The Shrink-O-Tron Strikes Again: Pringles

So a few days ago I'm lying on the couch snacking, which these days is pretty much my favorite activity. I was eating Cheddar Cheese Pringles potato chips, er, I mean potato crisps, and noticed something odd.

After just a couple handfuls of delicious crisps, the can was already half empty! What gives?

I took a long, hard look at the orangish can, and something about it didn't seem quite right to my eyes...

I dug the previous can of crisps out of the trash and compared it to the new one. Sure enough, my instincts were right— the dreaded Shink-O-Tron has struck my beloved Pringles Cheddar Cheese (and presumably all their other flavors as well!) potato crisps! The new can is a good one half to three quarters of an inch shorter than the old one!

Further investigation revealed that not only has the size of the can shrunk, but so have the contents— from 5.96 ounces down to 5.5. 

Now I will admit that mathematically the loss of .46 ounces may not seem like a huge amount, but remember Pringles are really, really light. It takes quite a few of them to make up an ounce! I wouldn't be surprised to find out there were twenty fewer chips in these new smaller cans.

Naturally even though the bastards at Pringles used the Shrink-O-Tron on the contents of the can, the price remains firmly the same. Hey, who doesn't love paying the same price for less?

Pringles currently sells this comically small, novelty-sized 2.5 ounce "snack size" can of crisps. At the rate they're going, it won't be long before this becomes the regular size for their entire snack line!

When is this crap going to end? When will companies stop with this sneaky, underhanded tactic and just raise the price of the goddamned can? Why can't they just level with us and say, "Look guys, we're very sorry but due to increased production costs we're going to have to raise the price of our potato crisps by a few cents. We'll try not to do it again for a year or so." If they did that then consumers nationwide would understand and say, "Well that sounds just fine."

But no. Instead of raising the price like normal human beings, they surreptitiously roll out a smaller box that holds less product, and then they hope we're all too horrified by the antics of our new "president" that we'll be too rattled to notice. It's sneaky, sleazy and underhanded. It's something Communists would do. Are you all Commies, Pringles Corporation?

As I was writing this post, I remembered something similar happening a few years ago involving Kellogg's and their Crunchy Nut Golden Honey Nut Flakes cereal. In 2013, Kellogg's sneakily reduced the contents of Crunchy Nut cereal from 14.1 ounces down to 13.2, and of course left the price unchanged.

Hmmm... I did a little googling just now, and guess who owns Pringles brand potato crisps? You guessed it, our old friends up in Battle Creek, none other than Kellogg's themselves! I should have known! They just can't stop themselves from shrinking their products, but not their prices.

Well screw you, Kellogg's. Screw you and the horse your batch*t insane, enema-loving founder rode in on!