8 ms·

Nope - in fact, I hear that they prefer to change the size rather than the price because consumers tend not to notice it as much. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsrou

by sfotm 7y ago

Nope - in fact, I hear that they prefer to change the size rather than the price because consumers tend not to notice it as much. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/25401945 https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/25401945

houli 7y ago
This is what happened in Ireland when new taxes on sugary drinks came in. Drinks that came in 2L bottles now came in 1.75L bottles at the same price. The diet versions with no sugar remained in 2L bottles. Companies like Coke are now only making variants like vanilla or cherry flavours using their diet or zero sugar products
- dannyw 7y ago
  This is why if you want to tax sweet drinks, you should charge it on artificial sweeteners too because otherwise it’s just a handout for aspartame.
  - chrisseaton 7y ago
    ...but that’s the idea. They want people to drink the artificially sweetened version instead. That’s what the tax is for. If they taxed both the same it wouldn’t work.
  - crooked-v 7y ago
    I think you've missed sight of the point of those taxes, which is to reduce consumption of actual excess sugar, not to tax things that taste sweet.
    - michaelmrose 7y ago
      Both are unhealthy its not clear that fake sweeteners are better for you. Why tax a different kind of unhealthy less?
      - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
        I'm no fan of artificial sweeteners or sweet things in general but the scientific evidence is pretty overwhelming that most of them are far healthier than sugar.
      - throwaway1777 7y ago
        Non-sugar sweeteners are better for you in at least one significant way: they have almost zero calories.
      - chalupa-man 7y ago
        Because the scientific evidence overwhelmingly shows that artificial sweeteners _are_ better for you. They have no proven health impact and eliminate calories. The idea that they're somehow "just as bad" (or even worse) only comes from sugar and corn industry lobbying and marketing efforts.
kevinthew 7y ago
That's basically matched to inflation - would be more surprised if unchanged
im3w1l 7y ago
I have heard that too, but I don't believe in it. If they do it, it must be applied only in specific circumstances, and with some other mechanism to restore the size again. Because containers aren't getting silly small over time. They seem to be pretty much aimed at whatever is a convenient amount.
- technofiend 7y ago
  It's a documented phenomenon that happens so regularly there's a name for it: shrinkflation. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/24/sweets-are-shrinking-youre-not-imagining-it-ons-tells-shoppers https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/24/sweets-are-...
- shantly 7y ago
  Coffee is sometimes that way. For more expensive beans brands’ll cut the weight and keep the price the same, shelve it right next to the other stuff. You have to check the weight to see which ones are expensive. [edit] and of course 12oz has replaced 16oz as the “standard” size.
  - nicoburns 7y ago
    The UK mandates putting 'price per unit' on the price labels, which makes this kind of comparison a lot easier.
    - shantly 7y ago
      Some stores in the US have that, some don’t, and it’s always a lot smaller than the total price when they do.
      - tim58 7y ago
        I've come to really enjoy grocery shopping, planning a week worth of meals, being adaptive when good deals come up, trying new things, working to minimize waste. Eating a healthy diet. One of the things I like about grocery shopping is practicing mental math, and I calculate price per quantity mentally when choosing between different brands/sizes. It's good mental exercise, and the ability to do that sort of division mentally occasionally is helpful in other contexts.
taneq 7y ago
Yep. Same thing happened with baked beans and corn chips recently. Shrink the size while offering a small discount (still more expensive per unit weight) and then a little later introduce a new jumbo size for more than the old price.
grawprog 7y ago
The one for me was breyer's ice cream. I was working stocking it at the time it happened. They used to show up as 5 packs of 500g cartons. One summer, during a sale, the prices stayed the same, but they started showing up in 4 packs of 450g cartons. I had to rearrange the whole shelf because they didn't fit the same way any more. So this really stuck in my mind. The cost was the same to the store too on the packing slips for a whole pallet. They just gave less and decreased the size of each carton. I've told a related story from the same time period on here before about how they stopped putting handles on the large 4L ice cream buckets so they could save 1¢ per bucket. That was the same summer.

