What's sauce for the goose . . .

It's that time of year when the grocery store fills its seasonal aisle with all kinds of red, green, gold and sparkly stuff.  I'm not immune to a little bit of glitter and love to walk that aisle and soak it all in.  (Knowing I have no more room to add any more to my already stuffed-full closets. Ah, well . . .)

Next to the sparkly aisle were shelves of seasonal delights for the taste buds.  Everything you need for your holiday meals.  Of course, I'd been waiting weeks to buy more cans of jellied cranberry sauce.  Unlike most of the rest of the country, I use the stuff year round.  And the minute the holiday season is over, the sale price goes off and the "real" price goes back on.  That real price is 50 cents more per can than what I have to pay in November and December and I decided to stock up.

But wait.  As I went to grab the can I turned to Mr. L and said, "Does this can look stubby to you?"  (Stubby as in SHORT?)  "No, I'm sure it's the same as it always was."

Oh yeah?

Sure enough, we got it home and took out other standard cans from the pantry and guess what.  The standard can of cranberry sauce (and it's not just the store brand--even Ocean Spray) is now 2 ounces less than it was just a couple of weeks ago.  I noticed in the "regular" aisle they still have the standard sized cans and they're still the REAL price.

Manufacturers and retailers don't want to raise the price--because people like me remember what we paid a year before--so they just give you less product and hope you don't notice.

Well, I'm still going to stock up on the cans because let's face it, I love the stuff.  And I put it on roast chicken throughout the year.  They tried to pull one over on me and didn't succeed.  But I'm still missing 2 ounces of cranberry sauce with every can.

What trick has a manufacturer played on you lately?