Getting short-shrifted at the grocery store

[hyphenate]

Watch out for canned food specials, for lower weight contents in familiar cans and boxes!

Tuna, once upon a time, used to hold 7 ounces in that can a few years ago. Then, it changed to 6 1/2 ounces. Now, in a 4 can package, each can holds only 5 ounces!

I've noticed it with a lot of cans, because they can add water or juice or some other liquid to compensate for the lack of actual product, and since it still goes into the can everyone is familiar with, hardly anyone notices anymore. You simply cannot gauge the product by weighing it with the liquid filler, and it's not until you get home that you figure it out.

Most regular cans once weighed a pound--a full 16 ounces. Many cans are still at 15.5 ounces, but others have gone all the way down to 14 ounces. It's important to check the content weight before you buy.

Normally, a can of tuna, for me, used to make 1 and 1/2 sandwiches. I was grateful this past weekend that I could get a full sandwich out of the contents of that single can. Next time I shop, I will be paying closer attention to the weight and contents of EVERYTHING I purchase.

Another product that has changed significantly is Macaroni and Cheese from Kraft. I've tasted other Macs and Cheese, but there is something about the Kraft that has made it my favorite.

However, the Kraft Mac & Cheese has gone down from 7 oz. of dry product as well, and the pasta enclosed in the packages has gotten smaller, thinner and generally mushy. You know there is a difference when the average cooking time used to be about 11 minutes, and now it's only 7-8 minutes. No longer is the product a nice, robust elbow macaroni, but thin, scrawny and pathetic straight pieces of pasta, so little resembling the pasta I grew up with! Perhaps it's what moms prefer--something that only takes a short time to cook and put on the table for small kids. But really--is there THAT much difference between a cooking time of 11 minutes to 7-8 minutes?

I know that costs of providing food for our families is paramount on everyone's mind, but cutting product down without any kind of obligation on the manufacturer's part to inform their buying base is the sign of a coward to me. Come right out and tell the truth, and people will feel you dealt with them fairly.

[slackmaster]

1. When I was a teenager a standard Hershey plain milk chocolate bar was 2 full ounces

Everything has been getting steadily smaller.

[roguevalley]

23. I remember that you could fill your car with groceries for fifty dollars.

I remember when a 3 musketeers was HUGE and had three flavors. It also cost about a nickle. I am old. :)

[slackmaster]

Sav-On Drugs had ice cream cones for 5 cents per scoop in the early '70s

15 cents for a triple. The perfect treat for a hungry kid on a hot summer day.

[proud2BlibKansan]

71. When we first got married, $5 a sack was the rule

Then it went up to $20. I don't even know what it is now. Don't want to know.

[azmouse]

2. Avoiding the pre-packaged processed foods will save money.

Yep, you'll have to spend more time cooking some things but the savings are worth it, and the food will taste better and be more healthful.

[unpossibles]

7. Agreed. Also, as portion sizes go up and up

maybe the manufacturers are somehow doing us a small favor.

And finally, if nothing else, reading labels is a great habit to be in, and not just the price and weight.

[EFerrari]

9. It's hard for a lot of people in cities to get access to real food. n/t

[azmouse]

17. ummm... I live in a city and don't have any problems.

I know some neighborhoods in poor areas don't get the variety they deserve but most people have access to real food.

[EFerrari]

21. How nice for you.

A lot of my neighbors need help getting to a big store, let alone a farmers' market.

"Some people in poor areas" have no access to produce, let alone variety.

But thanks for your concern.

[azmouse]

25. How nice for YOU to be so perfect and have all the answers all the time.

It is soooo long past the time I should have put you on ignore. buh-bye

[EFerrari]

29. How perfect do you have to be to figure out city residents need better access

to real food? :wtf:

[Wednesdays]

88. I'm with sfexpat2000 on this one

sfexpat2000 made a simple statement, which any objective reader would see was just common sense. And then you started in with the snark.

Buh-bye to you, too.

[Runcible Spoon]

50. google "food deserts", It's a real problem.

[roody]

84. Most grocery stores and beans and rice in bags

if they do not have a bulk section. Pasta as well.

