Food Packages Getting Fatter – At Least Temporarily

by Susan Davis on 11/05/09 at 11:06 am

One of the companies to increase product sizes

Hmmm.  Something strange is happening.

Remember those incredible shrinking food packages?  (Check out the FriendsEAT.com blog, Our Incredible, Edible, Shrinking Food Packages from February 9).  Well, the bad news is that many of them are still shrinking, but we’ll save that update for another time.

The good news, however, is that a few major food manufacturers are getting nervous about the consumer’s switch to generic and private label products, so they’ll be supersizing some of the items they sneakily downsized in recent months.

Take French’s Mustard, for example.  They just announced plans to sell a 20-ounce bottle of classic yellow mustard for less than the 14-ounce bottle.

“The consumer is telling you something: ‘I want to see value. I want you to demonstrate value,’ ” said Elliott Penner, president at the French’s food division of Reckitt Benckiser in Parsippany, N.J.

Another packaged-foods giant, the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo, is making a value play by adding 20 percent more product to selected bags of popular snacks like Cheetos, Fritos and Tostitos, without increasing prices.

The promotion is flagged on bags with banners that read: “Hey! There’s 20 percent more free fun to share in here.”

All of this is good for consumers, but both of these are limited-run promotions, meaning just as consumers get hooked on the perceived value they’re getting, the rug will be pulled out from under them again, as packages slim back down.

Caveat Emptor.  (Let the buyer beware.)  Read the unit pricing carefully!