I went grocery shopping yesterday, and found something both sad and annoying.

[Lyric]

Fair warning: I went to Super Wal-Mart. We're poor, and I was using Food Stamps, and they go a lot further there than anywhere else.

Okay. So anyway, I always get OktoberKid a package of store-brand juice boxes as a treat because he likes being able to carry them with him when he goes out to play, and Wal-Mart has ones that are 100% juice (yeah, I know--"refined" juice is really just sugar water, but still.) The juice boxes usually come in 10-packs. So I picked up the package, and noticed that although it was the same length and width as the former package, it wasn't nearly as heavy. So I looked closer and found that Wal-Mart had dramatically changed the shape of the individual juice boxes so that they were much shorter and wider than they used to be. I thought that was just some corporate oddity until I looked closer. There were only 8 juice boxes in the package.

They had deliberately changed the shape of the juice boxes so that there were less of them, but the overall package was still the same length and width that it used to be. And the price had gone way up, too. The 10-packs used to be $1.75, and now they're $2.50.

Another oddity. Because we like to make sure that he always has healthy snacks when he wants them, we keep one of the bottom drawers of our fridge stocked with things like mixed fruit cups, yogurt, lowfat mozzarella cheese sticks, applesauce, etc. When I bought his package of mozzarella cheese sticks, I noticed that there were four less cheese sticks in the package than there used to be, but the price was higher--$3.29 as opposed to the old $2.79 price. And all of our fresh fruit was higher in price than it usually is, save for the strawberries, which were (thankfully) still the same price.

It's sad because it's evidence of how bad things are getting. It's annoying because it's obvious that (at least with the juice boxes) the company had made a deliberate effort to "trick" customers who might not have looked closely into thinking that there was still the same amount of product in the package.

I understand why they're cutting costs, but I'm more than a little mad at the fact that they can't just be honest and up-front about it. And I'm worried as hell about what the next few months will bring if food prices keep going up like this. :(

[commander bunnypants]

1. Hey

I know. It will get worse before it gets better

:hi:

CB

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. I really feel for the hungry and poor in this country.

In my local community, the number of people using the food pantry I support has about doubled in the last two years. And not just because word is getting around - because the number of people who can't afford to eat in my community has probably doubled or more.

And it's not just the homeless and unemployed and the temporarily out of luck, any more, either - it's people with jobs, even families with two working parents.

Pretty fucking sad.

The price of food is going up exponentially.

I hope you guys - and all the working poor and unemployed hungry - can survive until the Republican damage has been undone, because I think it's gonna take a few years.

[riderinthestorm]

8. Second Harvest reports a 20% increase in demand this year, donations down 9%

I'm sure that some communities are hit harder than these stats indicate however.

I've organized monthly canned foods for more than 10 years. These past two months when I've gone to drop off at the food pantry, the shelves are shockingly empty, not just containing just a few items - I mean empty. The people who run the food bank are deeply troubled in my neighborhood. I've never seen it as bad as this.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. It's an old trick the food producers pull out every time there's a serious uptick in food prices.

I'm so old I remember when a standard can of ground coffee contained a full pound. Now most cans are hovering around 11-12 oz.

What you saw was an obvious reworking, but before that happened there was probably a round or two of lighting the product in less obvious ways. I had a friend whose father was a tool and die maker for the food industry and he would be hired to shave tiny amounts off of the average size of a product because the cumulative savings to the company was enormous. Companies prefer to maintain the illusion that the product hasn't changed for as long as possible ---consumers will accept a modest decrease in the product size before accepting a big price increase. When companies are both reducing the amount of product and hiking the prices, it's a very bad sign for consumers.

[CBHagman]

4. I noticed that the other week at the grocery store.

With at least one product I buy, the package has shrunk dramatically, though not the price.

I do feel for you, what with having to make the little you've got stretch, and feeding a young boy to boot.

[Love Bug]

5. A box of Puffs

I've noticed in my usual box of Puffs the box is the same size but the tissues are about a good half-inch shorter than they used to be. This phenomenon is nothing new, but I'm sure the change-over to smaller sizes/quantity for food will be more obvious over the next few months.

BTW, you don't need to apologize for using Mall-Wart. Sure, a lot of us here boycott them, but we can afford to do so. Your family needs to come first, and no one here should judge you for doing the best you can by them.

[stuntcat]

6. it's awful

food is our biggest expense, I mean besides rent & power and stuff, we do not shop. And for years I've clipped coupons and shopped so carefully so we could save for a trip, and now they're saying on the news every day that food costs will keep going up, and if they do we'll end up digging into savings for groceries. Eating's the thing we can't just cut down on to save money :(

[MorningGlow]

7. That's heinous

But, alas, nothing new. We've been hit even with the food at our local "greatest supermarket evah" (Wegmans). They have always had rotisserie chickens for $4.99. I usually buy one every couple of weeks or so, for a meal of chicken nachos (Mr. MG) and caesar salad with chicken (me), and MG Jr. noshes on the thigh meat. Then there's usually enough leftovers for my lunch, a chicken wrap, the next day. However, lately we can't get leftovers out of the chickens they're selling for the same price. The last time I lifted the plastic dome cover off the container, Mr. MG peered in and said, "Nice pigeon." They haven't raised the price (yet), because of the psychology of it, but I'd rather pay a little more to get a decent-sized chicken with enough meat on it to feed three people the way it used to.

[bif]

9. Ever notice that 1/2 gallons of ice cream are no longer 1/2 gallons?

But they still look like it.

[Inchworm]

10. It is the same around here

I havent been really even grocery shopping lately because of it. I bought hella rice and am going through my can stock like mad. I just dump a can of beans/soup/veggies in the rice and eat it. It is gonna suck when the cans run out though.

The place where I shop, Food Lion, has the unit prices on the shelf next to overall price. I am anal about going by that number rather than the total. It is amazing when you get to looking at them. The stores do "buy one get one free" tricks too. It is easy to catch them if you read the unit prices.

Good luck Oktoberain. Lets hope change happens soon.

:hi:

[grasswire]

11. I'm seeing that, too.

Specifically, I noticed the new Triscuit boxes are tiny -- only 9.5 ounces. Everything's shrinking in size, growing in price. And, incidentally, I was in a Wal-Mart the other day and noticed that their shelf prices had gone up by fifty cents or a buck per item.