aka product shrinkage

We gotta be wily these days to outsmart the manufacturers of the food we eat and the products we bring into our homes.

Those guys are smart, and dang it, we’re trusting souls and slow to catch on to what they’re doing. Right now, while we pay the same price for the seemingly same size package of some product that we’ve used for years, actually, we’re getting less for our money, and don’t even know it.

And they blithely advertise, “Same Price” and they’re right. The price is the same, but they don’t mention the amount of the product.

But a month or so ago, I read, in a magazine on ‘what’s going on in our world’, that manufacturers are producing the same comfortable familiar jars and containers for our food, except, they are changing the bottoms of those containers, which we never look at, and in doing so they are changing the amount of the product we get. Which is NOT the same as usual.

So, proof, proof, proof.  The other night I was using a straw while drinking a can of vegetable juice, and when I reached the last sip or two I tipped and turned the can to get each final tasty drop and danged if I didn’t find a definite mound in the bottom of the can.

My first thought was that by some accident, something had dropped into that can, and as such had been sealed and sent along to the customer. Because quite definitely my straw had found a ‘ditch’ around the inner-side of the can, and yes, there was a mountain in the center.

Well, by then I tossed aside my book and looked hard at the outside of the can and found, to my surprise that, the can had a definitely domed bottom and not the flat one I’d expected, or been used to.

I think I could have put a marshmallow under that can and it would not have tipped it one bit. So, on my next shopping day, I began to look.

Bottles of applesauce had a fancy domed bottom of easily 1/2 a cup size. Mayonnaise, salad dressings and such were a mixed bag. Some were the same flat bottom we expect, but others???? Ho, ho , ho and ho.   And just how many of us ever turn our purchases upside down before we buy? Or even after they’re empty and we toss them aside?

I’ve read that the ‘trick’ is being copied in hardware goods, also. Same size of outer covering, but the bottoms changed so that we get fewer nuts, bolts, nails, screws, staples, or whatever. If ‘they’ haven’t yet made the change, they’re working on it. Oh, yes, I found my favorite Olive Oil is onto the scheme, one size of peanut butter, and jams and jellies were a mixed bag, too, but it’s a scheme that’s growing..

I’ve never in my life ‘checked the bottom’ of any jar or container as I bought. but shall from now on. Not that it’ll do any good, but at least I’ll know what I’m getting. What else can we do??? And if you come up with an answer, write in.   You’re welcome.