Margarine and butter is historically sold by the pound so it should be pretty easy for you to tell if they are smaller...ie less weight, smaller sticks. In my area, they are still a pound.....

Could it just be that the brand you bought has less air in it? As Ruthie said, it's usually sold by the pound and so therefore a stick would be 1/4 pound (assuming there are 4 sticks). I can't imagine that they'd change that - but what do I know. :-)

I haven't noticed it.

Our butter is sold in a 1-lb brick, and it's still the same size and weight. (454 grams).

Margarine is sold in the tub (454 grams) and it's still the same, except for one brand (I can't remember the name). It's size is 427 grams or .9 of a lb.

I don't think they should mess around with butter and margarine, when baking is so precise.

LOL does sell stick butter that has been cut in half. You still get the same amount in a box (one pound) but instead of 4 sticks you have 8 sticks.

I like them because I can just get a smaller amount of butter out to soften and not have a whole stick unwrapped.

The price has to be right for me to buy it though - not worth more $$ - it isn't that hard to cut a stick of butter in half :)

I always buy one pound packages of butter, in 4 sticks. Definitely no shrinkage there. But I have watched cans of tuna go from 7 ounces to 6 and three eights, six and a quarter, etc. And bags of potato chips do the same. Bag looks just as big, just less and less full.

Ya, re: potato chips: and you now pay $1 MORE for FEWER chips! I refuse to buy a bag of chips that used to cost $3 and now cost $4-6! I found some Lays on sale at W.D. for $3.50 and bought them.

I have noticed yogurt is shrinking. I always buy the big tubs and have noticed that the contents are now quite a way down from the top. I wish I would have kept some of the older cartons to compare weight.
It's not much fun to go grocery shopping anymore.
Lois

Let the manufacturers know how unhappy you are and how it is very disruptive to your baking products. Go on line to find out where the main office is and get names of top officials. I did this twice with a thrift store and a major hair salon and boy local stores were NOT happy.

I know what you mean about yogurt. Back in the 70's everbody made 8 oz cups. These days they are 6 oz. But what should I do, write Dannon and say I like their OLD size better? No, I'll just grumble here...

I haven't noticed it with butter but just about everything else. I'll really be POed if they do that with butter because recipes are all based on each stick being 1/4 lb. That would just mess everything up BAD!

I noticed that the butter sticks have changed shapes. Each stick is still 1/4 pound, but the sticks are shorter and fatter than they used to be.

Did you look on the package? By law, the weight must be on the packaging. My butter package, purchased yesterday is one pound.

Butter (and margarine) sticks vary in dimension from long and skinny to shorter but fatter depending on where in the country you are, and the manufacturer.

You used to be able to buy a pound of coffee. Now it's 3/4's of a pound. Butter and margerine are still sold in 1 pound bricks here. When they're sold in boxes of 3#, you get either 3 1lb bricks, or 12 1/4 pound squares.

I was checking out junk food before I left work. I used to buy a 'family sized' box of Smarties quite often. Now that box is 75 grams and $1.99. When I was a kid, that was the 'normal' size box of Smarties. Frito Lay is shrinking all their bags of potato chips. The price is the same though. sure.... Shrink the bag by 20% and tell people they didn't raise the price. Sure they did: by 20%.

I still buy butter by the pound. No change here.

And yet- the media would like you to believe that there is no inflation and that the economy is bouncing back.

Sure, we're THAT stoopid!

I no longer buy bags of potato chips. hate spending money on half a bag of air. I buy Pringles instead.

Another pet peeve of mine is Girl Scout Cookies. They keep raising the price and shrinking the size of the cookie. I paid $4 a box but told my coworker if they go up to $4.50 next year to count me out. Last year I paid $3.50 a box. Sure they have the best PB cookies but the price is getting outrageous.

SamKaren
your resident DJ

I don't buy the GS cookies anymore, I just hand them some
$$$ and tell them it's a donation. Or I do the
Cookie Drop for the Girl Scout cookies.

I bought some organic broccoli the other day and I was
just more than a little peeved. They are leaving more
and more of the HUGE stems attached. I weighed them
after I cut them off and it was over 9 oz. more than
1/2 a pound. Now, I DO use SOME of the stem, but not
that much. what a waste of MY money

Here is a link that might be useful: operation COOKIE DROP

Individual cups of yogurt were 175 grams here, a few years ago ...

... then they became 150 grams ...

.... then 125 grams ...

... then 113 grams ...

... then 100 grams, and they've stayed at that level for some time ...

... but now I've seen a few at 87 grams.

Shouldn't we be just so thankful that the dairy folks are taking the matter of the increasing obesity of people in this part of the world so seriously, and helping in the project of cutting back??

ole joyful

we've gone to the less healthy albacore tuna (more murcury) but got so tired of opening 2 cans of reg tuna to make a decent sandwich for us...so we eat less, sigh..

OK, I finally checked the package size -- it's 1 pound. So maybe I just have an oversized butter dish! (Sorry!)

I buy Land O Lakes Butter. It used to come in the "smaller" brick shaped box but now I only see it in the flatter packaging with the shorter fatter sticks.

I found this our when I did some exploring.

The long, thin sticks are "Elgin," or eastern pack sticks. They are 4 3/4" by 1 1/4" by 1 1/4". The shorter, fatter sticks are Western-pack style butter sticks, which are 3 1/8" long by 1 1/2" by 1 1/2". Both have the same amount of butter (8 Tablespoons = 1/2 cup).

I personally love the Eastern sticks. They don't stick to the top of my butter dish and also fit my old crystal dish better.