We live in a materialistic society in the heart of which there is the consumer. Every product that is released aims to anticipate and satisfy our every need, sometimes strangely enough new “needs” pop up just because a new product was created just for this particular new need. In short, we dive into the market, spending money on products we had never known before we needed in the first place.
However, imagine how betrayed we came to feel when all these big companies on whose products we spend our money on, sneakily tried to “cheat” us by “shrinking” the quantity of the product yet keeping or even raising the price! Below you will find 12 examples of products that consumers came to realize that became less but the price tag was left the same.
1. Cadbury Craze
Louise Stigant, UK managing director of Cadbury, in light of the upcoming reduction of the calorie count of bars, stated that “we must play our part in tackling obesity and are committed to doing so without compromising on consumer choice”. However, the company decided to keep the same prices for their products although they are changing their blends.
2. Coca-Cola Conundrum
Although the difference is unnoticeable in the eye, Coca-Cola decided to change their bottles from 2 liters down to 1.75 liters, keeping the same price. So, basically, consumers pay the same for less product. Unbelievable!
3. Not So Hefty Now
What happened with the Coca-Cola bottles, we can see it with the Hefty bag cartons too. There is a slight reduction in the boxes’ size, signifying fewer bags than before yet keeping the same price. In fact, the Hefty bag cartons went from having 90 bags down to 80 and the consumers barely noticed it!
4. Fear The Beer
This is becoming more and more frequent nowadays, as more bars in the U.S. substitute the standard 16 oz glass for a short-handed 14 oz replacement. The customer doesn’t really get the difference and in this way he’s “cheated” in ordering more glasses as he doesn’t get enough beer in the first place, increasing this way his consumption. This practice is referred to as “short pouring”.
5. Don’t Twix The Facts
Apparently, the Twix bar is now 14% smaller than its original size. It’s so unfair when you realize that you are paying the same price yet you are enjoying less of this yummy chocolate bar!
6. Boxception
Cereal boxes are some of the products more frequently changed in the market. Different brands “play” with the size of the cardboard boxes, reducing often the product inside the cereal bags, giving though the illusion that nothing has changed.
Therefore, you might be paying the same price for less product. You should really read the number of grams of the actual product included in the box!
7. To Mars
The difference between the two Mars bars is pretty obvious. However, the thing you might not know is that the price has doubled although the Mars bar decreased in size compared with its original version back in the 1990s.
8. Pringle And Ready To Mingle
A change to the manufacturing process has brought a change in the size of the Pringles tubes. Now the pringles are made and shipped from Malaysia, therefore their size also changed, becoming smaller than before. Strangely enough, this change in size didn’t bring any change to the price which remained the same.
9. Dorito Dilemma
What a neat trick! They made the bags bigger to give the illusion that you get more product yet the grams you get are the same! The poor consumer who rarely pays attention to these details ends up paying more for the same product as before. Ingenious, indeed!
10. Kit-Kat That
Another example of a company that decided to reduce the size of their chocolate bars without changing the price. It really makes you wonder if all these companies co-operate on how to trick the unsuspicious consumers!
11. Shameful Shampoo
You pay the same and you take the new and reduced size of your favorite cherry shampoo, what luck!
12. Tricky Treats
Even a dog has to be tricked in this savage world of consumerism! Although the bags have hardly changed, now you still pay the same but your dog enjoys one less beef stick than before, poor dog!
Hopefully, after reading this article you will be more aware of the “price games” companies tend to play and the next time you will visit a supermarket you will check the prices and compare them. A clever consumer is what all these big companies are afraid of.
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