please empty your brain below

'shrinkflation', it's apparently called.
I like mint and mint sauce. Fresh mint with new potatoes or homemade mint sauce with lamb, lovely.
It is easy to grow mint dg so try growing your own that is what I do.
If you do not have access to a garden it will grow OK in a tray by a window.
Toblerones? Mint sauce? What's next?!
Comparison: Batts Mint Sauce (180g) from my nearest supermarket (Lidl) = 35p.

That's 19.4p per 100g and illustrates why the discount retailers are increasingly dominant.

However 'shrink-flation' is also very evident on many of their products.
I'm old enough to remember when Revels were sold on tv as 'weighing a little more than (the 225g) mini box of milk tray and costing less. Now the same bag weighs 118g and no doubt will faill more. Not so funny when the small bag (1/3 the size) would weigh 80g...
That's greedy grocers for you - all the ingredients in this product can be UK sourced, so should be affected not at all by Brexit or the tumbling pound.
Lidl''s product is just as good.
I've noticed here in the US, when companies promote the "Great New Look!" packaging, it almost always contains less product in it than the old packaging. :/
Liz.... as long as producing, packaging and distributing mint sauce doesn't involve using any kind of energy or fuel.
Also the ingredients might be UK sourced, but not necessarily the jar its in, the lid on top and the label on the outside.

Plus one of the hidden taxes the government increased was the Insurance Premium Tax, then there is the apprentice levy introduced in April, and on it goes.
"I really like mint sauce" - do you eat it with more than just lamb DG? My jars inevitably go past their best-before date long before being anywhere near finished. Maybe buying a mint plant and a bottle of vinegar might be a cheaper and fresher option.
Liz, the Product would have been twice as much to start with if it was completely UK sourced and produced.
But then this is not a politically blog, so I'll leave it with: this is not the last of this that we have seen.
I only ever read price per unit.
Tells a truer story
Guess what i clicked on the "drop-bar". Not because it the reason of this "cost adjustment" but purely for the fact it was put there as an option.

The truth of the matter is we consumers are being conned. We are being taken for mugs. And judging by the labels... "every little helps" right?
This has been going on for ages but it's happening more and more frequently. Birds Eye Peas used to be sold in 500 g packets but two reductions have reduced this to 375g. If you see an odd amount such as 433g on washing up liquid then it's an even bet it's done to mask an increase. Some Cat food has been reduced from 100g to 80g - -effectively reducing a meal by 20%. Price increases by stealth.
And 'new improved' usually means the product has cheaper ingredients. And so it goes on.
Grumpy Anon ... we're only being conned if we don't keep our brains in gear ... if I'm honest I can't remember a time when such tricks weren't being employed, although I agree it's happening more and more as time goes on

thank goodness for unit prices these days, even if they are in very small print ... saves standing there in the aisle trying to do weight-price comparisons in your head

as ever, buyer beware
I'm not over keen on Brexit scare stories, but I suspect that "price per unit" could be one of those pieces of "red tape" ordained by Brussels.

However, it is unlikely to be swept away in the bonfire, because manufacturers are not going to go to the expense of producing different labels for any offshore islands that have abolished such rules.

They do always print it, though, in rather small type.
Colman's mint sauce 250g jars are supposedly £2 for two at Iceland this week.

Source : mysupermarket.co.uk
We are aficionados of Colman's Tartare Sauce. As I order all groceries from Sainsbury's online, it was with dismay I noted our customary 250ml jar had become 144g. I have both Sainsbury's own brand TS at 80p for 250ml and Colmans at £1.20 for 144g, which is now as good as three times the price. Am planning on a fish supper tonight when we'll compare and contrast. I'll think VERY carefully before buying more Colman's...
And the jars are so very carefully designed so that no-one notices the decreasing volume, purely by looking at the jar.
I am beginning to wonder if Unilever is trying to discontinue Colman's condiments on the quiet, as they also own the Hellmann's marque, which produce many similar items.
These new little jars represent such poor value for money that many canny shoppers might buy alternatives.
Now youv'e moved onto the next phase of your life, have you thought of putting your name down for an allotment with Newham? You could happily grow all the mint you need and several other crops.
@Malcolm
" it is unlikely to be swept away in the bonfire, because manufacturers are not going to go to the expense of producing different labels for any offshore islands that have abolished such rules.
"

They have to provide separate labelling for different countries anyway, since they don't speak English or use sterling
Also, the price and price per 100g is on the shelf edge label, which is printed on a laser printer in store, and not anything at all to do with the manufacturer.

I'm also not sure if it's related to Europe, but it's a long standing piece of consumer law, so I can't see it being revoked.
Sauces can be sold by either weight or volume. As a millilitre does not always weigh a gram, it seems some sauce labelling is deliberately inconsistent...
Well we've had "go to Aldi" and "make your own".

I use cranberry sauce and/ or redcurrant jelly.
Interesting one of the few things not to have shrunk is a standard can of coke etc 330ml. However that is not the case on most airlines where they feel 250ml or less is the new norm.

As for colemans I had best grab the last of the larger jars.
The Colman's website (as of just now) is only displaying the larger size container, and directing people to Amazon, Ocado, Sainsbury's or Asda to buy it.
Anyone noticed that the recession and Brexit caused this...What an easy get out of jail card for business.

Cadbury large bars of chocolate were 4 squares now 3
The trouble with dropdown menus is that they often leave out an "all of the above" option.
Erm... maybe it's been done for the same reason they gave us when they made chocolate bars smaller, which was that it was to save people from over-eating and becoming obese???
As for Rick's reference to Coke, I'm thinking back to one Ryanair flight: I'd looked at the refreshments menu and the tiny little illustrations of the canned drinks available. And then I saw the canned drinks :O
I had to sit on my hands for the whole flight to stop myself from getting a pen and writing 'actual size' on as many menu cards as I could reach.
@Malcolm, Kirk: The Price Marking Order 2004 (for Great Britain) and the Price Marking Order (Northern Ireland) 2004 use powers under the Prices Act 1974 to implement in the UK the unit pricing requirements of Directive 98/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 1998 on consumer protection in the indication of the prices of products offered to consumers.
The Sainsbury's website is VERY flaky today and was down all of yesterday. Seems they still do the Mint sauce in the larger old jars at my local outlet (HA8/NW9) but have downsized for apple and Tartare sauces. All OLD sauces are 250ml. The NEW jars specify WEIGHT.
This type of shrinkage has been going on for at least 50 years, although usually limited to the sweets. Mars were always doing this with their various products.

The first sign was that there was usually a gap in the wrapping, indicating a smaller bar. Eventually a larger bar would be introduced with "Bigger Bar" emblazoned all over it. This was, of course, the same size as the original bar before shrinkage, but cost a penny or so more. And so the cycle went on over the years.

Doing the same for all manner of goods that are bottled / boxed / packed, seems to be a relatively new trend started around five years ago.
Weight reduction for the same price or more has been happening since 2008. I do all the shopping so notice these things and get a good telling off when I see offers for things I know we will use within 6 months but will sit in the larder!










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