Why is a standard bag of sugar now 4 POUNDS instead of five pounds? That’s a pretty powerful grocery shrink-ray. When did this happen? How did I miss it?

According to C&H Sugar’s Facebook page, I’ve been asleep at the wheel for quite a while:

As you may be aware, the price of sugar on the world market has nearly doubled since the end of 2008.  [You can see the data here at the USDA site: http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/sugar/Data/Table04.xls ].

In order to offset our cost increases, we have had to raise our price per pound of sugar. In order to keep the cost per bag of sugar down, many retailers converted their store brand product from a 5-pound to a 4-pound bag. In an effort to maintain affordability we decided to do the same with our C&H® brand sugar. The reduction in size, however, is not enough to offset the cost increase in the remaining four pounds of the product. That’s why you’re seeing the price go up and the size go down at the same time.

That post was dated February 18, 2011. Guess I don’t buy sugar that much, or I am that woefully unobservant shopper that all food companies are hoping for – the ones who don’t realize they’re paying more for less.

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An old bag.