Glass Half Full

One of the things I have learned about myself is that I don't do things in moderation.  I have a hard time keeping cookies or chips in the house because I will end up eating the whole package.  It's rare that I will go out for one beer or one glass of wine.  I can't even have a pack of gum laying around without chewing half of it in an hour or two.

As the internet has pulled the corset strings on the globe and we all get a little bit closer together, I have learned that this mentality is about as American as a super-sized apple pie.  Everything in America is done to excess - we super size, we shop in big-box stores, we spend more than we earn, and we buy houses we cant possibly afford with mortgages that are too good to be true.  In addition to this, we eat.  Boy do we eat.  The American portion size is out of control, with some restaurant entrée portions containing more calories than a single human needs in a whole day.  Several celebrities have become quite vocal about this, and they are trying their best to bring portions and the American diet back in line.

The reason I bring all of this up is because I recently found myself outraged when I went to a quick-serve restaurant and did not get the gluttonous portion I have normally been served.  I've been to this eatery many times in the past, all with varying portion sizes.  I am fairly certain that the portion I am accustomed to was too much for one healthy meal.  That being said, why should I pay the same price for a smaller (but more healthy) portion?  If I can see that I have less food, why should you the company get the same amount of money?  And when do we reach our breaking points?

This has also been happening a lot in the packaged food industry.  Ice cream used to come in a half-gallon container.  A few years back the ice cream companies simultaneously raised their prices AND shrunk their containers.  I was in a grocery store recently and saw a container of ice cream proudly proclaiming "NEW HALF GALLON SIZE" as if the container itself was made of gold.  There is nothing new about the half-gallon size - it was just on hiatus.  If you take something away long enough, however, you can introduce it again as new and the consumer will be none the wiser.