# Examples of the "Grocery Shrink Ray"? Producers reducing pack size, price the same!



## ajapale

I dont often buy chocolate but after a recent purchase I realised my bar of Cadburys had become a victim of the infamous "Grocery Shrink Ray"!

Cadbury Dairy Milk has been miniaturised from 140g to just 120g.

Has anyone else come across the dreaded "Grocery Shrink Ray" for any other brands?


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## hippy1975

Yep, Bakers dog food 3kg shrunk down to 2.7kg!  Good news is it alerted me to the massive oversight that somehow our dog was still eating branded food long after both of us and the baby are Aldi for 90% of our shop and making every euro stretch - don't know how he got away with it for so long but he's on Tesco own-brand now - half the price - still a 3kg bag.

Also Blue Dragon egg noodles - not sure of the weights but the pack was a different shape (side by side instead of all stacked). Only when I served up we noticed we had much less than we usually do!! (They're individual portions which are smaller)


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## hippy1975

I knew there was another one ....I don't buy it 'cos it's out of my range at the moment but when picking it up for my brother I notice, Innocent orange juice has gone from 1 litre - what you'd imagine orange juice to be - to 900 mls!  'cos you know the saying.....'pick me up 900 mls of orange juice / milk....'


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## Gervan

Tracker cereal bars used to be 8 in a packet; now there are only 6. The packaging artwork changed, perhaps this was supposed to distract consumers so they didn't notice they were getting less for the same price.


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## Guinea pig

The 1 kg 'tins ' of Christmas sweets are now  720g.

1.75ml of Snowcream milk 'family pack' !

180ml head and shoulders, used to be 250ml then 200ml

Pampers Mega pack In 2010 there was 136 in the pack, they have had about 3 different boxes since, now there's 124 in the box.

Pampers sensitive wipes 6 pack, 5 pack.

J&J wipes were an 80 pack now a 64 pack.


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## emeralds

hippy1975 said:


> I knew there was another one ....I don't buy it 'cos it's out of my range at the moment but when picking it up for my brother I notice, Innocent orange juice has gone from 1 litre - what you'd imagine orange juice to be - to 900 mls!  'cos you know the saying.....'pick me up 900 mls of orange juice / milk....'



It has always been 900 mls. It was never a litre.


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## Luternau

Its not just about pack size-its more about price per kg or ml/l etc. Are these changing in all the above?


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## ajapale

There are some exceptions to the unit pricing order but as far as I know chocolate bars and confectionary are exempt. Cadbury bars are on sale at the old price for the shrinked down product.


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## STEINER

I think this has happened to the Mars Bar a while back ( well, admittedly its 4 years ago now)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5432642/Mars-bars-shrink-in-size.html

Certainly packets of Tayto and Snax etc over the years.

I only buy 2L milk cartons nowadays, but I remember the pinta of 568mls.. so if you buy 1L its not quite 2 pints.  Milk went up to 1.59 per 2L there for a bit this year, its back to 1.49 now.

I usually pick up a 120g bar of Cadburys on a Sunday at 1.69 in Superquinn and this morning they were all up to1.71.


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## Bronco Lane

The Cadbury's cream egg is now so small that it has to be sold in a pack of 3!


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## Mrs Vimes

Bronco Lane said:


> The Cadbury's cream egg is now so small that it has to be sold in a pack of 3!



Urban myth!

see this Guardian article from last easter - they have actually grown since 1977!

Everything else has got smaller though


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## nwarren

yeh its the same for Cadburys snack bar, was 3 fingers now 2, walkers crisps have got smaller in the last 12 months and the the size of MORO has shrank -- cadburys need to keep the profits up!!!!!!


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## Delboy

Yorkie is the most obvious to me....they used to have the ads saying it was a 'man bar' but given it's current size, kiddies would be shouting for more after eating one!


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## Bronco Lane

The tin of sardines/tuna looks tiny compared to the older ones.


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## Knuttell

Vote with your purchasing power,I certainly will.Got a pack of Tayto crisps recently (not multipack) that had 12 crisps in it,won't be buying them again either nor any of the above listed products.

Can't remember the last time I got a mars bar but looked closely at one recently and wow it really has shrunk,those things used to be massive in comparison.


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## mathepac

Douwe Egberts Medium Roast Pure Gold instant coffee 200g ---> 190g. Nice jars though; very useful when empty.


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## Deas

The Cadbury Double Decker bar until last week (from what I can see) was the only decent size bar there was.  As of las week is all wrapper and no bar.  I wont be buying one again.


