Inflation -- It's constant and it takes its toll on our pockets. The cost of a necessity rises and we pay more for it.
While many people remember how much they've paid for an item, they won't necessarily take notice of exactly how much product they received for their cash.
By subtly reducing packaging, manufacturers can realize huge cost savings.
When packages change sizes it isn't something that happens by accident. A lot of time, resources, and money go into making it happen. That's right -- money. Like any good business decision they're looking at their return on investment.Investing resources and money to reduce packaging volume will create longterm savings. This one-time investment will continue to pay off indefinitely as they give less product to every customer thereafter.
A few years back the soda industry tried to replace 2 liter soda bottles with smaller 1.5 liter bottles. You might expect that 1/4 less product meant an obviously smaller bottle. However, The design was so subtle and clever, that you could hardly notice the difference.
Hollowing out a section of the underside of a container is an easy way to make a bottle appear to be larger than it actually is. The idea is to reduce the overall volume without the package appearing to be smaller.
All at once 2 liter bottles were gone from store shelves and manufacturers had no intention of lowering their prices. They were now giving you less product (a savings to them) but holding the price the same (an increased cost to the consumers). They were also hoping that consumers wouldn't notice the change.
Well it didn't work and consumers were displeased. Shortly after that, 2 liter bottles reappeared. Not long after that, the cost of soda began increasing dramatically. Apparently, they were determined to get more money out of consumers one way or another. They also had to pay for all of the resources used to create the failed 1.5 liter bottles.
Unfortunately, this has become a common practice in today's economy. Unlike the failed soda bottles, manufacturers have learned to make their changes VERY slight so that consumers won't notice. And since most of us won't remember the exact number of ounces we previously received, it's difficult to tell when it happens.
Here's a short list of incredible shrinking products:
- Ice cream used to come in a 1/2 gallon container (64 ounces). Even though most of us still refer to it as such, it's actually only 48 ozs (1 1/2 quarts).
- Tree Ripe orange juice is now only 59 ounces but looking very much like a 64 ounce container.
- Many coffees that used to be 13 ounces have been reduced to 11 ounce.
- Hellman's Mayonnaise jars were reduced from 32 ounces down to 30.
- Tuna fish cans were reduced from 6 ounces to 5.
- Francesco Rinaldi tomato sauce jar. Good luck figuring this one out... The manufacturer is pitching the change as a premium sauce.
- Apple Jacks, Cocoa Krispies, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks all from Kellogg's have all been reduced by about 2 ounces.
- Scotts' toilet tissue are still 1000 sheets per roll, but the sheets themselves are now smaller.
