Politics | September 22, 2008 | 7 comments

Shrinking ethics, shrinking foods

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dkincheloe
Walk into a grocery store or a restaurant nowadays and you will see the end result of an important decision being made by many of our best known companies. The products you consume are changing. Boxes of cereal aren’t quite as full; the house salad at your favorite restaurant is less filling, and according to the Wall Street Journal this past week, even the Whopper Junior is going on a diet.

There is no question that at least part of the discussion taking place in companies today pertains to rising expenses and the need to maintain revenues. It’s surely being approached as a business issue and a business decision at high levels in our companies. And the end result is evident. Faced with higher product costs, many food companies are shrinking the size of their products, from hamburger patties to ice cream. The portion size is noticeable too; the consumerist.com website calls this downsizing the result of a mysterious “grocery shrink ray.” The prevalence of the “shrink ray” is not surprising, given the cost squeezes that many companies are facing these days.

[Essay continues....]
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    Politics,   Food,   Diet
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7 comments // Shrinking ethics, shrinking foods

  • SDLN
  • MrRah
    • 0
      MrRah  
    • Awwww...I see. The good ole shrinking ray. I think we need to re-vector it towards the nation's capitol. Maybe it will shrink their greed.

    • 3 years ago
  • PressCore
    • 0
      PressCore  
    • I have no doubt that operators are standing by.Since
      it's been the policy of Bush & Co.( AKA Piracy R US) to
      steal everything that isn't nailed down so tight they could
      withstand a HyperHurricane, no doubt the reason why
      operators are standing by vs sitting by is because Bush's lackys have ripped off their chairs too. Well with the Neo Cons' attitude that no good deed should go
      unpunished, realisticly what could we expect?

    • 3 years ago
  • AveryMoore
    • 0
      AveryMoore  
    • [shaking my head as I write this]

      Foolish, foolish, silly, silly people. Have you not understood what this is all about?

      You are ignoring a fundamental and basic principle buried under the fine print you never get to read.

      This land is the domain of Patriots.

      The word is derived from "Pat" which means to strike someone in a friendly way. And "Riot" which means to go looking for people to "Pat" very firmly.

      How can you tell who is a Patriot? Because money drips out of every pore of their being. What must be done for those specific patriots if you are a neo-republican? You pander to them in every way possible and invent new ways to keep their tiny heads spinning with self-importance in Our Great Gloatocracy..

      How do you pander to them best? By firmly establishing a basic patriotic idea

      - the greatest good for the fewest possible number of people.

      To prove you understand these basics flaws in decency and proportion you must start with yourself.

      To all the Little People in the rituals of economic nose-counting [excluding leprechauns who have located a verified pot of gold] everything must be priced out of their reach. In that way they will never enjoy themselves and will wither into foot stools.

      It is the Law of Unjust Desserts that the Insignificant Majority always must pay more to get less, thus causing them to experience losing both ways.

      But the patriots, because they have buckets of money on them at all times, will only experience a tiny rise in incremental costs when they journey forth to pig out.

      And that's about as far as we got as a civilization.

    • 3 years ago
  • jahbini
    • 0
      jahbini  
    • I don't think this is really new, or limited to food. No matter how you slice it, it always costs more for the same thing (unless you are buying disk drives!)

      Years ago Hershey's had a 5 cent chocolate bar.(RIP) The bar kept shrinking, but the price stayed the same. The idea was to keep it affordable.

      Which would you rather have? More affordable , or bigger portions. Pick quick because I can't keep this offer open much longer: operators are standing by.

    • 3 years ago
  • Virtual_Will_Rogers
    • 0
      Virtual_Will_Rogers  
    • ...I hope that this has no affect on how much Americans eat....we have lost so much standing in the world recently...this is just not the time to lose our place as the most overweight people on this planet....we must have something to hold on to.....love handles work great.......Golden Ruler...Will....

    • 3 years ago
  • synclaire
    • 0
      synclaire  
    • Check out a brand name half gallon of ice cream like Dryers and then check out a generic brand. The name brand is way more expensive and is now smaller! Maybe this will help with consumption but, the food companies are doing a lot to stretch there buck at the expensive of the consumer. Assholes.

    • 3 years ago
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