{"id":18835,"date":"2021-02-15T04:15:54","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T12:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=18835"},"modified":"2025-05-10T11:04:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T18:04:15","slug":"why-sneaky-package-size-reductions-are-no-longer-fooling-consumers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id18835-why-sneaky-package-size-reductions-are-no-longer-fooling-consumers-2.html","title":{"rendered":"25 Examples of Shrinkflation That No Longer Fool Consumers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Honeybee will tell you that this guy and I have at least one thing in common.<\/p><\/div>Not too long ago I was preparing a recipe from an old cookbook that called for a couple of 7-ounce cans of tuna.<\/p>\n

After looking in the pantry, I was happy to see that I had exactly two cans of tuna — until I remembered that tuna was one of the many products affected by shrinking package sizes<\/a>, thanks to manufacturers trying to maintain market share by keeping their product prices stable.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, my tuna cans held just five ounces each. So, unwilling to make my casserole with 29% less tuna than the recipe called for, I reluctantly hauled myself off to the supermarket for an additional can. I know.<\/p>\n

This isn’t the first time I’ve run into trouble when an old recipe called for an ingredient based upon an older product size standard. Awhile back I was preparing a cookbook recipe that called for 28 ounces of spaghetti sauce, but the jar I had only contained 24 ounces.<\/p>\n

(And, folks, please<\/strong><\/em> save your admonishments regarding spaghetti sauce in a jar. Yes, I understand it’s culinary sacrilege — especially for a proud American of Italian heritage such as myself — but sometimes I get caught without any leftover sauce in the freezer, and no time to whip up a fresh batch. But I digress.)<\/p>\n

As long as food and other commodity prices are rising faster than consumer wages, manufacturers will continue to be faced with the dilemma of either raising prices and losing customers, or shrinking their package sizes and hoping nobody notices. Of course, more often than not, the manufacturers will choose the latter option.<\/p>\n

Sneaky buggers.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the manufacturers, the longer this practice goes on, more and more people will eventually discover they’re being deceived — especially the ones who enjoy using old cookbooks.<\/p>\n

How small have packages become over the years? Quite a bit. Here are more than two dozen examples of shrinking product sizes — both specific and general — to prove my point. Items in bold <\/strong>are changes that occurred after January 2020:<\/p>\n