Minor B#@ch--shrinking cereal boxes.

[DrSally]

So, I was super excited that DS's favorite (only) cereal--Quaker Oatmeal Squares-- is onsale this week at Target. It's 2.78, plus if you buy 5 boxes, you get a $5 gift card, so that works out to $1.78 a box, when it's normally 3.50-$4.00 a box. I got 10 boxes today. When I got home and put them away, they were smaller than the existing box I have in the pantry. I looked at the ounces and the size is reduced by 1/3--from 24 oz to 16 oz. WTH! It's not like they're changing the regular price. I already felt the box was small to begin with. I know food companies are shrinking boxes, but this is a significant reduction.

[DebbieJ]

yep, and Breyers ice cream is no longer a full gallon either--1.5 qts. Bastards.

[neobunny]

Everything at the grocery store is getting smaller & smaller. Not too long ago I saw that a can of tuna went from 6oz to 5.5oz then to 5oz. but it's still the same price. They starting doing this when the gas prices first went out of control, but now they are just doing it cause they can get away with it. And it's not like we have a choice in it either. If it was only one brand that did this then we could just boycott that brand. But nooo! As soon as one company does it they all do it.

[belovedgandp]

Yep, completely annoying. I have a couple cookie recipes that use peanut butter. We rarely eat it, so I'd buy the jar size to match the recipe. Cannot be found anymore. It's impossible to measure out just a couple more ounces from another container.

They've been doing it for years. My mother started writing ounces of containers for recipes over 20 years ago. Some of those can be funny to find. They are no where near the sizes available today on everything from rice boxes to canned goods to baking products.

[hellokitty]

Yup, everything is smaller now, BUT they are still charging the same price. It's kind of insulting that the manufacturers think we are too stupid to notice.

[AnnieW625]

I haven't bought Dryers (aka Edy's) or Breyers in almost a year because of the switch; it drives me bonkers. Thankfully our store brand ice creams taste just as good and are still 1 gallon.

[DrSally]

Shrinking the box just means I have to go back more often and buy more. It's really the only thing DS likes to eat for breakfast and I felt the 24 oz box was already small.

[hobie]

I'm a Quaker Oatmeal Square lover too! I hate the smaller boxes, so I've been trying to make the switch to eating regular cooked oatmeal. It's just getting so expensive!

[Gretchen]

And to make things worse sometimes my grocery store's unit pricing is for different measurements for similar products, like per pint for some brands and per ounce for something else. I even saw something this weekend that was "unit pricing exempt." Thanks Kroger (it was Fred Meyers in particular.)

[maestramommy]

Okay, I thought I was imagining it. Like maybe the Kashi box of blueberry cereal is smaller at the main market than at TJs. But maybe they've just shrunk overall. Bummer.

[gatorsmom]

That's such a coincidence that you posted this. Just this morning i was looking at the Kashi cereal box (which is what the twins love) and wondering to myself how much thinner the manufacturer could make the boxes before the box won't stand up by itself anymore! The front of the box still stays tall, they just make the box more narrow. I suppose they still want the box to have presence on the grocery aisle shelf but reduce what's inside. So annoying. :30:

[DrSally]

Yeah, I don't know how much more they can cut before alienating consumers. I think $4 is ridiculous already for a small box of cereal. Cut the size by 1/3 and it is ludicrious!

[vonfirmath]

A lot of people don't eat cereal cause the price is so ludicrous, even before this change.

[DrSally]

A lot of people don't eat cereal cause the price is so ludicrous, even before this change.

I'm not a big cereal eater myself, or we would buy the cheap stuff in bags for DH. But, this is the only cereal DS likes, in fact he loves it, and he gets very upset if we don't have any in the house. Otherwise, he'd be eating soybutter toast for breakfast and soybutter sandwhich for lunch. I like it b/c there are minimal ingred, some fiber, and no HFCS. I hate it b/c the box is so small and now I hate it more b/c the box is even smaller.

[ncat]

I'm really upset by the shrinking boxes. The smallest Cheerios box (10 oz a few years ago) is so small now that we don't bother buying it even when on great sale. I don't think it would get my husband through two mornings.

The ice cream shrinks (from 2 quarts to 1.75, the 1.75 to 1.5) happened during each of my pregnancies.

[TwinFoxes]

I read this the other day, some food packages are getting bigger:

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2009/07/package_sizes_at_the_grocery_s.html

OK, it's mostly Frito-Lay, but maybe other companies will follow suit! The "not quite a gallon" of ice cream bugs me the most. There have always been different size cereal boxes, but there was pretty much one size of ice cream.