Let Fandangos be

Thank goodness for consumer advocate legislation! Yesterday I bought a package of Fandangos, the semi-delicious cheese flavored corn chip. I don't know what I would have done if the package hadn't told me that the 66 g bag had been recently reduced from 73 g or by 9.6%! In fact I can tell you the history of Fandangos package reduction for the past 5 years

2000 - 100 g
2001 - 84 g
2004 - 73 g
2005 - 66 g

Now there is no way those guys at Elma Chips are going to trick me into unknowingly paying the same amount for a smaller bag!

The larger question is whether this is good legislation or not. I would personally error on the side of less legislation. Perhaps an upstart chip company needs to experiment with different package sizing in order to find the most profitable size. If consumers see the size constantly changing, they may defer to an established brand (supporting a monopoly and raising prices). Then again, maybe all the companies really are trying to gouge the masses of poor illiterate addicted Fandangos eaters (in which case this legislation would be worthless).