Monday, January 12, 2009

Objects May Be Smaller Than They Appear

The other night I reached for a can of tuna which I had bought in the past week. After I took it out of my pantry, I remembered that I still had some older cans of tuna, leftovers from last year's hurricane season. When I pulled those cans out to check the expiration date, I noticed that something seemed different.

After looking closely I realized that the old can contained six ounces of the fish while the new one only has five. If I hadn't of done a side by side comparison, I doubt I ever would have figured this out. I, like many, don't spend a lot of time thinking about tuna.

Product shrinkage is something that's coming to our supermarkets. Everything has been scaled down a little bit as manufacturers try to deal with the recession. They've got two choices: shrink the size or raise the price. As I'm sure the current price point has been researched a good bit, we get smaller stuff.

It is funny that it's common to see a label that says, 30% more, but you never see one that says, 16% less. I plan to be a more attentive shopper in the future.

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