You think you're getting a great price on ice cream in those "half gallon" cartons? Think again! Many ice cream brands went from 2 quarts or one-half gallon to 1.75 quarts and many of us didn't really notice. But now, the size has dwindled to 1.5 quarts. Yes, you're losing 25% of the ice cream you used to get to feed your family, and the stores make it seem like it's a bargain when they put it on "sale"! It's not a bargain, friends, it's just the real price you should be paying for the product if you weren't getting screwed on content and sizing!
Same with orange juice, I purchased a carton of Tropicana Trop 50 less sugar juice and found the container to contain not 64 ounces as you would expect, but 59 ounces, although at first glance the container appears similar to a standard 64 ounce half-gallon juice Pure-Pak carton. Hmm, sleight of hand here in this fast switcheroo I guess. Even the Tropicana three-quart jug has shrunk to just 89 ounces, but executives say your juice is replaced by a snap cap and new jug style. I've found that hard to swallow, literally and figuratively. Besides, plastic is as hard to digest as is the marketing ploys of these companies.
Simply Orange, that used to come in a half-gallon size container is now also 59 ounces. No notice of the smaller size here either! Florida's Natural is still found in 64 ounce half-gallon cartons but the jugs are 89 ounces and not 96 ounces anymore. Yet Minute Maid, if purchased in the bottle is 59 ounces and in the carton is 64 ounces. Yet in most stores, the bottle costs more! Hmm, less product and more plastic for the landfill or recycle bin. Nice!
Cereal boxes contain less cereal, although some boxes remain large to give you the illusion of getting more cereal than is in the box. One ploy is for the manufacturer to say thgey're going "green" and decreasing their packaging material, but not telling you that your paid-for content also went out the window as well. Shrinkage works in mysterious ways, doesn't it? Some packages of other products have decreased in size, and the manufacturers say it's to keep from increasing the price to the consumer. Bulls**t! To put it bluntly. Seems they don't tell the supermarket that!
When fuel prices went up sky-high, the manufacturers and producers used that as an excuse to raise prices. Some of that was understandable, but now that fuel prices are about two dollars a gallon less than they were a year ago, the prices haven't dropped much, if at all. What's the excuse now? Are we paying for an all-new fleet of more fuel-efficient trucks and have to do it in one year? Isn't that part of the cost of doing business? Some bought fuel on open markets and got caught when prices went down and now we're paying for the tens of thousands of gallons of fuel they paid four-fifty to five dollars a gallon for and can't back out of deals.
I'd suggest consumers boycott companies who are ripping you off on their products. Do not purchase juices and ice cream, cereal and pizza and other products where the weight or volume had been decreased without a commensurate decrease in daily pricing! Not a single sale price, but daily overall pricing. And write the companies on their web site and ell them you won't but. Flood them with phone calls at their 800 numbers.
Don't you feel screwed enough by the government, without getting it from the manufacturers, retailers and corporate America too? Then do something about it!
Damn, America, you only have so many orifices!
