By M. P. DUNLEAVEY
Published: August 8, 2008
IMAGINE what would happen if the price of gasoline remained the same, but instead of selling it by the gallon, gas stations knocked down the size a few ounces.
It might seem that you were paying the same amount — about $4 a gallon — but you wouldn’t be. You would be getting, say, a mere 120 ounces instead of 128, and you would be paying more for gas.
If gas stations labeled the change clearly, would there be riots in the street? Would weary consumers simply shrug and pay the same for less at the pump?
We don’t really know how people would react. But something very much like this is already occurring at the supermarket, what Tod Marks, a senior editor at Consumer Reports, calls “the incredibly shrinking package” strategy.
The repackaging trick isn’t new. Who hasn’t opened a box of cereal or a bag of chips and marveled at the abundance of air with the food? But Mr. Marks, who tracks the grocery industry, said, “It’s definitely happening a lot more than it used to.”
According to a study conducted this summer by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, shrinkage is occurring across a broad spectrum of goods…
