Out Of Juice

When did the big juice packagers get together and conspire to reduce their typical large package size from ½ gallon to 1¾ liters?  I wonder if they reduced their prices by 8% at the same time?

Comments

[patty]

I remember when the same thing happened with the standard size of a "half gallon" of ice cream some years ago. One of the manufacturers actually had a banner on their product that read "New Space Saving Size." Bastards.

[Joe Eater]

Patty: They suck. A carton of, e.g., Breyers went from 2 quarts to 1.75, and now to 1.5. That's prolly why they discount it so much nowadays, at least on occasion. What's a pound of coffee now -- 13 ounces, maybe? I think bread is one item they can't get away with shrinking like that, due to a bunch of Depression-era holdover laws about what sizes bread loaves can be.

You know, it's not really so much that the size changed, nor that they didn't announce it, but that *everyone seemed to do it at the same time*. It really does make me wonder if they're not conspiring.

[aburtch]

Simply the economics of our times. Manufacturers would rather shrink the amount of product you get and keep the price point the same rather then look bad by raising the price to provide the same amount. The "space saving size" hooey is really 1984 doublespeak.

[Joe Eater]

Anson: Of course. But it's not so much that they shrunk the size and didn't mention it (though those things don't exactly elevate my opinion of them either), but they all seemed to do it *at the same time*.

OTOH, to speak up for a couple of ice cream packers, I've noticed a few haven't shrunk their sizes, at least not yet. Caveat emptor.