robby: i think it's mostly a marketing tool. since they have to put nutritional info on the label, 1000 calories per serving (1 serving) sounds like a LOT of calories. who's going to buy that? but if you divvy it up and say that 1 container = 4 servings, you can legally say that each serving has just 250 calories! woo hoo! heh.
their marketing folks know that most people won't bother to read how many servings are in each container. most folks will just assume that 1 container = 1 serving.