One way companies raise prices is to give you less product for the same price. In times like these, I complain less because for some it could mean the difference between affording a box of less pasta and not being able to buy the original size. Many are on the brink. In general, however, it makes me nuts!

Beware the 10 oz. bag of Nestle's semi-sweet morsels! It looks just like the 12 oz. bag that was standard for many decades, and which they still produce!

I've been told (but not by the company) that the 4 lb. bag of sugar is to better fit newer, smaller canisters. Yeah right. But it's a good thought. :) At least the 10 lb. bag is still 10 lb.

What brand? A quick check shows Barilla's tri-color penne and tri-color rotini are 12 oz. I know most of their others are 16 oz. Just bought some penne and rigatoni.

Plllog - it's only two of us and the box of pasta was only a dollar, but I only would have cooked half of it for our salad. NBD. It just took me by surprise. Recently shared a recipe with my mother for a scalloped corn casserole and it didn't come out well for her. I think it was because a can of this and a bag of that were also downsized and I must remember to check that out when I make it myself the next time...

Seagrass, I noticed that the last time I bought spaghetti, and added pasta to the list of "downsized" items. (sigh) A bag of sugar is now 4 pounds instead of 5. Potatoes don't come in 10 pound bags, it's 8 pounds now. Cake mixes went from (I think) 18 ounces to 15 ounces. manufacturers think we won't notice if they don't change the price, just reduce the package size.

Annie

Chloe - I wanted Barilla but the whole section was empty. I bought Prince pasta. The boxes have always been 16 oz.

Ugh...pretty irritating when you're used to 16 oz. The Barilla and De Cecco supply at my market have been sparse. A few days ago I was happy to see a full supply of both. Not sure how long it will last.

Sweetened condensed milk used to come in 16 oz. cans, and now they are 14 oz., which threw off my recipe for lime pie. I added 2 oz. cream cheese to make up for the difference.

I weigh pasta before cooking it, and I allow 2.5 oz per serving. If I allow 3 oz., we end up with leftovers.

Lars, I do the very same thing...weigh it with about 2.5 oz per person. Maybe more depending on who's joining us.

As someone who typically goes through a couple boxes of Barilla tri color rotini a week, I can say it’s been 12 ounces for years now. So is Ronzoni. Really depends on the pasta, whether it’s still a pound or downsized to 12.

Food - I've been living under a rock. DH has been the one buying groceries for several years because of my health issues. Today was a surprise for me.

I'm glad you felt well enough to get out.

Islay - I sent my DH off with the targeted list and meandered around the fresh produce.

Sugar has been in 4 pound bags for many years now, at least a decade.

What’s really confusing to me, is that in Canada, someone had the brilliant idea to switch to metric. Huh? Now when I try to make a Recipe I almost have to get out a calculator to convert the ingredients.

I wish we would.

"foodonastump

I wish we would."

You are nuts. :-)

When you go to HD, what would you call a 2 x 4 stud, 4 x 8 ply wood or a 2 x 2 ceiling tile?

dcarch

Lol, 2x4, 4x8, and 2x2 are still called the same thing even if it's metric. We do have members from metric using nations around here, they seem to tend to call them colloquially rather than by actual measure in metric.

I use both metric and imperial measure- I convert back and forth for my crafting and cooking depending on what I'm making. With cooking I use weight measure and volume measure depending on what I'm making too. Particularly with things like salts, or sometimes sugars where different grinds/flake can make for different measures.

I never use metric, only in outside temperature (Celcius) and while driving, (kilometers). Oh and 4-litre bags of milk.

But meat, I still price in lbs (it's quoted both ways in the flyers and on the shelf), and only use recipes that say tbsp and cups.

What I hate are when the packaging is the same size, but the product is smaller. That's extremely deceptive. Colgate toothpaste was on sale for .99 so I bought a few pkg. Some were 90 gr and some were 60!!! The outside rectangular box was the same, it was only when I got home I noticed it. The smaller tube was rattling around inside the box. Grrrr.

Our sugar is still in 2kg bags, so 4.4. lb. Our chocolate milk in the bags has shrunk to 3 litre instead of 4 litre, so you get 3 partially filled bags instead of 3 full bags. I know you won't understand what I'm talking about unless you live in the Eastern provinces, lol

Its a popular trick that is spreading everywhere, isn't it? And yet, the package remains the same and we're left with wasted containers with air. It is really frustrating on things like condensed milk, where recipes have been built around a 16 ounce size.

Jasdip, I'm not familiar with milk in bags - no matter what size. Is the bag floppy? Do you lay it on the shelf in the refrigerator? Do you transfer it to another container when you want to use it?