[EFerrari]

91. That's true, they do. Some of the small Mom n Pops out here

(miles away from a farmers' market) have recently started making an effort to stock fresh stuff that doesn't spoil over night -- onions, potatoes, apples, oranges, garlic.

One positive thing that may come out of this horrible economy is that people will get a better sense of how important "local" is. :)

[riqster]

10. Oh yeah. Used to buy pre-packaged food items

...when my B.P. skied out, I started looking at the sodium content. Holy Moly.....

I am down 100 points with medication and scratch-made foods. Oh yeah, and it's cheaper. Gotta love those 'wake-up calls'.

[Richard D]

14. Yes

Read the label on pre-packaged foods as well. Scary!

[proud2BlibKansan]

72. TV dinners are only $1 and pot pies are 89 cents

Can't beat those prices.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

85. You can eat cheap and healthy

The supermarket I go to is in a pretty heavily Hispanic area. I see them stocking up their carts with rice, beans, veggies, cheap cuts of meat. That's a lot healthier than a banquet meal.

[mitchtv]

3. Ice cream is now smaller

Breyers, Dreyers, and the rest used to be half gallons

[Raineyb]

87. I've noticed.

A half gallon container is now down to something like 56 oz. I started making a point to pay attention to things like that when Jim Hightower mentioned how the size of a bar of Ivory soap shrunk but the price didn't. This was some time ago and now the trend seems to be spreading.

Regards

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. I noticed that with the orange juice I normally buy...

They have introduced a lovely, svelte new shape...easier to pour!

Yeah, right.:eyes:

Not easier to pour, and it's smaller than the old container!

PLUS the unit price is higher...

I refuse to buy it.

Fuckers, all of 'em...

:grr:

[Nickster]

8. Something about you using the "F" word just shocks me. :-)

[XemaSab]

55. Cal Peggy was in the navy during 'Nam

At least, I assume that's the case from the language I see coming from her keyboard. :P

[OffWithTheirHeads]

20. Hey, don't feel bad. I remember how outraged I was

when they raised the price of a bag of potato chips from 5 cents to 7 cents. Swore I would never buy another one as long as I lived. That didn't work out so well over the years but whatever they are charging for that bag of air now I refuse to pay. Haven't bought chips in years.

[grace0418]

43. My husband went to high school with a woman who is now a food engineer for

one of the big food manufacturers. She developed the new "lite" orange juices that have fewer calories. She told us that basically the company uses less juice, more water, plus a flavoring to keep it from being too obvious that it's watered down. And they charge you more for the product, when you could just buy the regular juice for less money. Then if you add water yourself, you can stretch your dollar even further.

[OnyxCollie]

52. The highly-touted pitcher from Tropicana.

I think it's eight ounces less than before.

[Nickster]

5. It's funny you mention Kraft Mac and Cheese. I just had some Mac and Cheese for dinner last night

and I thought the same thing. This tastes much different than what I was used to and how in the heck did the cook time change too. I also noticed the 20 pack of Coca Cola in the grocery store this week, looked very similar to the regular case and the price was what I used to pay for the 24 pack. I almost didn't catch it at first.

[EFerrari]

6. I was thinking about Kraft mac n cheese the other day.

It used to feed a (struggling) family of three as the main side dish. I thought it was just my imagination!

[greenbriar]

13. I think that is what I will have for dinner

or maybe shells and cheese

[EFerrari]

15. LOL!

:)

[woodsprite]

11. Hubby loved his 8oz containers of 'fruit-on-the-bottom' yogurt ,

but they don't make them anymore - not even in most of the store brands. He's taken to buying large containers of either plain or vanilla Dannon and dishing out his own servings. I think he might be dishing out a bit much since he just 'graduated' to a size 38 waist ;)

I personally would rather see the prices go up or down, rather than them trying to 'trick' consumers. I always buy extra for a recipe since I don't know if I'll actually get all I need in the can or not.

I haven't bought tuna for awhile. Last time I did, it was one of the 3oz vacuum packed servings. Heck, they might be less than 3oz by now.

[eridani]

79. Yep. I hate the 6 ounce packaging as well n/t

[DJ13]

12. The Pepsi "8 packs" are a joke too

My wife and I refuse to buy products that have reduced the portions too much.

