Wed 9 Apr 2008
The Incredible Shrinking Portions
Posted by RichSlick under MMO
[4] Comments
When I was in college, we’d order pizza fairly often and I recall that a large pizza was sized about 18″ in diameter and medium pizzas were 16″ in diameter. Over the years, a large pizza shrunk from 18″ to 16″ to 15″ today. I recently saw a commercial on TV for Domino’s new $4 pizza, can you guess the size? 10″
This past weekend, I took the kids to the cinema to watch Nim’s Island and I ordered a large drink with popcorn and I was surprised at how small the “large” popcorn bag was that the clerk gave me. Long gone are the days of the popcorn “tub” where you could feed a family of 5 with a single bucket.
I went to a fast food restaurant the other day and I noticed the medium sized drink was much smaller than it had been in the past so instead of a 24 once cup, I must have received a 16 oz cup instead.
So what does movie theater popcorn, pizza, and restaurant soft drinks all have in common? Corn!
I imagine that inflationary pressures are tightening the screws to all business owners but any business that relies on or uses corn must really be hurting. This outlines some of the problems with dueling demands for corn that are creating some serious problems.
By BRETT CLANTON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
TULIA — Ask John Van Pelt his thoughts on ethanol, and he’s likely to pull out his adding machine and let the numbers speak for themselves.
Van Pelt, the manager of a cattle feedlot in this town 50 miles south of Amarillo, is now paying $215 a ton for cattle feed — double what he spent just three years ago. With 20,000 cattle in his yard, that works out to about $25,000 per day, just in feed, and what could become several million dollars in added costs this year.
Van Pelt blames a surge in U.S. ethanol production for a near tripling in the price of corn, the main ingredient in cattle feed, and for cutting into profits across Texas’ massive cattle feeding industry.
“If things stay this way, people are going to have to do things different,” said Van Pelt, looking out from behind the wheel of his pickup on the sprawling sea of steel pens, cows and blue sky.
Its only a matter of time before beef prices begin to rocket into the stratosphere, possibly along with poultry prices to follow. Once those two commodities spike in price, the flood gates will open as people move to alternatives, driving the demand up for everything else. Fortunately, it’s a great time to profit if you have a good investment strategy and that’s how you get rich slick 
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April 9th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I went to a movie a couple weeks ago — the “small” soda cost $4.25 and looked to be about 44 oz.!
April 9th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Been to a Wendy’s lately? I’ve noticed the disappearance of the small sized drink. Sure they have a “small” size, but it looks more like a medium was 5 years ago.
Medium is the new large, and large is the new biggie size.
Movie theaters have always gouged movie goers. Captive audience and all. I use iTunes rentals now for anything not theater worthy.
April 9th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
It is not just fast food restaurants and movie theaters that have been pulling a bait and switch on consumers. Check out the next trip to the grocery store…my dad used to bring home the “pound” bag of M&M’s. There is no pound bag anymore – it is about 14 oz. Most “half gallon” tubs of ice cream aren’t a half gallon, either – they have about two scoops fewer. It’s not THAT big of a deal – except that it is a hidden price increase. The only way for most companies to sneak through a price increase on price sensitive things is to cut the portion size and keep the price the same…and the scary thing is that most people do NOT notice.
April 9th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
It’s funny you mention Wendy’s as I drove through their today for lunch. I wish I had my camera but I’ll try to swing by and take a picture.
They have a sign reading, Medium Combo Add $0.59, Large Combo add $0.89.
The Wendy’s combos used to come with a medium drink.
As for the theater, I think it depends on the chain. AMC or Cinemark has bought out just about all the chains in my town so the competition is limited at this point.