Okay, I just googled and found out the answers.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/costofliving/we-answer-your-burning-questions-about-things-like-milk-bags-tariffs-condo-insurance-and-printer-cartridges-1.5409407/here-s-why-milk-comes-in-bags-in-parts-of-canada-1.5409420

You were right that I wouldn't know what you were talking about :)

Well, it's not as if 2x4's are actually 2 inches by 4 inches. They were, I think, when they were first called that, but they're actually 1.5"x3.5". Same for other lumber. They just got downsized way long ago.

When this started happening 20 years ago or so, they added the price-per-pound on the shelf tag soon after.... 3,4,6,10 ounces per pound, then the cheese monger started selling per 1/4 pound. Some half pound. I do think most of the general public has no clue. Canned beans might be 3 for a buck but the cans are full of goo-water. A quarter teaspoon (two cents) of very cheap xantun gum (sp) makes a bottle of salad dressing thick. Mostly water and salt. Modified corn starch is another very cheap thickener. Half a penny. Taste buds think it is rich and so thick good.

I still have caught myself sometimes...wait, this is similar but 10 bucks a pound, where the next door product is 4 bucks a pound. The packages look the same size. Final choice is the quality.

We spend a lot of time in Canada. I'm cool with 'clicks' while driving. Prefer Fahrenheit for temps being more sensitive. Broader range of numbers.

Liters will through me off sometimes. Kilos.

I don't buy cereal but I bet that is a big packaging cheat.

A master builder is well aware of lumber dimensions. Hacks/DIY's without good google skills are s+rewed. 😜

My father was building buildings more than 60 years ago. He used to talk about how the boards used to be bigger. Perhaps not full nominal, but nearly so, dry. Then it was a quarter inch, then a half inch gone. He had the same feeling as we do about the different package sizes, though I think it had more to do with automated lumber mills and bulk processing than price manipulation.

Yes, I know about lumber and wood, having spent enough time with Dad in the workshop, planing rough boards and running the band saw.

I've also got family near Toronto, so I know about Imperial gallons and Canadian money exchange rates, LOL.

I just don't get metric, though. We didn't learn it in school and it would take a lot of time and money to change all the packaging, measureing devices, containers, road signs, gas pumps, etc. I used to tell people that the only metric measurements I knew about were the people who bottle soft drinks in 2 liter bottles and the local drug dealers, who deal in grams. (grin)

I don't even bother to try to convert recipes any more, I just go find a different recipe. They never seem to convert well, things happen like 25 grams is 0.124 cups and I just can't measure that.

Annie

a number of things are down from 12 oz to 10 oz. Toilet paper is another thing, single ply, huge rolls ... weird. canned milk seems smaller too. another way to reduce quantity and increase price. is there a thing as ... fresh nuts any more. Used to be able to buy them in the shell in a bin ... just need to shop carefully.

When you go to HD, what would you call a 2 x 4 stud, 4 x 8 ply wood or a 2 x 2 ceiling tile?

I’d imagine some things would be awkward to change, and might not for that reason. But we’ve already got a weird hybrid here. You can’t buy a quart of soda but you can buy two pints, and you can’t buy a liter of milk.

Most of us know there are 8 ounces to a cup, 2 cups to a pint, 12 inches to a foot and three feet to a yard. I generally remember but always second guess 5280 feet in a mile. I’d definitely have to look up how much a dram or a grain is, but why bother since we use milligrams? If you’ve got a 300x600’ plot of land, what fraction of an acre is it? Without looking up acre.

Metric, if you can remember the three basic units, and multiply/divide by 10, 100, or 1000, you’re pretty much set. Bonus: 0 is freezing and 100 is boiling. Brilliant!

But really, I was thinking along the lines of cooking. If nothing else, scaling recipes is so much easier in metric, esp since they favor weight.

Social Distancing:

6 feet = 6 feet, easy, just count 6 floor tiles.

3 meters = 9.84252 feet

2 meters = 6.56168 feet

1.5 meters (Germany) = 4.92126 feet.

1.8 meters (Italy) = 5.90551 feet.

Reduced from 2 meters to "one meter plus" (England) = ?

dcarch

The math keeps me in in the store way too long. Was one of the reasons I used to hate going shopping. I don't go now, hubs does once a week, but we already had narrowed most of our shopping down to standard, affordable items anyway. Changes in those might be noticeable. So far we had enough pasta provisioned that we have not had to restock . . .

One thing I've heard a lot of reporting about is how companies have been doing this so as not to freak customers out because costs keep going up and they're trying to keep their prices from rising too much.

I tend to compare cost per unit of measure/serving anyway. I use the calculators on my phone & computer.