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Thursday, July 24, 2008
Honey, they shrunk the ice cream carton. Again.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Photo: Elissa Eubanks/AJC Staff
Smaller ice cream cartons will mean fewer scoops to stack.
I picked up some Breyers vanilla ice cream this week to go with a homemade blackberry and peach cobbler.
I got less than I counted on. The company has shrunk its packaging to 1.5 quarts. A few years ago, you could still buy a half-gallon of Breyers and most other brands. Blue Bell is about the only company out there still offering a half-gallon. Most ice cream makers shrunk to 1.75 quarts several years ago, and now there’s a new, even smaller standard.
If you’re a Mayfield fan, you’ve probably noticed that its Classics line, in the traditional “brick” half-gallon package, just dropped to 1.75 quarts. The company’s web site hints that changes lie ahead for the Selects line of two-piece boxes, which went to 1.75 quarts a few years ago. Edy’s Grand cartons are smaller, too.
Of course, it’s not just ice cream cartons that are downsizing. Cereal boxes are svelte. Coffee was once a pound, then 12 ounces, and now down to 10 ounces for some brands. From Tropicana Orange Juice, down from 96 ounces to 89, to Publix store brand yogurt, down from 8 ounces to 6, there’s a whole lotta shrinking going on.
One of my co-workers is especially aggravated that his favorite yogurt, the Publix store brand, just slipped from 8 ounces to 6. He’s a big guy, and he wants the bigger size. He doesn’t want to buy two of the smaller cartons of yogurt and leave one half-eaten, just to get what he used to be able to buy in a single package.
Manufacturers often will reduce package sizes in times of rising food costs rather than raise the cost to shoppers. But is that what most of us want? Especially if we’re using a recipe that calls for a half-gallon of ice cream or a 15.5-ounce can of beans? And what’s next, a gallon of milk that’s a cup or two short? What packages have you noticed shrinking lately?
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