Shrinking packages

Have you noticed that some items at the grocery store are shrinking? As food prices rise, food packages continue to diminish in size.

For instance, I bought a "half gallon" of ice cream this week. (Yes, dietitians do buy ice cream from time to time, especially if they have two teenage boys!) Not long ago the half gallon (2 quart) package of ice cream shrunk to 1.75 quarts. Now it has shrunk again. The little tub I bought only contained 1.5 quarts of ice cream! But the price was still the same. Well, actually it was higher, but many food prices are.

Another example is dry pasta. Instead of a one pound box (16 ounces) some boxes are now 14 ounces. Years ago, bags of chocolate chips used to be a pound, now they're 12 ounces.

Do you think consumers are clamoring for smaller packages of pasta and ice cream? I don't think so. With food prices continuing to rise and many American families struggling to keep up, food manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves for decreasing package sizes.