It's all marketing. It's called raise the price by lowering the content. I first noticed it with the snacks, chips in particular.
Then there's always the disclaimer that they like to use, "contents may settle during shipping".

So yes, you are right, compare ounces not package size.

Nancy

Well....I don't have an issue with cereal...I am still trying to recover from the 12 oz bag of cranberrys that used to be a pound and the 4 pound "five pound bag" of sugar...

I had a "Secret Party Mix" recipe I developed over the years from my mother-in-laws recipe from the 50's and instead of cups of ingredients, it was by-the-box back when they had "family-size" boxes, so I've had to convert it back to cups and ounces. BTW, there is about 17-cents worth of grain in a box of cereal. That's reason enough for me to make my own breakfast cereal from whole grains for pennies.

Many recipes suffer from ingredient shrinkage. When was the last time you purchased a 7-ounce can of tuna? You have to consider these things when using older recipes. When the cans of tuna shrank to 5-ounces, I noticed the boxes for Tuna Helper also got smaller.

-Grainlady

Wouldn't ya' know it? There's a web site dedicated to 'Incredible Shrinking Groceries'.

As an aside, sugar & flour at Aldi is in 5# pkgs. Also, noticed WalMart had some generic brand of sugar in 5# pkgs.

Many years ago after having all of my holiday baking ruined by an off-brand of flour, I switched to strictly name brands. More recently, the flour at Aldi kept tempting me because the price was so good. Finally relented & tried it. After having used it for over a year, maybe closer to two years, I have to say that I've had no problems with it. Anytime a recipe calls for AP flour, that's what I use now.

Here is a link that might be useful: Incredible Shrinking Groceries

One of my first experiences with disillusionment was when I realized that Hersey's chocolate bars had both gone up in price and down in size. I was a kid, what did I know from marketing, I just felt gypped!

A little while ago, some soda manufacturers began putting out 12-pack type cartons that only contained 8 sodas. Had to do the math all over again to decide when the sale price was actually a sale price. Did they think people wouldn't notice?

Our groceries have been shrinking for over a year. An article in the news stated that the packages stay the same size to have the allotted shelf space on the stores.

OTOH they make the laundry detergent boxes and bottles smaller to make it easy for the consumer to store.

I was floored when I recently bought a tub of margarine and instead of 454 grams (1 lb) it was 427 grams (0.9 lb).
If they do the same to butter, it will make a difference in baking!

When was the last time one bought a true half-gallon of ice cream? Around here (SoCal), those shrunk too, though they kept the price the same. ARGH!

Like the OP, I have had a time with the Chex Party Mix. My MIL gave me her recipe back in 1978, with "1 12-oz box wheat Chex", and other ingredients also in ounces. The only thing that didn't change??? "1 lb butter", though I'm pretty sure that the butter has changed in formulation!

Donna

Donna, our Publix still sells a 1/2 gallon carton of ice cream, but you're right, other big names are smaller.

Ironic....our groceries are shrinking in the size of the package but our "burger and large fries" is growing...

food is shrinking but we are expanding. I don't get it.

Seriously, this is one of my pet peeves. I love cereal and even have a bowl as a snack during the day. The Basic 4 box first got shorter and then it got thinner. Today you are lucky to get a picture of a bowl of cereal, the box is so flat. And it costs more than $5 for all that nothingness. I don't buy that kind anymore.

I always watch for sales and stock up on my faves when the price goes down.

I noticed that recently with coffee. Over the last few years a 3lb can of coffee has been reduced to 1 lb. 11 oz.

Personally, I would rather they keep the size/amount the same and simply charge more. Either way the price has gone up. Who do they think they are fooling anyway?

Linda

I don't like the price increases by reducing the size of the container, but if your store does there job marking the shelves you can usually find the best price by the unit price label. Sometimes with sales you have to do your own math because the unit price isn't carried over with the sale price.

At my Kroger they sell cereal in bags that are usually a better price than the boxes. I wonder if kids would notice if you saved a box of their favorite and filled it with the cheaper bagged varieties?

Probably...

Some stores have an aisle of bulk stuff - grains, cereals, spices, etc. I love that. I guess there is no generic "Goldfish", but for some other types, you might look. There are also store (private label) brands.

Go to a financial website and check out the price charts for agricultural commodities. It's clear why packaged food companies are doing this. We notice but the vast majority of shoppers do not.

I understand the filled by weight, not volume since many things will settle. I understand the bags being puffed out to protect the contents. Watching the 5 qt pail of ice cream become 4 qt, seeing 2# bags of frozen potatoes are down to 24 oz in some cases and laughing at the coffee cans, the other day was a chuckle.

I'm not a giant fan of chips and the like but occasionally I like some crunchy, salty things. Had a taste for some kind of chips and thought some Pringles "crisps" (since they can't call them potato chips) would fit the bill. They're now pretty much all in the "new" "Super Stack" size. I popped the top and this is what it looked like. Now, these things are potato paste pressed, preformed, shaped into a "chip" shape and stacked to avoid damage and broken "crisps". But leaving the 2.5"-3" of dead air in the top coupled with the extra space on the sides is just inviting damage AFAIC. BTW, not one "crisp" has been removed from the can. This was taken seconds after opening it.

But alas, I'm a pragmatist. I know that many, many people are stoopid and a majority it seems don't even know the basics of how to shop. A fast food burger is a fast food burger, even though one is 25% more, uh, "meat"(???) than the other. They look at the frozen mac & "cheese" and they want it for $1, whether it's 16 oz, 12 oz, 8 oz or 6 oz. They just think the kid has a hearty appetite when they need more than one to satisfy their appetite. Price increases have done more to get people to quit smoking than all the rhetoric of health concerns. That's the way it is. People will buy the cheap toilet paper because it's a "deal" but the number of sheets in a 4 pack totals about 1/4 of what one large roll of another brand contains, and the larger roll costs 1/3 of the 4 pack! And let's not go into the perforations on paper towels and toilet paper getting closer together and the cores becoming the size of drain tiles.