WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO
CHEERIOS?
I haven’t eaten Cherrios in a
long time. My wife usually buys our
cereal from a local health food store.
But yesterday we ran out and so I picked up a package of Cheerios from
the local supermarket. This morning
when I sat down to a bowl of cereal I noticed the fucking O’s were
smaller. I asked my wife and she agreed
the O’s have shrunk.
I know it has been obvious to
most everyone that food companies for a long time have been increasing their
profits by shrinking the amount of food in packaging while maintaining retail
cost. The idea is that people will not
realize they are paying more for the product per volume.
Can goods use to be 16 oz –
now they range anywhere from 10.5 to 15 oz – the cans are smaller while the
price has remained near the same.
Now companies are changing
the shape of their product to disguise further cuts in volume.
I recently bought some
Nabisco Saltine Crackers, which now come in the ‘New Saltine Shape.” The bloody things are round like Ritz
Crackers; and when you superimpose one of the ‘new Saltine Shape’ over one of
the traditional square ones you realize that Nabisco has cut off the corners to
produce the “New Saltine Shape.” Not
only that, but you are now getting fewer crackers in the ‘New’ 10.5 oz box.
When I bought the Cheerios I
noticed that the box had the same height and width as usual but it was
noticeably thinner. The box now
contains only 8.9 oz. OK, I’m getting
less cereal. But making the O’s smaller
– what the fuck is that all about?
I’m just asking
the Ol’Buzzard
Actually if they were bulking it up, they would have made them larger.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just food products. About two years ago the Dial Soap people changed the shape of their bar soap. It now is curved to supposedly fit the hand better. Fact is, it doesn't. The damned thing is actually more difficult to hold. It has not escaped me that by scooping out the rectangular shape, they are using a hell of a lot less soap per bar. The fuckers think we are stupid, and that really pisses me off. I don't buy dial any longer.
ReplyDeleteGreat observation, btw.
And you forgot the part about the price increase for less. We're dumb. Most of us don't notice these things. I do, so when I buy Cheerios I wait until they're on sale at a deeply discounted price. And have you tried a can of Tuna lately? More than half of it water, plus the can is smaller.
ReplyDeleteThe reason the Cheerios are smaller is so they will fit in the slimmed down box!! By making the box thinner it looks the same on the store shelf.
ReplyDeleteI've been noticing the smaller size at the same price for many years. I first noticed the phenomenon with candy bars back in the 80s. Now a nickel candy bar(OK they were a dime in the 80s) is almost a buck and only half the size. This is happening with all products. Have you tried to find a three pound can of coffee lately. The size is the same but the weight keeps shrinking. Now they are down to 33 ounces, hell, that's barely more than two pounds. Noticed they are down-sizing dog food and cat food, a 20 pound bag of dog food is now 18 pounds, a 5 pound bag of cat food is now 4.5 pounds.
The companies know they can only raise their prices so much before people stop buying. So they make the product smaller because they know most people won't notice if the package is the same size(some settling may have occurred during shipping).
Jaded; I forgot about the Dial soap. They hollowed out the bar giving you less soap and it is harder to hold.
ReplyDeletethe Ol'Buzzard