16 Aug 2017

A question about : The Great 'shrinking food' Hunt Revisited

The Great 'shrinking food' Hunt Revisited

We featured this hunt back in 2010 (see original thread), but it seems manufacturers are up to their old tricks again by dropping products' sizes while keeping prices the same (one forumite's spotted loaves of bread dropping from 800g to 750g). We want to know which foods you've seen shrinking in size, but not in price.

Are you sure it shrunk?

It's easy to think things used to be bigger (Martin remembers when Wagon Wheels were twice the size of his hands!) so please try and back it up with the stats and measures if you can.

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Best answers:

  • Its annoying that the fruit shoot bottles have shrunk and now they want 2 in their lunch boxes so it costing me double (they love the stuff)
  • ASDA English cheddar cheese. Was 500g, now 450g. Price still Ј2.83 each, or 2 for Ј5.00.
  • The real problem with shrinking products is that they are effectively 'hidden inflation' and are not factored into the consumer/retail price indices where items are listed by unit rather than volume/weight!
  • If you buy Iceland cheese slices you would have noticed that they went from 20 slices for Ј1, to 16 slices for Ј1 and now they have done it again this time 14 slices for Ј1.
    What will be next 10 slices for Ј1???????
  • Aldi cheese shrink too from 400g to 350g for Ј1.89 but still one of the cheapest
  • GoCat dried food has gone from 950g to 875g
  • Toblerone went from 200g to 175g - but, it's now available in Јshops, so really, their loss is our gain!
  • There used to be 64 in a pack, but often I find there are now only 56 wipes in a pack.
  • I've notivced that multipacks are changing
    Some beans etc are coming in 3's now but I used to get 4 for Ј1 on offer. Noticed the same with chocolate bars too. Those aren't always 4 packs now, again moving to only 3 bars..... These are both in infancy, but I'm sure it won't be long before that's the norm......
  • I recently noticed that Whiskas pouches (which used to be 100g) are now 85g... same price though.
  • I noticed a while back that Tescos chicken breast fillets (the ones that are pretty much always on offer for 3 for Ј10) went down to only 350g a pack, they were previously 450g and may have dropped to 400g at some point before dropping again to 350g (I can't recall for certain). So i've started shopping elsewhere and found that Sainsburys still sells packs of 460g for the 3 for Ј10 deal and Lidl sells 1kg packs for Ј6.89 (I think they actually dropped their prices from Ј6.99 a pack the other day too). So Tesco loses out on custom there.
  • M&S have dropped the alcohol content on their canned cocktails e.g. Pina Colada (my favourite!) from 12% to 8%, but STILL charge the same i.e. Ј1.99 per can. I'm gonna have to spend more to get tipsy, now!
  • A few years ago they weighed 1.5 k.g. or 1.4 k.g.
    Every Christmas, and now and again through the year, the supermarkets would sell them for Ј5.
    But they've steadily shrunk over the years.
    Tesco currently has them on sale and they still cost Ј5.
    But they only weigh 750g.
    Effectively, the price has doubled.
  • Doritos went from 250g down to 200g and then had a minimum 10% price rise to boot. Not good.
  • Morrsons have shunk most of their cheeses, same price but thinner blocks.
  • A lot of the big packets of sweets (minstrels, revels etc) are now half full of air!
  • Yep, not shrunken heads! SHRUNKEN tins. Went to Tescos this afternoon and they have started their Xmas display of tins of chocs (Quality St, Roses etc.)
    Not only have the gone up to Ј7-50 compared to Ј5-00 last yeay they have SHRUNK to half the size! I was so shocked that I omitted to look at the weight, perhaps someone else will post the difference! I'm having to sit and have a cup of shock relieving tea.
  • Cadburys Dairy Milk are currently advertising a new shape bar. New shape, smaller size though. Reduced from 49 grams to 45.
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