If you’ve been paying attention you’ll have noticed that ice cream is shrinking. A half gallon is no longer a half gallon.
You can’t see the mark on the bottom carton clearly enough (thanks camera-phone!) but it says 1.5 quarts while the top carton says 1.75 quarts. Same product, same price, different quantities. Earlier at another store I saw a carton labeled 48 ounces. The “Kong Kone” at the grocery store deli also shrunk.
I would rather pay more for the same amount than have Corporate America try to deceive me.
How is labeling a smaller container with its volume deceptive? Apparently a ‘half gallon’ hasn’t been a half gallon for quite a while, since 1.75 quarts is not a half gallon either. Now, if the container was the same size, but it was actually less full, that might be a little bit deceptive. This is just a smaller package size, though, and not the least bit deceptive. What do you want, a “NEW! Smaller Package Size!” label on it?
Joe Consumer expects a carton about that size to be a half gallon (or he used to). And real half gallons are still on the market. I’ll grant that the 1.5 quart carton is not deceptive in any technical sense (you certainly couldn’t complain about it in court!) but the secret wish in the hearts of dairy executives is that you won’t notice that you’re buying less product for the same price.
My mother-in-law didn’t notice until I pointed it out to her. She was annoyed. So was I.
And 48 ounces is clearly deceptive (though again, not technically) as Joe Consumer doesn’t know that 48 ounces is 1.5 quarts. He can figure it out but he’s not going to bother.
I don’t expect you to agree. I do expect you to understand my point of view.
It makes me wonder, does the carton acually say “half-gallon” on it? I don’t see it in your photo. Also, it’s entirely possible that the same amount (weight) of ice cream is in the new container, but with less overrun (air) in it. Premium ice creams tend to be heavier and more dense because the manufacturer adds less air. Have you ever noticed how light a 1-gal bucket of cheap ice cream tends to be? By law it cannot be more than 100% overrun (1 to 1 ratio of ice cream to air), but you can bet the cheapies come as close to that 100% as they possibly can.
No, it doesn’t say half-gallon, that would surely be deceptive, even technically. Half-gallon is something I’d style as a de-facto standard. Ice cream generally comes in 5-quart buckets (sometimes called gallons), half-gallon cartons, or pints. Consumers have been trained to expect these sizes. Alert consumers are less likely to make these assumptions.
You make a good point about overrun but what would be the value for them to reduce overrun? If they advertised that the density of the ice cream had improved they might hope more people would buy it but they didn’t. The consumer only sees that the size is reduced but the price is the same (if they notice at all).
Maybe they could reduce shipping costs by making their ice cream more dense but if that were their intention they would have designed a carton that leaves less space between cartons rather than more.
One could argue that the shape is more aesthetic but it looks more likely, considering that the lid size and height are the same for both sizes, that the intention is to trick the eye.
Besides, have a look at their own explanation under the heading “Downsizing – reduction in carton size” on their FAQ page:
Hopefully this will help Levi to understand and not be so high and mighty-he must be one of those 6 figure execs who get bonuses while others get laid off…and yes, as a matter of fact, if my ice cream carton has less ice cream in it than normal I would like them to advertise it on the carton!
http://routingbyrumor.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/unilever-shrinks-its-products-again-breyers-ice-cream-now-25-smaller/
The ice cream people aren’t the only ones doing this, and I find it annoying and deceptive. I was just looking at Breyer’s/Unilever’s website, and found their explanation that this is a cost savings a little ridiculous. Has anyone pointed out to them that by putting in less ice cream, the end result is a use of more containers? I might also point out that in addition to the use of more containers, and hence, more wasted space due to the shape of the containers (as you mentioned), they also use lids that are a combination of plastic and paper products that cannot even come close to being recyclable (no township I know allows collection of such bicast products).
Oh, I forgot to mention: I used to be a big fan of Breyer’s, but I am off it now partly because of the deceptive containers and partly because of the change in their product ingredients (I remember when Breyer’s was “All Natural” — not anymore!).
btw- the offender in this case: TARA GUM! Please!
I suppose they could put pure rubber in it, too — it would still be “natural,” right?
This is my solution:
http://www.cuisinartwebstore.com/products/icecream_yogurt_makers
I hadn’t been buying ice cream for some time and just recently bought some of my beloved Breyers for the first time in almost 10 months. And what to my surprise … just as you said … a smaller carton. I also just assume a standard 1/2 gallon size and it didn’t occur to me until I got how how much smaller the cartons had gotten while the price have increased. Another reason to stick to my diet! Thanks for posting the information!
I have been looking for a website to air this type of company greed and deception. I thought of starting one myself but I am not computer savvy enough to do it.
I worked for a large paper products manufacturer that made bathroom tissue as one of it’s products. When I went to work there many years ago there was 1000 one ply sheets on a roll or 500 two ply sheets. Later
they started making it “softer” by embossing the sheets with a design. The rolls now have 220 two ply sheets on a roll, so as you may have guessed the softnes was just a ploy to make you think they were doing it to make your hindy feel better. Later on they reduced the size of the sheet slightly to get more rolls from the same amount of paper.
So whenever a company tells you they are “improving” the product you better check the size of weight to see how much less you are getting.
If anyone knows of a site that lists this type of consumer deciet please let me know as this seems to be more and more common. Thanks for letting me spout off.
The only way to stop this sort of thing is to boycott the companies who produce these products. They are simply taking advantage of consumers because they can. I remember times when companies improved products to win new customers to make better profit. Just don’t buy ice cream, let them go out of business like the US automakers.
In principle it’s important to “vote with your wallet,” but it’s never effective unless you (with people like you) control enough of the money to get noticed. This is why a website highlighting specific instances of corporate deception and encouraging readers to raise awareness and participate in a boycott would be a good thing.
Another way of looking at the “vote with your wallet” idea is that we are already voting with our wallets and the market will ultimately show if consumers are okay with the changes these companies are making. If the manufacturers have misjudged what the market will bear they will suffer financially. If, on the other hand, they have judged well then we will stop complaining and enjoy our new, smaller, “half gallon.”
What would be more effective in the influencing the ice cream business would be legislation changing the way it’s measured. For example they could be required to sell their product by weight rather than by volume. This would immediately unveil the more-nefarious practice of whipping more air into the product.
On a related note: Water or oil in cans of Tuna needs to be considered packaging and therefor NOT part of the net weight.
Everyone is missing the point: fulfilled expectations are the basis of good faith business practices.
Sneaking less-for-more by people by progressively reducing the size in decrements no one notices is not good faith business practice.
Good business practice, and enforcement regulations, would be to label the smaller containers “25% less for the same price”.
Then we’d see how the competitive market place would respond.