Truth in Advertising: Honey, I Shrunk the Sandwiches!

Last night, my son wanted a peanut butter & jelly sandwich for a snack. His favorites are the Smuckers in the purple box. You know-the round ones that look like flying saucers in the freezer section. Since he loves them so much and the world would come to an end if I ran out, I buy them in bulk from my local BJs warehouse store (18 in a box, at least 2 boxes in my freezer at any given time).

Anyway, I ran out of sandwiches in my upstairs freezer, so I brought up another box from my downstairs freezer. Something was not right. The old box looked bigger than the new box. Were there less sandwiches? No-both boxes stated 18 sandwiches on the front. Upon further inspection, I noticed that there was something less-less sandwich. The old box listed each sandwich as 2.8 oz. each. The new box listed each sandwich as 2 oz. each.

Aha-I had my answer. I'm not losing my mind (not yet anyhow), something was different. My jubilation over not losing my mind started to fade as I started to realize that Smuckers is marketing/packaging their product in a deceptive manner. It's a dark day when you can't trust your peanut butter & jelly.

Now, I fully realize that operating costs go up over time. I also realize that Smuckers is a publicly traded company that has investors and share holders to answer to. Maybe that's the problem-when companies are public, their main concern are profits, the product and the customer are secondary (if they even care at all).

If Smuckers needed to earn more money, then I think that they should be more honorable about it. Raise the price. If you must shrink the product, say so. Offer me a coupon (not one of those worthless .10 or .20 off coupons either). Take the high road, owe up and keep your company's self-respect. No, I'm sure that I won't like it, but I like it even less when a company/product that I have been a consumer of since childhood lies to me.

Don't just shrink my sandwich and hope I won't notice. I will.