not fall prey to such advertising then more power to you. 

But for those of us who ARE cost conscious, knowing you now have to carry a calculator with you thru the store to find out how much per oz THAT tuna is (since they've decreased the size) in order to compare it with how much Store C and F charge (*rolling eyes* since the manufacturer has simply changed the packaging so you have to re-calculate EVERY store's price because some have probably gone down a penny or two, etc.).

It makes my head ache just thinking about it and I'm one of those who often goes into a store with a calculator or a 'clicker' just so I don't spend more money than I HAVE and trying to calculate if that coupon I have is really worth buying the other brand now that the size has changed and the other size of the other brand didn't.

And we all thought in school that we'd never need "math".