We've all noticed the shrinking packages at the grocery store.

Everything from ice cream cartons, peanut butter jars, cereal boxes and jugs of juice have gotten smaller, as manufacturers look for roundabout ways of raising prices without appearing to raise prices.

Now the Girl Scouts are getting in on the act, according to a story in the Dallas Morning News. 

Fewer cookies were packaged into Thin Mints, Do-si-dos and Tagalongs boxes this year, and the Lemon Chalet Crème cookies were resized to compensate for the rising cost of baking staples. ... Alternatives to the changes were to raise cookie prices or use cheaper ingredients – two options that were rejected, said Natalie Martin, marketing director for the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas.

Read the Morning News story here. Wise Bread has a post on the subject, which refers to last year's dustup over the shrinking Cadbury Creme Egg.

What products have you noticed getting smaller? Do you consider it deceitful that companies try to slide the changes past us unnoticed -- by tucking a deeper divot into the bottom of a jar of peanut butter, say -- or is this just simple economics and business as usual?

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