Shrinkage in the Frozen Food Aisle

The Green Miles has already established himself as a grocery store nerd, so I thought I'd pass along this eye-rolling discovery:

They look identical, right? But the ice cream container on the left is 1.75 quarts, while the one on the right is 1.5 quarts. The one on the right is tapered towards the bottom, which I didn't even notice at the store.

As food and transportation costs rise, many manufacturers are shrinking package sizes rather than raising prices. The thinking is consumers are less likely to be turned off by a smaller package size difference than they are by a higher price. There's a great website called MousePrint that keeps track of subtlety shrinking packages.

How can you avoid getting fooled? Don't compare products by sticker price -- compare by cost per unit (per ounce, per sheet, whatever). It's the tiny number to the left of the price.

I've noticed this at bars, too -- for example, beers served in slightly smaller pint glasses.

Have you noticed any shrinkage in your packages? Wait, let me rephrase that ...