So does that box of cereal seem a little slimmer, that can of tuna a little lighter? Does it feel like you just bought that jar of peanut butter that you're now scraping the bottom of?
Well, at least you can take comfort in the fact that you're not going crazy. As the New York Times reports, we can say so long to the era of "supersizing": Meet the incredible shrinking carton of ice cream.
No doubt you've heard that the cost of, well, just about everything is going up. But what you may have only had an inkling of until now is that one sneaky way food makers are passing those costs onto you is not to raise prices; it's to get you to shell out the same amount for just a little bit less in return.
The list goes on and on: pasta, canned vegetables, crackers, candy. Where once you could get a 64-oz. jug of Tropicana orange juice, now you have to settle for 59 oz. Bags of Doritos and Fritos today contain 20 percent fewer chips than they did two years ago.
Now, this isn't an entirely new. We've all heard from our grandparents how much bubblegum you could get back in the day for a nickel.
But what is new is how manufacturers are trying to trick customers into thinking that these dwindling portions are a good thing: good for you; good for the planet. They're touting their smaller packages as eco-friendly (because they use less raw materials) and advertising them as "healthier" (while neglecting to trumpet the fact that the only reason they're healthier is because they're forcing you to eat less).
And then there's this gem from Kraft. It's promoting its new "Fresh Stacks" packaging for its Premium saltines and Honey Maid graham crackers. Each sleeve contains 15 percent fewer crackers for the same price.
"The packaging format offers the benefit of added freshness," a Kraft spokesman told the Times.
Yeah, "fresh" is one word for it
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