Several years back, businesses began the practice of reducing the size of their product instead of boosting the price a bit. I don’t know with what product it started, but I noticed it first in coffee and sugar. The pound size disappeared and became an odd number of ounces. I believe it may have begun gradually [I call it sneaky, meant to mislead, so maybe you won’t notice the price has actually been increased, with less product for the same price, nearly the same, or maybe even a little more].
There was nothing gradual about the recent downsized product I encountered. I use a doctor recommended eye drops product to try to stave off further vision damage due to dry macular degeneration. A few days ago I bought a new bottle. I took the bottle out of the package, set it down by the nearly empty bottle of my last purchase. Even my faulty vision flipped my eyes open wider when I saw the difference in the size of the two bottles.
The outside package was still the same size, or so nearly so, you couldn’t tell the difference. I looked at the info on the bottles and I found that the previously purchased product was 2/3 ounce; the recent purchase was 1/3 ounce. Half as much! The price of this product [includes several variations to choose from]is in the approximate $10. to $13. range. What I paid for that 1/3 ounce was about the same price I paid for the 2/3 ounce size earlier, or close enough not to make much difference. That is, or close to, a 100 per cent increase.
I also take a doctor recommended eye vitamin for the same purpose. A few weeks ago I bought a new bottle of these vitamins with a few still remaining in the old bottle. The recent purchase contained 60 capsules. I checked the other bottle. It had contained twice as many capsules, with cost approximately the same. Another approximately 100 per cent increase.
I find it very hard to believe the production costs have doubled. Fair profit? Bigger profit for investors while squeezing the consumer?
