To the Editor:

I read with interest your (Rep. Virginia Foxx-editor) recent (5-13-2008) item on high gas prices in the Jefferson Post(NC). The article goes on to include increases in many basic food items, but did not discuss changes in packaging that seems to be rampant these days. Many people assume that the package they are buying today is standard, but that is not the case. Companies are trying a number of misleading techniques to make the consumer think they are getting more for their money.

Today I purchased Breyers Ice Cream. Traditionally, ice cream is sold by the one-half gallon carton (2 quarts). Not long ago packaging was sneakily reduced to 1.75 quarts per carton and finally today further reduced to only 1.5 quarts per carton. Next is coffee. My previous two identical containers of Maxwell House each weighed 39oz, but the new one only weighs 33oz. Engine Coolant (antifreeze) is now discreetly packaged as PREMIXED which translated really means that it is one-half water. On and on it goes, Mayo, Spray paint, Olive oil, Hot dogs. Do you think there was an appropriate price reduction to go along with the decrease in size? Of course not! I find this to be a joke. Do not even think of the candy bar and snack cheaters.

I challenge you to shop several stores for charcoal. The size and pricing choices are enough to boggle the mind. Without a calculator it is difficult to know what one is getting.

Retailers attempt to show price per unit on shelf labels, but who can read them with such tiny print? The ones near the floor, on the high shelves, and inside fogged cooler doors are especially difficult to read. These packagers are stealing from us just as certainly as if they had a mask and gun.

Is there no way to control this “Bastardized” packaging that is being quietly introduced by manufacturers? Seniors, Immigrants, Educationally and Physically Challenged, and others who cannot afford to be ripped-off are the most vulnerable victims of this unscrupulous packaging. If prices must go up, then raise them. Do not rob us by using creative packaging.

After an unrealistic cost of living adjustment in Social Security last year, increases in gas and heating fuel costs, and now changes in packaging to disguise product price increases, how are retirees supposed to survive?

Washington Bean Counters need to be sent to the store to do some of their own shopping. Then maybe they can come up with a viable way to help the rest of us keep food on the table and fuel in the furnace.

Theodore A Urbanek

West Jefferson