Smaller Portions, Higher Prices

Those with fixed incomes can’t keep pace with inflation

Tissue paper box near sleeping cat

A few weeks ago, I bought a new box of tissue paper. My old box had 180 tissues and the new one only has 144.

I was outraged, until I googled it and discovered that Kleenex boxes come in a variety of sizes. You can get ones with 200 tissues apiece from Amazon.

That calmed me down a bit, but the reality is that many common items are no longer the value they used to be. Either the price is higher or the package delivers less product.

Eggs are more expensive, for example. So are meat, dairy, bread, produce… Even things like potatoes, cabbage, and onions are now pricier.

At the other end are products which have not gone up in price but have gone down in quantity.

Many candy bars are smaller, as we discovered last Halloween. A bag of Doritos gives you less chips. Several of the local restaurants I visit have cut portion sizes. Either you only get 8 pieces of X (whereas before you got 10 or 12) or you get smaller portions on your plate.

For some of us, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Many Americans want to lose weight, after all.

However, what about people on a fixed income? What about the working poor?