Downsizing Food

I saw a report on The Today Show the other day where they were talking about how some major food companies are reducing the size of their stuff, but keeping the prices what they were before. I guess that's their way of dealing with higher food prices...make the customer think they're still paying the same price, but instead they get less.

Has anybody noticed this yet at your local grocery store? Admittedly, Mrs. Cincy does 90% of our grocery shopping, so I don't really know if the sizes have changed. Plus, we buy mainly generic store brand stuff anyway as a way of trying to save some $$$.

What do you think of this practice? Would you rather pay more for the same thing, or pay the same for something smaller?

I do the grocery in my household and I haven't really noticed a decrease in the sizes of the packages. Then again, I don't buy too many packaged/processed food.
I buy my chicken and other meat from a butcher/poultry farmer on Thursdays, that is when they bring fresh meat for sale.
In the summer I buy most veggies/greens from the farmer's markets or I buy mostly local produce when it is available.
The only things I've really noticed increased in price would be flour and rice, I think it is about double the price now.
Organic sugar I pay $42.00 for 50 lbs. from the farmer's market, that lasts about 5 to 6 months.

I have noticed the downsizing trend lately. The one thing that comes to mind is ice cream. Edy's used to have 1.75 qt. cartons. Now they are 1.50 qt. cartons at the same price.

This didn't just start, this has been going on for some time. I seem to recall a story back mid '07 about the same thing. I know it's been well over a year now since they quit packaging 1/2 gals. of ice cream, knocked them down to 1.75 qts. I believe the story I saw dealt with store pkd'd coffee and the rise of Starbucks. Just about every common item one will purchase at the grocery is packaged in a smaller quantity at the same or increase price. This "trend" is everywhere you go.

edit: I see that Irish says they're down to 1.50qts.

I noticed this a while ago.. anyone else notice a couple years back Burger King went to Fry "Pods" instead of the traditional whatever you want to call them.

No one wants to raise prices, so they reduce portions. I used to tell people when I was selling cars that if their payment was $20 more per month than they wanted, that's just an extra value meal/week.. now it's only about 2/month.

Just heard a news report over the weekend that Kellogg is going to shrink the size of their cereal boxes and not lower the price. Means the cost of Frosted Flakes are going up.

Yep, this is the way of combating higher prices without the consumer noticing. Someone recently told me the "Popcorn" button on his microwave burns it now because the portions are smaller.