shopping, not blindly

We've been put on a diet and didn't even sign up for it. While the fast food industry has been accused of super sizing everything, food packagers who stock our grocery shelves have quietly been reducing the sizes of items. They might not think so, but we notice.

We notice that all the measurements we had to learn in school seem to be irrelevant. Individual containers of yogurt used to be eight ounces: one cup. Now containers are six ounces or even less. Buy a half gallon of ice cream? Not anymore. Someone, apparently looking out for our waistlines, repackaged dessert into cylindrical or cutesy oval containers that range from 1.5 to 1.75. The very high priced were always small, but have gotten smaller still. And breakfast cereal manufacturers haven't reduced the size of the boxes, just the contents within. A pound of processed grain with a few nuts and raisins thrown in comes in great big boxes. For kids, that means big pictures on the outside. For adult cereal, it has large numbers touting dietary fiber. That's right, the portion that's indigestible has become a selling point. When you open the box and slit the inside liner to discover the thing half full, then you read the small print: contents may have settled. Yeah, right.

Grocers used to be more helpful with the shelf stickers. In some instances, alongside the item name, price, etc. they have done a cost per unit breakdown. That way we know what we're paying per ounce. But they don't always keep the tags updated, and I've noticed that on some items they don't always compare "apples to oranges." (forgive the grocery analogy) Across the row will be costs per ounce on five items, and then you spot the gourmet label. Sure enough. It's figured in cost per gram.

Toilet paper at 1000 squares per roll, but heft the package and know it's not gonna do the job. Aluminum foil, one box measured in square inches, another in linear feet. Juice and juice lookalikes--if you compare 100 percent juice with 27 percent, how is the cost per ounce even relevant? In that case, size of container might be the same, but they've reduced the quality of the contents, which is even more insidious. Same with meat products that have been injected with salt water and spices. We know we're paying more and getting less.

It seems the only thing that hasn't been reduced is the price.  We're forced to become smarter shoppers.