Shrinking Product Sizes Hides Inflation

By Mary Kay Linge. These incredibly shrinking products are putting a stealth squeeze on our already thin wallets.

More companies are downsizing their packages — but many consumers don’t realize they’re getting the shaft because price and size changes are carefully camouflaged.

“We get a ton of examples of these from readers,” said Chris Morran of the Consumerist Web site. “You pay the same price but you get less product.”

Not even supermarket standards like the 5-pound bag of sugar are safe from shrinkage. The new normal: 4 pounds of the sweet stuff per bag.

Ivory Soap bars have slimmed down — going down from 4.5 to 4 ounces.

Toilet paper, once sold in standard 4.5-inch-square sheets, now may be so narrow that it slides out of your wall holder. Read more from this story HERE.

List of 10 Shrinking Products

By Consumer Reports.

Ivory dish detergent
Old: 30 oz.
New: 24 oz.
Difference: -20 percent
Reason: The 30-ounce product was discontinued in smaller stores, due to increased costs for raw materials.

Tropicana orange juice
Old: 64 oz.
New: 59 oz.
Difference: -7.8 percent
Reason: Last winter’s freeze in Florida. The choice was to raise prices drastically or drop package size. Based on consumer research, people preferred to keep the same price and get a little less juice to keep within their budgets.

Kraft American cheese
Old: 24 slices
New: 22 slices
Difference: -8.3 percent
Reason: The larger 16-ounce package was discontinued because it wasn’t selling.
More from Consumer Reports.

Kirkland Signature (Costco) paper towels
Old: 96.2 sq. ft.
New: 85 sq. ft.
Difference: -11.6 percent
Reason: “It’s a good question. I’ll look into it and e-mail a response.” (We never got one.)

Häagen-Dazs ice cream
Old: 16 oz.
New: 14 oz.
Difference: -12.5 percent
Reason: Due to the cost of ingredients and facility costs, it was either change the size of the container or raise the price.

Read more from this story HERE.