[MineralMan]

16. Product May Have Settled in Container

Yup.

[pnorman]

30. Maybe they'll start marketing a "Metric Six-Pack".

That would be FIVE cans in the cluster, and would result in a "neater" looking shape (more or less circular).

pnorman

[FloridaJudy]

18. Used to be there were twelve cans

In a case of soda, now they're all down to eight cans.

Yes, I know soda isn't a necessity, but I like to treat myself to a diet cola every once in a while. There are worse vices.

[pacalo]

19. Notice Dial soap bars lately?

They "scooped" out the top layer, while the price has gone up.

I've noticed the doggie treats I used to get for my dog (the ones coming from China w/melamine in them :eyes: ) now come in a bag half the size it used to be & have gone from $10-something to $15-something.

[OnyxCollie]

53. Buy beef liver for your dogs.

It's cheap, relatively safe, and dogs love it.

I broil it, chop it up into little pieces, and freeze it. I also collect the drippings and put it on their kibble for dinner.

Please don't buy doggie treats from China/Mexico.

[pacalo]

62. I don't know if my dog would go for liver, but I'll certainly try it.

He's got a different taste than other dogs. He likes any yardbird; turkey is his absolute favorite flavor, then chicken comes in second. He likes pork, also, but he's spooked by pig ears for some reason. He doesn't like beef -- can you believe it?

I don't buy those dried chicken breast treats for him since I found out about the melamine thing. I bought some chicken breasts & thought I'd slice them into strips & dehydrate them in the oven at a low heat.

Thanks for the liver tip -- I sure hope he goes for it!

[OnyxCollie]

68. I use liver for all my dog training.

Never met a dog that didn't love it. I've got four and they all go crazy for it. After going to a few dog shows, my dog Rose is now under the impression that everyone's pockets are filled with liver. She'll walk up to people and tap their pockets with her nose in hopes of getting a treat.

Broil it six minutes a side, then two minutes a side.

Best to stay away from pork. If not cooked properly, it can lead to Trichinellosis caused by parasites.

Stay away from chicken liver, too. It's way too rich for dogs. (Sloppy poopies.)

[GoneOffShore]

82. Not to advocate eating raw pig liver, but CDC reckons that

"During 1997-2001, an average of 12 cases per year were reported."

And they also state that: "Cases are less commonly associated with pork products and more often associated with eating raw or undercooked wild game meats."

Though they still caution about raw meat, as you, rightly, do.


http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/trichinosis/factsht_trichinosis.htm#common

[pacalo]

86. Thank you!

I was actually thinking about choosing the chicken over the beef, so I'm glad you pointed out how rich it is. My dog doesn't usually go for beef, but I'm going to give it a try -- sure sounds easy to prepare. :)

[starroute]

22. It messes up my recipes, too

I don't use a lot of pre-processed food -- but I do use pasta and beans and stuff like that. And when the amounts in the boxes and cans no longer match the standard measures in my recipes, I can have real problems. The spaghetti boxes with 13.5 ounces are a particular peeve, since I'm constantly having to combine the last of one box with the start of the next, but all of it's annoying.

[Lyric]

24. I noticed this a while back. It pisses me off severely.

My son's juice boxes used to come in 10-packs. Now it's an 8-pack, but the juice boxes themselves are each wider and shorter than they used to be, so the overall width of the shrink-wrapped package is the same as it was when there were ten juice boxes per package. It's visually deceptive, and it's disgusting. I refuse to buy products from companies that try and trick me into buying less for more. I'd rather that they just raise the prices a bit; it's more honest.

[sandyj999]

26. I take it as an insult to my intelligence. "They" think we won't notice?

Another example is ice cream. First it was actually a half gallon. Then it went to 1.75 qts. Now most of it has dropped to 1.50 qts. Sometimes they actually redesign the graphics thinking we won't notice the change in the amount.

[reggie the dog]

60. I noticed that last time I was in the USA

I was looking for that all elusive half gallon of ice cream....