by sfotm 7y ago

houli 7y ago

This is what happened in Ireland when new taxes on sugary drinks came in. Drinks that came in 2L bottles now came in 1.75L bottles at the same price. The diet versions with no sugar remained in 2L bottles. Companies like Coke are now only making variants like vanilla or cherry flavours using their diet or zero sugar products

dannyw 7y ago
This is why if you want to tax sweet drinks, you should charge it on artificial sweeteners too because otherwise it’s just a handout for aspartame.
- chrisseaton 7y ago
  ...but that’s the idea. They want people to drink the artificially sweetened version instead. That’s what the tax is for. If they taxed both the same it wouldn’t work.
- crooked-v 7y ago
  I think you've missed sight of the point of those taxes, which is to reduce consumption of actual excess sugar, not to tax things that taste sweet.
  - michaelmrose 7y ago
    Both are unhealthy its not clear that fake sweeteners are better for you. Why tax a different kind of unhealthy less?
    - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
      I'm no fan of artificial sweeteners or sweet things in general but the scientific evidence is pretty overwhelming that most of them are far healthier than sugar.
    - throwaway1777 7y ago
      Non-sugar sweeteners are better for you in at least one significant way: they have almost zero calories.
    - chalupa-man 7y ago
      Because the scientific evidence overwhelmingly shows that artificial sweeteners _are_ better for you. They have no proven health impact and eliminate calories. The idea that they're somehow "just as bad" (or even worse) only comes from sugar and corn industry lobbying and marketing efforts.

kevinthew 7y ago

That's basically matched to inflation - would be more surprised if unchanged

im3w1l 7y ago

I have heard that too, but I don't believe in it. If they do it, it must be applied only in specific circumstances, and with some other mechanism to restore the size again. Because containers aren't getting silly small over time. They seem to be pretty much aimed at whatever is a convenient amount.

technofiend 7y ago
It's a documented phenomenon that happens so regularly there's a name for it: shrinkflation. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/24/sweets-are-shrinking-youre-not-imagining-it-ons-tells-shoppers https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/24/sweets-are-...
shantly 7y ago
Coffee is sometimes that way. For more expensive beans brands’ll cut the weight and keep the price the same, shelve it right next to the other stuff. You have to check the weight to see which ones are expensive. [edit] and of course 12oz has replaced 16oz as the “standard” size.
- nicoburns 7y ago
  The UK mandates putting 'price per unit' on the price labels, which makes this kind of comparison a lot easier.
  - shantly 7y ago
    Some stores in the US have that, some don’t, and it’s always a lot smaller than the total price when they do.
    - tim58 7y ago
      I've come to really enjoy grocery shopping, planning a week worth of meals, being adaptive when good deals come up, trying new things, working to minimize waste. Eating a healthy diet. One of the things I like about grocery shopping is practicing mental math, and I calculate price per quantity mentally when choosing between different brands/sizes. It's good mental exercise, and the ability to do that sort of division mentally occasionally is helpful in other contexts.

taneq 7y ago

Yep. Same thing happened with baked beans and corn chips recently. Shrink the size while offering a small discount (still more expensive per unit weight) and then a little later introduce a new jumbo size for more than the old price.

grawprog 7y ago

The one for me was breyer's ice cream. I was working stocking it at the time it happened. They used to show up as 5 packs of 500g cartons. One summer, during a sale, the prices stayed the same, but they started showing up in 4 packs of 450g cartons. I had to rearrange the whole shelf because they didn't fit the same way any more. So this really stuck in my mind. The cost was the same to the store too on the packing slips for a whole pallet. They just gave less and decreased the size of each carton. I've told a related story from the same time period on here before about how they stopped putting handles on the large 4L ice cream buckets so they could save 1¢ per bucket. That was the same summer.