Since time immemorial, sellers have tried to maximize profit by minimizing what the buyer receives, but things are starting to get ridiculous.

Manufacturers have developed a variety of clever (sometimes deceptive) tactics to make consumers pay more for less, often without realizing it. Some common tricks in the food and beverage industry are as follows:

• Shrinking Package Size Without Changing Price ("Shrinkflation"): Instead of raising prices, manufacturers reduce the quantity inside the package—like fewer chips in a bag or less cereal in a box—but keep the price the same. This is very common with snacks, drinks, and even household goods.
• Changing Package Shape to Hide Size Reduction: In this case, packages are redesigned with narrower bottoms, concave surfaces, or thicker walls, allowing them to hold less product while maintaining the same size at a glance.
• Overusing Air (Especially in Bags): Known as "puffing," this is common in bags of chips (“crisps” in the UK). The air cushions the product during shipping, but also makes the bag look much fuller than it actually is.
• Underfilling Big Packages (a.k.a. “Slack Fill”): The trick here is that the packaging is much larger than the contents inside, giving the illusion of getting more product.

It’s this latter case that’s currently “gotten my goat,” as it were. My wife (Gigi the Gorgeous) likes to have a spoonful of protein powder with her smoothies. She favors the Garden of Life brand.

This stuff isn’t cheap. We’re talking ~$20 for a container that’s 8” tall and 5” in diameter. That wouldn’t be so bad if the container contained only the promised product, but it turns out to be mostly empty. The reason I know this is that Gigi asked me to pick one up on the way home yesterday evening, so I did as I was bid.

“Well, it may cost $20,” I thought, “but a container this size should last us for a while.”
When Gigi looked inside, however, she discovered the container was only around a quarter full!

Of course, the manufacturers will claim that the product settles during shipping, handling, and storage. They cover themselves by saying “Contents may settle” in fine print on the package, to which I reply, “Pull the other one—it’s got bells on it!” I can accept a bit of settling, but you can’t tell me that protein powder shrinks to a quarter of its volume (well, you can tell me this, but I won’t believe you).

Gigi says that when she bought this exact same product a couple of years ago, the provided plastic scoop was covered in protein powder and jammed up against the lid. Now, you must peer into the depths of the container to find the scoop basking on the thin layer of protein powder with more room than it knows what to do with.

Apart from anything else, I dislike the fact that we’re burning energy transporting containers that are predominantly empty. We're also wasting valuable space—in our stores, delivery vans, and homes—to accommodate this unnecessary packaging. And, of course, we’re paying good money for a tube that’s three-quarters full of air.

Suffice it to say that I’m not wearing my happy face! How about you? Have you run across any instances of this sort of jiggery-pokery that you’d care to share with the rest of us?