The shrinking chocolate bar

[Mike Nolan]

Toblerone recently changed the shape of its chocolate bar, reducing the weight by 11.76%, but not the suggested price, of course.

See Chocolate Bar Shrinks

Spread the word

      

  

  

[RiversideLen]

I hate when they do that. I remember when a yogurt cup was 8 ounces, now it's 6 or even less. What am I supposed to do with 6 ounces? I stopped buying them when that happened. Now I either buy the 32 ounce carton or the 7 ounce Greek style. I remember when a large jar of pasta sauce was a quart, 32 ounces, now it's 24 or less. Remember when the standard size of coffee was a pound? Now it's down to 11 or 12 ounces. I could go on and on (and I often do, lol). Just goes to show how old I am, lol.

[Mike Nolan]

Tuna fish cans have gotten smaller over the years, too, and I wonder if there isn't more oil or water in them than there used to be. MAD Magazine once talked about how breakfast cereal boxes get taller but shallower, and suggested that eventually they'd come in a huge envelope that filled one bowl.

Peanut butter is another, lots of old peanut butter cookie recipes call for '1 jar' of peanut butter, but I have no idea how much the contents of a jar weighed 50 years ago. The jar on my counter is 16.3 ounces, but I remember when a jar of peanut butter weighed 18 ounces, not all that long ago, either.

Ice cream used to come in 6 quart buckets, now they're down to a gallon, if that.

[S_Wirth]

The cans of chicken are just 5 oz. now and have way too much liquid. When the yogurt went to 6 oz. rather that 8 oz., I called it the 'why bother' size.

Many coffee bags now are 10 oz. Ice cream is in such weird ounces that it is ridiculous. Almost everything has been pared down in size, actually.

Carpentry items are just as bad. Tubes of things have been reduced in size. Plastic roof cement is in .9 gallon buckets. Many bags of concrete patch/mix are in much smaller weight bags. On and on it goes with almost everything.

[BakerAunt]

Well, a gallon of milk is still a gallon of milk. And a pound of butter is still a pound of butter (but a lot more expensive). It helps if the quantity is identified with the product. Otherwise, the incredible shrinking act kicks in.

[skeptic7]

What I hate is getting 14oz for a package of cookies, it looks like a full pound but it isn't. It makes it hard to compare prices when some cookies come in 10oz and 12 oz and the last 14oz. I like gingersnaps because they can still be bought in 1 lb packages

Also jelly and jam come in different size containers. Trader Joe's has 16 oz jars but to be truly accurate the price of heavy glass should be considered

[cwcdesign]

Mike, your soda fountain background is evident. I don't think most of us got ice cream in 6 quart containers (except maybe when we raided the kitchen at boarding school ?) But a half gallon has become 12 ounces and they did change the package size.

[Mike Nolan]

The 6, now 4, quart plastic bucket for ice cream is very commonplace in grocery stores here.

Real soda fountains buy ice cream in 2 1/2 gallon cardboard containers. I don't use enough ice cream for that to be practical, and these days I'm not sure where I'd get them. There used to be Goodrich Dairy Stores in Lincoln that would sell 2 1/2 gallon containers of ice cream, but I think the last of them recently closed.

Regional differences in food packaging are hard to fathom. Here in Nebraska we can buy soda (eg, Coca-Cola) in 24 can cases, but when I'm visiting my son in Pittsburgh I never see anything larger than 12 can cases. Some stores now carry 20 can cases (often for about the same price as other stores have the 24 can case, of course.)

[Author]

Posts