DOWNSIZING is okay - if you come clean with consumers.

Certainly, this is a buyer-beware age. But this is also a busy-busy-busy age.

If savvy investors can be taken in by toxic financial products because they do not read or understand the fine print, how many consumers would take the trouble - or have the time - to read the labels, or compare the weight of a product against what it was before?

If it looks the same and I'm paying the same price, I expect to get the same amount.

Okay, so consumers ought to be more discerning. But the fact that the Consumer Association of Singapore has not received any specific complaints on shrinking packaging indicates that buyers either don't care or don't know.

In these times, when the instinct is to stretch every dollar, it is difficult to believe that people don't care.

Thankfully, market forces give us a choice. Now that you know, don't merely buy, but compare, compare, compare. Don't look only at the price, look at size and weight as well.

If you can, go for brands that are not downsizing. Choose products that make it clear you are getting less than before.

That's probably the most effective way to indicate to manufacturers that they should be more transparent.

What's not clear is whether other cost-cutting measures - more efficient sourcing, processing and packaging - were considered before manufacturers resorted to 'stealth shrinkage'.

But perhaps the biggest question is: Is there an 'upsize' to downsizing?

Already, commodity prices are heading south. Should manufacturing costs come down, will manufacturers do the right thing and 'right-size'?

Buyer, be wary.

This article was first published in The New Paper on November 21, 2008.