A community about companies who sneakily adjust their product instead of the price in the hopes that consumers won't notice.
We notice. We feel ripped off. Let's call out those products so we can shop better.
Shrinkflation is a term often coined to refer to a product reducing in size or quality while the price remains the same or increases.
Companies will often claim that this is necessary due to inflation, although this is rarely the case. Over the course of the pandemic, they have learned that they can mark up inelastic goods, which are goods with an intangible demand, such as food, as much as they want, and consumers will have no choice but to purchase it anyway because they are necessities.
From Wikipedia:
In economics, shrinkflation, also known as the grocery shrink ray, deflation, or package downsizing, is the process of items shrinking in size or quantity, or even sometimes reformulating or reducing quality, while their prices remain the same or increase. The word is a portmanteau of the words shrink and inflation.
[...]
Consumer advocates are critical of shrinkflation because it has the effect of reducing product value by "stealth". The reduction in pack size is sufficiently small as not to be immediately obvious to regular consumers. An unchanged price means that consumers are not alerted to the higher unit price. The practice adversely affects consumers' ability to make informed buying choices. Consumers have been found to be deterred more by rises in prices than by reductions in pack sizes. Suppliers and retailers have been called upon to be upfront with customers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinkflation
n.b.: for moderation purposes, only posts in English or in French are accepted.##
Skimpflation + shrinkflation + raised prices... all at the same time. I see it far too often, and it really needs to stop.
I can no longer buy food in the size of packages that would feed my family (because of shrinkflation), so I have to buy two. But buying two more than doubles the price and doubles the amount of packaging/plastic waste.
How is any of this legal?
In my experience, companies reducing the size (ie, shrink) is much more common than them reducing the quality (ie, skimp) of products - without also reducing the price. But that's not the question.
My thinking is that people typically notice shrink much sooner, if not at the time of purchase decision-making then once they get it home, perhaps. In contrast, skimp is likely only noticed when one goes to use the product - disappointment at at time when they might not have any alternatives. So, I'd guess that, pound for pound, people would hate skimp more, because it's more inconvenient and perhaps more salient.
I can't recall any examples of skimp in what I've purchased. But my mum got a package of salad mix and the frizzy type of lettuce that should be about 15% volume was 66% if not 75% of it. She was irate lol.
(By the by, I agree that shrink vs skimp are useful descriptively, but the term shrinkflation is inclusive of skimping [ie, lower quality products])
I ran into both of these, costco muffins are some of my favorite, and i have a box of "choclaty" covered bars beside me.
False advertisflation