Freshly Squeezed

As food prices rise and grocery bills increase up to 7.5 %, the fastest rate in 18 years, food companies are going beneath the consumer radar to give people less for the same price. It's a trend that is just now being noticed by many regular grocery shoppers as they feel their carts becoming lighter and the bills becoming bigger. A Skippy Peanut butter can has a larger indent in the bottom making the new sized jar 16.3 oz instead of the old 18 oz for the same price. For companies it has become a large part of their business, General Mills has a new "Holistic Margin Management" team, devoted to saving the company millions but cutting seemingly unnoticeable margins in the packages of their products. The company is encouraging all employees to think of new ways to cut costs on packages, such as thinner soup lid on Progresso soup cans which can save almost 360 tons of steel a year. Fruit Gushers fruit snacks used to have a distinct design for each flavor, but after a resent study they decided to cut costs by having a generic package for all flavors saving the company 3 million a year. One reason the companies have been able to get away with this is because more people are eating at home again and they pay more attention to the price than the sizes. But now with the economy looking grim for many and the pinching of budgets, more Americans are noticing the difference; making it harder for companies to get away with it. This all goes back to what you think you see on the shelf isn't always what you get.