[Flubadubya]

89. If you happen to be somewhere near Brenham, Texas...

Look for Blue Bell Ice Cream. It is made in East Texas and distributed all across the South. Their big marketing tout is that they still make a full HALF GALLON of product. They do, and the ice cream is the BEST! Have a look here:

http://www.bluebell.com/The_Little_Creamery/StillaHalfGallon.aspx

[JVS]

27. Just shoplift the difference!

;-)

[Gormy Cuss]

28. Complain.

Write or email letters of complaint to every manufacturer using this tack. Tell them that you won't buy the product anymore. If enough consumers register complaints then the manufacturers will notice.

[Javaman]

31. I also wonder about the water content in that tuna...

I wonder if that has increased as well.

[mojowork_n]

32. Jars of peanut butter are another one.

Instead of being more or less flat on the bottom, many now have a deep dimple in the bottom. You could set one down on top of a basketball, if you needed to, and the thing wouldn't fall off.

[unblock]

36. so not only does it hold less, it makes it harder to scrape out what they do give ya.

:grr:

[Generic Other]

81. I picked strawberries as a kid

we used to push the boxes up like that underneath so we could fill them with less fruit. Sneaky bastards.

[Catherine Vincent]

33. It wouldn't be a problem if they were cutting down in porportion but

they're not cutting the prices. They're opposite...going up on the price.

[greguganus]

34. Have you noticed the shopping carts are now smaller...

...so it looks like you have purchased more food?
Or maybe they are smaller so it's easier for customers to bring the carts back inside the store in order to eliminate someone's job. (pertaining to earlier thread).

[DonEBrook]

64. My store just got new MUCH BIGGER carts! I figured it was so shoppers think they need to buy more

to fill 'em up!
:shrug:

[Vanje]

90. Bigger carts where I shop too

Lots of traffic trouble in the store aisles.

[unblock]

35. kraft 'thick & creamy' has better macaroni.

another fav of mine is getting proper macaroni and using some velveeta as the sauce.
(yes, i know it's not "real" cheese, but hell, neither is that orange powder :))

[Catherine Vincent]

37. off topic but this is a good place to post...

I went to the grocery store and bought items for my Thanksgiving dinner early. One item in particular was almond extract. I rarely bake so I didn't open it until Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I opened the box okay, it didn't seem to be tampered with but when I pulled the bottle out it had only about two tablespoons of extract in it. I was pissed. I already decided I would return it after Thanksgiving and let them know, then when I opened the bottle, it didn't have the top seal on it. Someone had already used this bottle apparently and returned it to the store for an exchange. The store clerk probably didn't bother to open the box to find out how much was used or for all they know, the dishonest person could have put water in it or god forbid poison or something. Why do people do dishonest stuff like this.

Please beward, if the packaging on a product is missing the seal or is tampered, return it to the store and make them aware of it.

[Atman]

38. It started with coffee. You can't buy a one pound can of coffee -- it's 11 or 12 0z

Ice cream is another one. A half gallon container of ice cream is now considerably less than a half gallon.

.

[Broken_Hero]

39. The product I notice, that switches its weight constantly

is potato chips...their weight fluctuates quite a bit, but the prices tend to stay the same.

Recently, well not recently about two months ago, I noticed that these Oberto burrito's I'd buy cost 3 bucks give or take a few cents, and each package held 10 burritos...but now they only contain 8 burrito's, the price is the same.

[jakem]

40. Dime bags now only have .08!

If we are getting ripped off on quantity, why is we so fat?

:shrug:

[reggie the dog]

61. you get your dime bags

from the wrong dude

[Hawkeye-X]

83. I bought 7 dime bags today..

:hippie: :smoke:

[Mike 03]

41. YES!!! My organic kidney and pinto beans are turning into cans

of water. This wasn't a one time fluke, but it's happening with all the cans. I buy them ten or more at a time. They are supposed to contain three and a half servings, but they are half water now.

I'm glad it's not my imagination. This is robbery. What's worse, one of the brands I'm talking about isn't even on sale, it is already overpriced as it was when the cans were full!

[OneBlueSky]

42. my two big gripes are ice cream and coffee . . .

used to be you could buy a half gallon or a quart of ice cream . . . no longer . . . check out the product weight on the packages . . .

same thing for coffee . . . what used to be a 16 oz. can became a 13.5 oz. can, and then an ll.5 oz. can, and in some cases it's now a 10.5 oz. can . . . the prices, of course, haven't gone down to correspond with the reduced amount of product you're buying . . .

