Lowdown on downsizing

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Published: September 9, 2008

You might be getting less of what you want at the grocery store and not even know it. That’s because some favorite items are getting smaller in size, but unfortunately, the price isn’t shrinking. Consumer Reports has the lowdown on downsizing.

Fruit Loops have gone from 19.7 ounces to 17 ounces.

Tropicana orange juice was 96 ounces. Now it’s 89 ounces.

Hershey’s newer Special Dark chocolate’s “giant” bar is 6.8 ounces. That’s not as giant as the older 8-ounce version, which wasn’t marked giant at all.

Consumer Reports says companies use a lot of different rationales as to why they downsize packaging. Often these days the primary reason is that energy costs have gone up, raw ingredients and materials have gone up. But Tropicana told Consumer Reports they made the container smaller to create a plastic bottle that “poured easier with less spillage and less gurgling.“

Consumer Reports says there are ways around product downsizing. Manufacturers might not always downsize every package in their product line. So unit prices might give you an idea of what you’re paying less for.

Consumer Reports ShopSmart just surveyed shoppers about the practice of downsizing. It turns out many people—75 percent, in fact—said they were aware of the practice and think it’s sneaky. Seventy-one percent said they thought the main reason for downsizing was to hide price hikes from consumers.

Consumer Reports has no commercial relationship with any advertiser or sponsor appearing on this Web site.