Downsized: Food Container Sizes Reduced, Prices Have Not

Blog ^ | 1/24/2011 | Blog

[wrrock]

It's not your imagination.

Orange juice is not going as far as it used to. Same for toilet paper. Dish soap. And cheese slices.

You are making more trips to the store.

In fact, a Consumer Reports investigation found that while many products have reduced their packaging size; their prices have actually increased.

It how businesses are dealing with higher prices for wholesale food and energy. Instead of raising prices significantly, companies are shrinking the packaging.

They are hoping you do not notice too much.

Consumer Reports (paid subscription required) first noticed the trend when they started hearing complains about higher toilet paper prices despite smaller packaging. Their investigation identified many other products.

Here is a complete rundown of Consumer Reports findings...

[shibumi]

"Sadly, blogs are about the only thing that can be posted at FR without threat of a lawsuit anymore."

Even more sadly, the blog in question appears to be plagiarized. See post #23.

(What were you saying about the threat of a lawsuit?)

[Greysard]

So how much on all groceries (including paper products and cleaning supplies and all that) should a family of basically six adults spend per month? No eating out.

It depends on how healthy you want your food to be. You can survive on rice, pasta and potato powder for a long time, but you need to get your vitamins elsewhere. Or you can eat fruits, and pay for them.

It also depends on how much cooking (time & electric energy & gas) you are willing to do. The basic ingredients are pretty cheap; TV dinners are very expensive. A frozen, uncooked pizza is not that expensive, but 40 minutes in a 5 kW oven will cost you another dollar.

Another catch is that you need a variety of ingredients, but many are perishable. If you have a platoon of troops to feed then it's easy; you'd be rotating your supplies every other day. If you have one or two people then it becomes a problem - things expire before you can use them up; that's another expense.

Besides, it needs to be seen in perspective. Once the cost of food is on par with other expenses (house, car, taxes, kids, health, vacation, services, etc.) then it becomes pointless to shrink that one expense - because the sum total will not be visibly affected.

[mylife]

I saw that.

On the legal front I was speaking of the way Jim keeps getting sued for even excerpting stuff from rags like the Las Vegas Journal Review.

FR used to have a much freer flow of information before the blood suckers can out.

[mylife]

You are doing good at 1.2k

[MHGinTN]

Iver Johnson made ‘pocket pistols’ back in the twenties. A popular caliber was the .38 (not a .38 special, it was like a .38 short, but with a heavy bullet). I have one in five shot. The grips were made of ‘bakolite’, an early plastic medium, with an Owl face stamped into the plastic while the grip was still hot and malleable. The pistol would ‘breech’ forward on a pivot, and eject the spent cartridges with a ‘snapping’ cam action so the reloads had empty holes in the cylinder. ... But i think given all the time I’ve seen you on the gun threads, that you knew all that.

[mylife]

I am no expert LoL.

I just admire unique stuff.
I am surprised the old Iver Johnson did not hold a better value. I know it was a cheapy gun, but you would think that would make it so as no to many survived thereby driving up the price as a collectible.

It still makes a hole if you can find ammo.

[MHGinTN]

Mine is just like this one, only the cylinder is not removed and the hammer has not been filed down. Notice the owl on the top of the black plastic grip. It was the same on both sides:

[mylife]

[mylife]

Cool!

[MHGinTN]

My particular gun is inherited from my father. It has Arabic writing on the receiver and was part of twenty thousand made and exported tot he Middle East in the twneties. My Dad worked for NATO and it was probably given to him by someone, a freind, in British foreign service. I also have from him a British Officer’s .38 —same caliber— from the Birmingham, Eng gun works, A Webley in .38, six shot. The bluing is still amazing for the given age of the gun. Shoots good, too.

[mylife]

Sounds priceless to me!

I love that historical stuff.

[MHGinTN]

One of these:

[mylife]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iver_Johnson

[mylife]

Webely?

[mylife]

Of historical note:

Iver Johnson firearm models

Third Model Safety Hammerless .38 S&W

Iver Johnson nomenclature refers to its top-break revolvers as Safety Automatics. These are revolvers, not semi-automatic pistols. The term “Safety Automatic” refers to Iver Johnson’s transfer bar safety system (“safety”) and the automatic ejection of cartridges upon breaking open the revolvers (“automatic”).
[edit] Safety automatic

Standard models with external hammer:

* First Model (1894–1895), single post latch system
* Second Model (1896–1908), double post latch system
* Third Model (1909–1941), double post latch system

[edit] Safety automatic hammerless

* First Model (1895–1896), single post latch
* Second Model (1897–1908), safety lever added to face of trigger
* Third Model a.k.a. New Model (1909–1941), no safety lever on trigger

[edit] William McKinley assassination

Presidential assassin Leon Czolgosz shot and killed U.S. President William McKinley in Buffalo, New York on September 6, 1901 with an Iver Johnson .32 caliber Safety Automatic revolver (serial number 463344). The revolver is currently on display at the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society in Buffalo.
[edit] Robert Kennedy assassination

Convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan shot and killed Presidential candidate United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles, California on 5 June 1968 with an eight-shot Iver Johnson .22 caliber Cadet 55-A revolver (serial number H-53725, Trial-People’s Exhibit #6, misidentified in trial testimony as S/N H-18602).

[GreyMountainReagan]

yikes, thats a lot of sugar.

about 500 lbs of sugar in the basement pantry,

2,000 lbs of wheat

500 lbs of flour

etc, etc, etc.

[napscoordinator]

That is a reasonable amount. Don’t let people joke with you. I mean at least you are feeding your kids. 350 a month those parents are not feeding them, that is for sure.

[goat granny]

LOL thats more than some stores carry..

[hennie pennie]

*ping*

[Spudx7]

We spend about $600-800 per month for a family of 7 (baby is still just nursing) and there is not always a lot of food to go around. Our fridge and cupboards get emptied out each week. So far, the kids have never missed a meal (it was close last month!). God is good and has provided in ways that we would never have predicted. I have also become good at stretching food...I can get three full meals for six people from one chicken.

I think that $1,200 per month for your family size is very reasonable.