SAN DIEGO — Are you getting what you pay for?
A CBS 8 viewer reached out to us because he says 7-Eleven is charging for an extra large coffee cup that’s not as "extra large" as it seems.
There are no signs inside several of the 7-Eleven stores CBS 8 visited, nor do the coffee cups show the fluid ounce sizes.
We did find sizes and pricing on the 7-Eleven website.
“Inflation and tricks by to still charge the same for less coffee 7/11 extra large coffee cups are not as deep as they seem from the outside. There is now about 3/4 of an inch gap from the bottom of the actual cup that is hollow. It also doesn't say how many ounces the cup is anymore. I buy a cup every day and noticed that because I dropped one and saw it. I have a picture of it if interested," Arturo said.
Edgar Dworsky from Consumerworld.org has been tracking product pricing and sizing for decades. He says companies shrink products rather than charge you more because consumers pay more attention to price than size.
“Manufacturers are always trying to find ways to save money. They know if you raise the price consumers are going to catch on and maybe switch to a different brand. But they know consumers are not net weight conscious. They don't check the size of the package or box before they buy. So they might get away with a more sneaky price increase- giving you less for the same money," Dworsky said.
According to the 7-Eleven website, the store offers four sizes of coffee cups.
- Small: 12 ounces
- Medium: 16 ounces
- Large: 20 ounces
- Extra large is 24 ounces
We poured each amount of liquid into their respective cups to see how they measured up.
The results
We found that the larger the 7-Eleven cup, the closer to the top the fluid ounces got to overflowing.
By the time we got to the extra large cup, the 24-ounces spilled over. The extra large 7-Eleven cup could not hold 24 ounces.
“That's really shocking to me, because I would expect if you order, you know, the extra large coffee is supposed to be 24 ounces, you get 24 ounces. And certainly, if you're someone who puts milk or cream in coffee, you’ve got to have that extra space at the top of the cup. We always see examples of products shrinking. It's a little more rare in a restaurant scenario, or in a convenience store scenario because you don't really know when you go to a restaurant, what the portion size is. Unless they're selling you a 16-ounce steak, or 24-ounce Porterhouse. You don't know that you're getting something slightly smaller,” Dworsky said.
CBS 8 reached out to the 7-Eleven corporate media team but did not receive a response.
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