There's a behind the scenes industry that helps big brands decide questions like: How big should a bag of chips be? What's the right size for a bottle of shampoo? And yes, also: When should a company do a little shrinkflation?

From Cookie Monster to President Biden, everybody is complaining about shrinkflation these days. But when we asked the packaging and pricing experts, they told us that shrinkflation is just one move in a much larger, much weirder 4-D chess game.

The name of that game is "price pack architecture." This is the idea that you shouldn't just sell your product in one or two sizes. You should sell your product in a whole range of different sizes, at a whole range of different price points. Over the past 15 years, price pack architecture has completely changed how products are marketed and sold in the United States.

Today, we are going on a shopping cart ride-along with one of those price pack architects. She's going to pull back the curtain and show us why some products are getting larger while others are getting smaller, and tell us about the adorable little soda can that started it all.

By the end of the episode, you'll never look at a grocery store the same way again.

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Each week, guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Bad Bunny's new album, the films Slotherhouse and Birth/Rebirth, and the game show Taskmaster.

A food distribution company in Philadelphia, Pa., had a few too many avocados on hand. Its solution? Giving them away for free.

The video game Citizen Sleeper critiques the gig economy in a cyberpunk "post-capitalist" future

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Rutherford Falls season two, Magic Mike XXL, and more.

The number of people who identify as Native American on the U.S. Census has soared in recent years, which raises a lot of concerns in Native communities about people falsely claiming Native identity.

Want to read and laugh? From NPR's yearly reading list, Books We Love, four NPR staffers offer their suggestions.

Louise Erdrich's novel turns the trope of the haunted Indian burial ground on its head with the story of a Native-run bookstore being visited by the ghost of a white woman obsessed with indigeneity.

Native American artists have brought an incredibly diverse array of sounds and styles to the Tiny Desk, representing just a slice of the breadth and beauty of Indigenous art.

The Akimel Oʼotham folk singer performs four songs for her Tiny Desk (home) concert.

From the Sheet'ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi community house, the Southeast Alaskan artist uses a combination of electronic and acoustic elements to fuel his Tiny Desk home concert.

Most television shows feel like they're made by an energy drink, Joe Pera says. He wanted his to feel like it was made by apple cider.

Pop singer Lorde has released an EP in te reo Maori, the Native language in her home country of New Zealand. Maori artists say that this is just one branch of a larger movement to revive the language.

After discoveries of more than 1,300 bodies at Canada's residential schools, the U.S. is now facing a crucial moment of reckoning with its own history of Native American boarding schools.

A provision tucked away in a 38-page transportation bill grants Florida drivers the right to turn on their hazard lights while in motion.

A group of chefs in South Philly's Italian Market set out to break the record for world's longest cheesesteak on Monday. The resulting hoagie spanned three blocks and caused some traffic issues.

Free hunting license in Maine, free beer in New Jersey and a chance to win $1 million in Ohio. Across the country, cities and state are offering incentives to get people vaccinated against COVID-19.

A program called Ascend West Virginia hopes to draw remote workers to the Mountain State, even to the point of paying $12,000 to selected applicants.

The border between France and Belgium was recently redrawn, but not due to a political dispute. A farmer moved a stone off his land and, in doing so, inadvertently made Belgium slightly bigger.

Yahoo! Answers shut down Tuesday after nearly 16 years of inquiries from the internet's curious minds. As a final send-off, NPR gets to the bottom of some of these important questions.