downsizing of everything...

It seems to be all over the news about how companies are downsizing product. Cereal boxes have been shrinking for years. Ice cream is no longer 1.75 QTs (forget the day when you could actually buy a 1/2 gallon), many ice creams are now 1.5 Qts. The worse part is that the packages are designed to make you not notice that they are smaller. On first glance, the package looks like the same size, so unless you read the net weight information and remember what the original weight was, you may not even realize you are getting a smaller package. If you are fortunate enough to see two items side by side, then its easier to notice. I was at CVS the other week and noticed that Colgate is downsizing from a 4.2 oz tube of toothpaste to a 4.0 oz tube. I noticed only because both tubes were on shelf at the same time. The worse part is that you don't always notice the price increase, because they sometimes keep the costs the same or even reduce the cost. It's only the cost per unit that goes up sometimes.

The be all end all though I noticed the other day at work. I was in the ladies room and noticed a new plastic adaptor piece on the toilet paper holder. There happened to be a spare roll sitting nearby, so I picked it up to compare. Sure enough, the new roll was about 1/2" shorter than the old roll. I'm wondering (not really, I'm sure it has happened), does that mean that the rolls we buy are also getting smaller. Again, hard to detect the downsizing. I only used to look at the number of sheets per roll, not the dimensions of each sheet.