Around the Bluhmin’ Town

By

Judy Bluhm

Our crackers are getting smaller. I mean, come on, the shrinkflation that we are subjected to is getting to be ridiculous. Except no one is laughing. I think it is cruel to show a picture on a box of a two- inch cracker that in reality is about one- inch. And every few months they get smaller! What kind of trickery is this?

Lies. We are inundated every single day with more lies. The first one we might encounter is when we are opening a package and it says, “Tear Here.” No, that is never going to happen, and you can try to tear along the imaginary line all day long. Get the scissors out is what “tear here” really means.

Sure, there has always been a bit of “false advertising” that people expect and even accept. I recently paid too much for a small jar of “anti-aging” cream that will eliminate any fine lines in two weeks. Haha. Not true, yet the cream smells delicious and the jar is very pretty. Americans spend big bucks every year on skin care products and guess what? Not all promises are fulfilled.

Nothing illustrates the old motto of “over promising and under delivering” more than shrinkflation. Check out the five-pound bag of flour that is now four pounds. Your box of cereal used to be 24 ounces is now 21.7 ounces. Do you like candy? Well, 38 percent of all candy is sold in smaller sizes (same or higher prices). The chips that used to be 17.5 ounces are now 15 ounces (and approximately 40 cents more per bag). From the number of cookies in the package to the pods of coffee in a box, it is all reduced so that we pay more for less.

Grocery shopping is still something many of us enjoy. What’s not to love about seeing fresh fruit and vegetables and all the delicious food items displayed beautifully. But then the joy starts fading when we see the prices, then the size or weight of what we are getting. Okay, then we head over to the check-out to realize that scanning and bagging in small little spaces is required. We get home and try to open one small tub of yogurt to find that the plastic top is almost impossible to lift off. Get out the knife and stab away! Now it has become dangerous just opening stuff up.

My girlfriend complained because the eight-inch tortillas she always buys are now seven inches. And the lies continue, because right on the package is written, “8 Inch Flour Tortillas.” Now she claims that sometimes the 10-pack of tortillas only has nine! Which means we are being tricked and robbed at the same time!

What are we, reasonable people, to do? I refuse to start measuring tortillas! Great philosophers like to say, “Don’t let the little stuff in life get you down. This too shall pass.” So true. Just hold onto your wallets, tighten the budget, because right now, none of it makes cents.

Judy Bluhm is a writer and a local realtor. Contact Judy at [email protected] or visit www.aroundthebluhmintown.com