Why do food companies keep making packages smaller?

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They can either raise prices or keep prices the same and give you less product. It's almost an insult to someone's intelligence when they shrink the packaging like you're not going to notice.
 
I just bought a box of 5 PUR water filters on Monday. I couldn't understand why the company put a two inch cardboard spacer at the bottom of the box. Just make the box smaller and toss the spacer. It has to be cheaper to make the box smaller and ditch the spacer.
 
The fact is that very few consumers look at the net weight or the price per unit. So the marketing of products is not about them.

Brand X shrinks their contents and brand Y does not. The two sit next to each other on the shelf.
-- Price is the same: X makes more profit than Y on each one sold.
-- Y has to raise their price: More people buy X.
 
My father retired from Hostess Cake and as a kid in the 70’s and 80’s that’s all I ate. When I look at Hostess products at the store today, they are about half the size they use to be. The crazy thing about it though is the expiration date on today‘s products. Back in the 70’s and 80’s Hostess Cake products had a 7 day expiration date, management took expired product on the shelves very seriously back then.
 
It seems like doing this just costs even more money. Repackaging has to be more expensive than keeping the same package and raising the price, which is what they're doing anyway. Do they honestly think people don't notice the smaller packages? My wife bought some Oreo's the other day and I noticed the smaller package. Dog food bags have been getting smaller for years. The big bags used to be 50 lbs, then they went to 40, then 30, and now it's even smaller. Ice cream used to come in a half gallon size, now they are down to 1.5 qts. All this does is force people to have to buy the products more often. Why not just raise the price and quit making the packages smaller?
With smaller print on the labels.
 
Pretty sure it's been going on for while. Not sure I care: cost per unit is where it is at. And I also don't expect things to get cheaper with time. Especially not when it's well known that inflation is occurring.

Not sure that other countries buy in bulk like we do.
 
They could just raise the price when they need to and accomplish the same thing...

The cost of retooling the packaging disappears over millions of units, and the tiny amount of material saved times millions would be substantial savings as well.

And actually whoever makes the packaging may absorb the cost of retooling so it costs the company nothing and they save on less packaging material cost.
 
Pretty sure it's been going on for while. Not sure I care: cost per unit is where it is at. And I also don't expect things to get cheaper with time. Especially not when it's well known that inflation is occurring.

Not sure that other countries buy in bulk like we do.
No they do not. Americans do everything to excess that's what makes us great.
 
Bar soap has been concave on one side for years, same with bottles and cans with concave bottoms. Cereal boxes, chip bags etc have been ‘sold by weight not volume’ and ‘some settling of product due to shipping and handling is normal’ are intentionally marketed as such and are deceptive tactics perpetuated by company lawyers hoping consumers won’t notice or care and most don’t. I mentioned to my wife the other day about the oil companies selling gas for x.xx.9/10 per gallon and that consumers have been giving the companies 1/10th of a penny for every gallon of gas sold for the last 100 plus years. She was quiet for a few seconds and then said, I’ve never thought about it that way. Shrinkflation has been a thing for decades.
 
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My father retired from Hostess Cake and as a kid in the 70’s and 80’s that’s all I ate. When I look at Hostess products at the store today, they are about half the size they use to be. The crazy thing about it though is the expiration date on today‘s products. Back in the 70’s and 80’s Hostess Cake products had a 7 day expiration date, management took expired product on the shelves very seriously back then.
Yes hostess is nothing like it used to be. I used to LOVE the cupcakes with the squiggly white line on top, if you got it while it was fresh the topping was actually a little crispy, years ago the product was ruined The new preservatives as the cake would get old actually made the topping a squishy chocolate, it was disgusting and now they cut the size in half. Even though I don’t eat that type of stuff anymore it was sometime ago that they made the change.
The same type of thing has happened with Entenmann’s ever since the Entenmann’s family sold it decades ago.
 
They can either raise prices or keep prices the same and give you less product. It's almost an insult to someone's intelligence when they shrink the packaging like you're not going to notice.
1/2 of the population has below average intelligence, and the other 1/2 has above average intelligence. They only need to take advantage of the below average crowd to win.
 
Less Oreos and ice cream might make some people lose weight.
Just so we're square, no amount of package downsizing is going to change my intake. I will just end up buying more packages...
 
1/2 of the population has below average intelligence, and the other 1/2 has above average intelligence. They only need to take advantage of the below average crowd to win.
I'd say it's more like 60/40, or even 70/30, with the lower intelligence group being larger...
 
Just so we're square, no amount of package downsizing is going to change my intake. I will just end up buying more packages...
So it actually probably makes it worse because even two smaller packages of Oreos is probably more than one smaller package. And two 1.5 quarts of ice cream is still more than a half gallon of ice cream.

Look at it this way, the food is going upscale! The upscale places don't give you enough food and the low end places give you too much.
 
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