What is a short size?
When food manufacturers face an increase in prices in basic ingredients such as wheat, sugar or rice, they have basically two methods to pass on these higher food costs to retailers and customers. One way is to raise the price of current products, which may not be a popular choice with consumers, and on the contrary, it is to reduce the amount of product sold at a specified retail price. This practice of shrinking packages to prevent prices is known as short size .
The short size involves changing the size of the package of popular items such as breakfast cereal, ice cream, coffee and laundry detergents to avoid significant increase in retail prices. For example, the traditional half of the artwork can be redesigned to hold only 1 1/2 liters of real ice cream, although the dimensions of the cardboard must not change significantly. The only outer feature of a short -size cardboard size can be a slightly leaner profile when compacted for olderCarton. A can of coffee purchased in the 70s. By 2000, the size of average coffee can easily be up to 10 ounces. Because the prices of coffee have risen dramatically over the intervening years, it is easier for coffee manufacturers to practice a short size instead of charging an exaggerated price for a full pound of coffee.
However, the short size does not work for each consumer product on the shelves. Chefs who depend on standard measurements for raw ingredients can still find containers of flour, sugar, pasta and other terminals in a full size container. However, other consumables, such as canned food and refreshments, may appear like standard packages, but the weight has been reduced by several ounces. Food manufacturers Annou need to detect short size practice; Is a consumer's responsibility to compare weight and size to see if a singleIndeed, a bag of potato chips contains a full pound of product.
One way to find out whether there has been a short size in a well -known product is to look at the information about the prices provided by the food industry. The unit price should reflect the relative amount of money that the consumer would pay for similar amounts of the product. Increasing the unit price without a comparable increase in the size of the package would indicate that there was a short size. For example, a national brand of potato chips can be the same price as a trade brand, but the unit price would reveal whether the national brand contained only 12 ounces of tokens compared to 16 units of the brand.
The short size is not considered to be illegal practice, even without full publication, but may be problematic if the size of the product is significantly reduced, while the price is still rising. Raising price for full -size container can be considered more honest, but also increases the possibility of economic panic if every food industryThe company completely stopped a short size. Some products, such as confectionery or snacks, can usually be sold in smaller sizes without causing great fear among consumers.