Food Inflation Kept Hidden in Tinier Bags

[groovedaddy]

Chips are disappearing from bags, candy from boxes and vegetables from cans.

As an expected increase in the cost of raw materials looms for late summer, consumers are beginning to encounter shrinking food packages.

With unemployment still high, companies in recent months have tried to camouflage price increases by selling their products in tiny and tinier packages. So far, the changes are most visible at the grocery store, where shoppers are paying the same amount, but getting less.

For Lisa Stauber, stretching her budget to feed her nine children in Houston often requires careful monitoring at the store. Recently, when she cooked her usual three boxes of pasta for a big family dinner, she was surprised by a smaller yield, and she began to suspect something was up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/business/29shrink.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25

[Buzz Clik]

1. As a nation, we are going to be okay with fewer chips and fewer pieces of candy.

When we start eating no chips and no candy, smaller portions of veggies will be fine, too.

[blm]

2. Paying higher price for less on cat and dog food, too.

.

[Name removed]

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[demigoddess]

4. boxes of cereal are smaller, too. it is their way of hiding

higher prices.

[DJ13]

5. consumers are beginning to encounter shrinking food packages

"Beginning"?

When was the last time you could buy a national brand of ice cream in an actual half gallon size?

This has been going on for two years now, its a shame what passes itself off as "news" in our country is so far behind the curve in telling people the truth.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. Remember those one-pound cans of coffee?

Now it's, what, 11 ounces that's the norm?

[ixion]

11. it's been going on longer than 2 years... going since at least 2007

when I noticed the number of ounces in an anti-septic pack of tuna had been decreased.

[NMDemDist2]

6. yanno, i understand their logic, but it sure messes with my recipes

many recipes are based on "15oz can of black beans" type thing.....

[jwirr]

7. Smaller bags and packaging has always been their way of hiding

price increases. I do not think it is working this time. Next month I am going to a master gardener class on container gardening and I am busy talking my family into bigger gardens this year. The more we can do for ourselves the better. Even a container on a window sill.

[godai]

8. Ice cream containers, OJ, even bars of soap.nt

[SoulSearcher]

9. Many boxes they just change the Net Wieght