The Incredible Shrinking Product
Devious ways the predatory U.S. food industry has us paying more for less
When shopping at the supermarket, do you believe that your dollars don’t go as far as they used to? Guess what? You are absolutely right! As we cruise through the supermarket here are some of the ways you may pay more for less.
You’re at the ice cream section looking for your favorite ice cream container—there it is and it’s now a new shape—same price, but look carefully and you will see you are getting two ounces less. Then there is your olive oil can, it looks almost identical, but it is just a tiny bit smaller—same price—but a few ounces less oil.
Now you go to buy mayonnaise, same size, same price but guess what? It is less dense, you have some kind of whipped mayonnaise, you just bought more air and less mayonnaise. Next is your favorite yogurt. Look, it has a new fancy label, same size same price, but inside the yogurt is not as dense as it used to be. Don’t forget your liquid laundry detergent; remember how it used to be thick like honey? Now it’s the same size and price, but the detergent now flows like water.
What about the vegetables? Well the bunch of red chard now has one less leaf for the same price. The broccoli, yes you pay by the ounce, guess what? You used to have mostly tops, now you have a big long stem that gets weighed in—you just bought less broccoli tops for the same price.
Here we are at the spice isle—yes, garlic powder. They seem to be out of the large container—347 grams for $12—but they do have one that is 248 grams for $10. Guess what, you end up paying $1.45 more, because the cost-per-gram has gone up from 3.45 cents to 4.03 cents-per-gram.
Oh yes, I forgot to buy milk, I don’t have enough money for a one gallon container for $4.50 so let’s buy one half-gallon of milk for $3.50—wow, that’s 28 percent more expensive! Now we’re at the checkout and I can’t resist my favorite candy bar. Same price but inside, you guessed it, I find, not one bar but two small bars—less chocolate, and the whole peanuts have been replaced with peanut shavings.
Millions of us are living paycheck to paycheck. Forty-nine million Americans struggle to put food on the table. Meanwhile, the rapacious U.S. food industry earns billions in profits as they put profits over people. Hunger stalks the world as the corporations drink fine champagne from the skulls of the hungry.
—February 22, 2018