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## pansyflower

> Originally Posted by hippy1975  View Post
> Innocent orange juice has gone from 1 litre - what you'd imagine orange juice to be - to 900 mls! 'cos you know the saying.....'pick me up 900 mls of orange juice / milk....'
> 
> It has always been 900 mls. It was never a litre.



I emailed Innocent in June 2012.

Quote: "Thanks a lot for getting in touch. We’re really sorry you feel let down by us and completely understand where you’re coming from. 

This honestly wasn’t a decision we took lightly at all, but it was one we felt was necessary. Since we launched our 1L carton in 2004 we have not increased our prices. ……..

but the RRP for our new 750ml carton is £2.79, and for our 1.25L carton it is £3.69. This means our 750ml cartons are cheaper per pack, but cost a bit more per ml than our old 1L cartons. Our 1.25L cartons are a higher price per pack, but are the same price per ml as our 1L cartons. 
Take care,  Jake"


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## Knuttell

pansyflower said:


> but the RRP for our new 750ml carton is £2.79, and for our 1.25L carton it is £3.69. This means our 750ml cartons are cheaper per pack, but cost a bit more per ml than our old 1L cartons. Our 1.25L cartons are a higher price per pack, but are the same price per ml as our 1L cartons.
> Take care,  Jake"



wow that reminds me of the 3 card trick,you see now and again at race meetings etc,they really do take us for mugs and after that sleight of hand no doubt they will put the prices up.

Added to my list.


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## Maz24

I purchase all foodstuffs for a busy Hotel, I noticed this starting to happen approximately 18 months ago, believe me everything is shrinking except the price, less noticeable in supermarkets, they will offer a larger size pack as a promotion for approximately the same price of a usual size pack, a couple of weeks later the larger size promotion has been removed and you purchase what you think was your pre promotion size which is now smaller. A very clever way of increasing prices without letting the consumer know.


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## Romulan

Mrs Romulan reports that Tropicana juice has shrunk from 1lt to 850ml.

Presumably shoppers demanded it....................


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## Kerry Gooner

Was there a corresponding reduction in price?


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## Romulan

Mrs Romulan advises not but she would have to double check to be absolutely sure.
They used to be around 3.09 but if you bought 2, you got them for around 4.90 (Tescos)

She notes that there was no notice or warning anywhere on the shelves.


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## Gerry Canning

Why arn,t waistlines shrinking as well !


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## Eithneangela

A good way to check on this is to always look at the price per kilo/litre etc. Most supermarkets show it in very small print on the price display for each product.


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## vandriver

This is usually helpful,except for recently where my local Super Valu had Gillette blades priced per kilo!


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## odyssey06

Heroes and Roses to be *even* smaller this Christmas...
http://www.thejournal.ie/smaller-roses-and-cadbury-heroes-boxes-xmas-2226372-Jul2015/


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## Maddy_o

Cadbury Curly Wurly 5 pack is now a 4 pack.


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## STEINER

I bought Punch black shoe polish the other day.

Gone is the military-like metal container of nostalgic times, replaced by a limp plastic container with a sweet smelling water-based polish, and it is made in Turkey, very Turkish delight almost in fragrance.

The old tin is 50ml, the new plastic one is 40ml.  That's 20% down.  Because the new one is plastic you would think that the lightness is due to the material, so they reduced the content.  I wouldn't have noticed had I not compared the old tin at home.

The smell of the old shoe polish is distinctive and was a feature of ritually polishing my shoes/boots as a child/adult for school, football, church, work etc.

I will keep the old tin, it will look good on a pub wall no doubt in 50 years time.


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## Brendan Burgess

A total of 206 products, also including jam, sugar and syrups, shrank in size between September 2015 and June 2017, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

https://news.sky.com/story/shrinkflation-why-your-food-is-getting-smaller-11613737


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## odyssey06

I would prefer (1) price increase, (2) reduction in size to (3) change in the formula with substitution of cheaper ingredients \ materials.

I think I have more tolerance for (1) and (2) than (3).


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## Purple

odyssey06 said:


> I would prefer (1) price increase, (2) reduction in size to (3) change in the formula with substitution of cheaper ingredients \ materials.
> 
> I think I have more tolerance for (1) and (2) than (3).


That reminds me of that old ad for Alpen.


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## noproblem

Bronco Lane said:


> The Cadbury's cream egg is now so small that it has to be sold in a pack of 3!



How does the Easter Hen know it's more profitable to lay the smaller egg?


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