PA Families Victims Of Shrinking Grocery Product Sizes, Senator Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — From Doritos to Cocoa Puffs to Charmin, the sizes of the products you purchase at the grocery store have been shrinking while their prices have been increasing.

That's the conclusion in a study released Thursday by U.S. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania that contends large corporations are making huge profits by reducing the size of household consumer goods. Casey has dubbed that process "shrinkflation."

"Corporations are only getting more creative as they rake in record profits at the expense of Pennsylvania families: shrinking the size of their products while keeping the same sticker prices," Casey said in a release. "This corporate greed is one of the reasons that Americans are frustrated by expensive grocery bills."

Some examples cited in the study:

• Frito-Lay reduced the size of a bag of Doritos from 9.75 ounces to 9.25 ounces and increased the price of a bag of the popular snack.

• General Mills, which makes Cocoa Puffs, dropped the size of its "family size" offerings for many cereal products. For Cocoa Puffs, the box changed from 19.3 ounces to 18.1 ounces with no corresponding reduction in price. In fact, the price of that box has been increased since the change.

• Charmin Ultra Soft Mega rolls decreased from 264 double-ply sheets a roll to 244 sheets, while Ultra Soft Super Mega rolls have decreased from 396 sheets to 366. The trend is not limited to a single brand, as Cottonelle’s one-ply mega rolls went from 340 to 312 sheets while its two-ply sheets went from 284 to 268.

Casey has sent letters to trade associations representing household consumer products, food and beverage corporations requesting information about pricing strategies and package size practices.

See the entire study here.