[OnyxCollie]

44. Beer is being packaged in 11.2 oz bottles.

My guess is 11.2 oz is focus group-tested to be as close to 12 oz without anyone quickly noticing.

[sharp_stick]

48. What beer is that?

That's not something I've come across and I'll be sure to avoid the brand.

[OnyxCollie]

51. Most of the imports.

I've got a six-pack of Tennents (Scotland) in the fridge, and that's 11.2 ounces. It used to be 12 ounces.

[JVS]

65. That is really more a metric issue, not a downsizing issue

European beers generally come in 330 ml or 500 ml. 330 ml is 11.15 oz rounding to 11.2

Maybe they decided selling a special almost the same size bottle for the us was not efficient

[OnyxCollie]

66. Damn metric system.

11.2 ounces leaves one wanting just a little bit more.

[JVS]

67. But I have seen budweiser marketing cases of 10 oz beers. So you're right to be paranoid

[OnyxCollie]

70. I did notice mini Coronas at the grocery store.

I saw the low price and thought, "Yeah!" Then I picked them up and thought, "WTF?"

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

76. They've had Corona pony bottles out forever

[Hepburn]

45. Yep, I got caught by the same bullshit with Diet Coke

I usually buy a 24-pack ~~ yeah, I AM addicted to the stuff. Well, I go to the store and sitting there in a HUGE pile on special is what looks like a 24-pack at a fabulous price. So, I buy 2 of them...get them home...and look again. They were TWENTY CAN packs!

:grr:

[CoffeeCat]

46. Packages are shrinking...

...and you can find examples of this on hundreds, if not thousands, of products.

The big scam of the century, in my opinion, is cereal.

Have you checked out these tiny boxes?

When we moved into this house, three years ago, I used to laugh, because the cereal boxes would
stick out of the cupboard, about an inch or two. I lived with it. Now, the boxes fit just fine.

Not only is the box shorter, it is thinner. Check out your cereal box from the side...so thin!

And...the prices of cereal has skyrocketed.

I've also noticed major shrinkage in paper towels and toilet paper.

[hyphenate]

47. The ice cream is one of the other things

I noticed shrinking. And everyone's right: complaining to the manfacturer is one thing that might help. It certainly can't hurt.

Sometimes, buying the store brand might help--I haven't checked it out yet, but it seems to me that some store brands, which are less expensive in the first place, might not have shrunk their canned foods down that much yet. I'll check it out next time I go shopping, which will be Wednesday or Thursday.

In one way, I suppose shrinking the food content is better for our health, but as someone who has to live on one major shopping a month, it's difficult to deal with ever-shrinking food packages.

I try to do a reasonable amount of my own cooking, and freezing some of it, but by the end of the third week of groceries, I'm reduced to more of the staples and dry food/canned food that I have.

[SheilaT]

49. How big a tuna sandwich do you make?

I find the 6 1/2 ounce can easily makes two sandwiches for me.

And yeah, not buying "convenience" foods will tend to save lots of money. Cook from scratch. It's not that hard and really doesn't take that long.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

54. Pasta is nothing more than flour, eggs and a bit of water...

We really need to get back to preparing simple items from scratch.

The corporations are robbing us and we're letting them get away with it.

[KSDiva]

56. I used to work for a Pizza chain...

and the "large" pizza I got the other day (10 years after I finished college and quit) seemed small. I was given some old (set to be thrown out) pizza pans before I left work and I dragged one out.

The "large" pizza now fits perfectly inside an old "medium." But the price for the large is magically the same.

Sad. I know they have to think of margins and be profitable or they will go under, but I just think this shrinkage thing is sad and borderline dishonest.

[Spike89]

58. On the other hand...

Take-out drink sizes continue to amaze me. I'm old, but I remember when a carry out soda (actually, bottles dominated) was a large if it was 16 oz. Most markets in this area refrigerated the 12 and 16 oz bottles, but the "huge" 32 oz bottles almost never were--they were for taking home to the family. Now, in some places, you can't get a soda that small! A cup of coffee to go was just that, a cup (8 oz.) some places had "giant" cups that were 12 oz. Now, I see 12, 16, 20, and 24 oz coffee cups in all the mini-marts.
Have people's bladders evolved into supertanker-like organs in just a generation?

