"Grocery Shrink Ray" hits Lunchables... while Jennie-O Turkey Franks get fatter!

I’m a fan of Consumerist.com’s ongoing Grocery Shrink Ray feature, in which readers send in photos of packages that have been downsized. Or, the package may be about the same size, but the contents have been reduced under the guise that shoppers would rather pay the same price for less than an increased price for the same product.

Alarmingly, Oscar Mayer Lunchables have been the most recent victim of the Grocery Shrink Ray. As if the Lunchable isn’t one of the most expensive ounce-for-ounce items to buy, even when it is on sale for a dollar… the poor Lunchable has been downsized from 4.4 ounces to 3.4! An incredible 23% of the product has been removed, leading one Consumerist reader to comment, “Not much of a lunch anymore. More of a Snackable.”

Consumerist posted a reply from Kraft which states in part, “The alternative to raising the price of any given product is to offer the product in a slightly smaller size.” But does 3.4 ounces of anything constitute a lunch to anyone?

The other notable product change this week happened to Jennie-O Turkey Franks. Consumerist notes that while a package of Jennie-O Turkey Franks is still 12 ounces, the old package boasted “50% Less Fat” than beef franks. The new package? “40% Less Fat.”

So, instead of making the product smaller… Jennie-O appears to have decreased the meat content and increased the fat content. Yum?