Recently my husband purchased a box of my favourite cereal. I normally buy the jumbo package and this one seemed a bit smaller, but he assured me that it had cost the same amount.

Not that I didn’t believe him, but I dug around our recycle bin for the old box and imagine my surprise to see it had contained over 1kg of cereal and the new box holds only 760grams. To further insult my intelligence the banner claimed to be a “new bigger size!”

Kellogg’s, you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do.

Food Packaging Is Shrinking

It seems that manufacturers – especially of food products – have reduced their packaging in a marketing technique they call “downsizing”. This is a way of passing on a price increase without actually raising the price. They claim that this is what consumers want. But is it? Consumers seem to be the last to notice.

Cereal is a major culprit but the smaller packaging also applies to ice cream, coffee, juice, cheese, pasta sauce, and even paper products such as toilet paper and paper towels, to name a few. Sometimes they even keep the box the same – snack bars for example – and reduce the size of the bars inside.

Paying More For Less

If a package of, say, rice or noodles is the perfect size for my family meal, the new smaller size isn’t going to be enough. Now I have to buy two packages and figure out what to do with the remainder. Instead of paying an extra thirty or fifty cents I’m now paying double for an amount I don’t want or need. Or maybe they are trying to make us eat less to keep our weight down.

Grocery stores aren’t the only culprits. Fast food outlets such as Starbucks and Tim Horton’s have also reduced the sizes of both their coffee cups and cans of coffee.

Consumers have to start making their voices heard to stop this practice of gradual reductions before we end up paying for an empty box.

Have you noticed that we’re now paying more for less? What do you think of it?