[SheilaT]

63. I've never myself tried making pasta,

but it's not supposed to be that hard.

Your snarkiness aside, cooking meals with fresh ingredients (mostly fresh ingredients perhaps) really isn't tricky or all that time-consuming. Yeah, if you think I'm telling you to churn the butter and bake the break you'll be spending your entire day cooking, but, guess what? that's not what I mean.

[mondo joe]

73. Dried pasta is not a serious offender on the scale of things.

Even my sicilian grandmother very rarely made her own pasta because the time commitment relative to the saving was so minimal.

But prepared "meals" are rarely a savings, and tend to be lousy nutritionally.

[hyphenate]

77. In the OP

I mentioned that the 4 pack of tuna is now only 5 ounces. I was putting it on homemade bread, so the 5 ozs just filled it. Normally, I would put it on regular store bought bread, and the 6 oz could be stretched to make 1 1/2 sandwiches, but the 5 oz in this case didn't quite make it.

[Spike89]

57. Nothing new really, ever remodel an old house?

If the house was built in the mid 50s or earlier and used a standard wood framing plan, it can be a real challenge to do a remodel with current dimension lumber--the sizes don't match up. At one time, a 2 x 4 was, well, it was 2x4 inches. Current "2x4" lumber is about 1.5" x 3.5". The same basic proportions apply to other lumber products. I discovered the same thing last week buying a filter (the 1st replacement) for my heat pump...the store's 20 x 20 x 5 inch filter was actually 19.25 square by 4.5 inches.

It's weird and it irks me that things sold/named for their size no longer are their size. I'm expecting the 3.5 quart "gallon" of milk next, followed by the 35-inch yard stick.

[NoPasaran]

93. You can thank the Kaiser for some of that

The 2x4 lost a quarter inch to conserve lumber during World War One and another quarter inch during WW2.

[reggie the dog]

59. meanwhile

the average price of cannabis and other drugs has either remained stable OR GONE DOWN over the past 25 years. seriously, schwag is still 60 TO _80 an ounce like it was in 1994, regs are still 125 an ounce, and fucking heroin is half the price it used to be before the Taliban were attacked in Afganistan. (I dont do the heroin but I know the price has gone down here in the EU thanks to the news).

[eridani]

80. I remember when you could get an ounce of crappy stuff for $10

Better quality would cost you $25.

[gollygee]

69. Rotisserie chickens

They used to have some meat on them. They're the same price but about half the size now. I just cook my own chicken at this point. I love the convenience of the pre-cooked ones, but I count on leftovers when I make chicken.

[awoke_in_2003]

74. I am funny that way, too,

in regards to mac and cheese- like the cheap stuff. Also prefer the Kraft powdered parmesan cheese over the real shredded stuff. Maybe it is because I grew up on the cheap stuff (all we could afford).

on edit: one of my favorite cheap meals- box of spaghetti with butter, powdered parmesan, and garlic salt.

[NNN0LHI]

75. Used to be able to feed a family with one container of Gaucho’s Sliced Beef With Gravy

Not no more. The package and weight is the same as it used to be but there is now only enough beef inside to feed two people if you are lucky.

Don

[Quantess]

78. More wasted packaging. Great.

Less food, more wrapper.

[deaniac21]

92. The whole damn thing is skewered to favor those who can do

rudimentary arithmetic. Outrage!!

[NoPasaran]

94. And meanwhile, the Solar System, which used to contain nine planets, is down to eight!

We've lost a whole fucking planet, people! When is Obama going to do something about that?

[deaniac21]

97. That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!

[rucky]

95. I take forever to shop.

Because I check prices to ounces on everything. It drives my wife crazy, but we eat better and for less cash, and I think it's kinda fun in a sick sad way.

[sniffa]

96. People should stay away from that shit (not tuna though)

Fresh produce, meats and such are the way to go - it's cheaper and better for you.

[deaniac21]

98. Tuna....sniffa

I'm confused