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.
What is Shrinkflation?
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 i
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Shrinkflation @lemmy.ca roastedpotato @lemmy.ca Is this shrinkflation?
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/42470729
Thank you isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca for letting me know about this community!
59ml instead of 89ml for my favourite moisturizer. Same price. Yay
Any advice? Good alternatives for sensitive skin?
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Shrinkflation @lemmy.ca Showroom7561 @lemmy.ca "New" = less product and a huge price jump! (Daiya vegan cheese)
I thought something was up when a package no longer covered enough for a single pizza.
The larger packs were also <$4.50, and now they are $6 - $6.50.
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Shrinkflation @lemmy.ca LimpRimble @lemmy.ca "Losing 50 ml for the same price": Canadians call out Classico pasta sauce shrinkflation
I noticed this after my latest SaveOn order and was going to post pictures, but here's a whole article about it.
Not only is the jar smaller, but they have added more water - aqua-flation!
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Shrinkflation @lemmy.ca Aussiemandeus @aussie.zone damn lost ounces but not millilitres
If anyone can explain how it can be 3.3 ounces in the new can and 3.6 in the old while grams and millilitres remain the same i would love to know.
The damn can is also ever so slightly smaller you can see it very well but you can feel it and measure it
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Shrinkflation @lemmy.ca streetfestival @lemmy.ca Tropicana juice cartons now 1.75L in my area - used to be 1.89L
Same size carton, there’s just more air in it now
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Shrinkflation @lemmy.ca setVeryLoud(true); @lemmy.ca Nestlé Carnation hot chocolate: 400g (was 500)
No before shot as it's been a while since I bought this, but the previous item was in the same can, filled almost to the top, and 500g.
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Shrinkflation @lemmy.ca over_clox @lemmy.world Burger King Bacon Burger $5 Meal - Sauce For Scale
Only 4 nuggets, and holy hell if that ain't a joke for a drink size! BTW, that's supposed to be sweet tea, but it's bitter as hell..
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Shrinkflation @lemmy.ca streetfestival @lemmy.ca Big bag of Ruffles potato chips: used to be 220g, now 200g (price unchanged)
So I've been buying 220g bags of Ruffles potato chips for $4.79 at No Frills (a value-based franchise banner under Loblaws that operates in Ontario). This is one of many products that seems to be towing the line of not going over the $5 threshold.
Now the bags of Ruffles sold in the same store are 200g (almost a 10% reduction in volume) for the same price. I suspect the same applies to other Frito-Lay products. (I noticed the Flammin' BBQ flavour of Ruffles was weighing in at 190g.)
As we've seen with other products, I think the choice of going to 200g from 220g is an intentional number choice that they believe people are less likely to notice than 199g for example.
Shame on Frito-Lay, Shame on Loblaws. I'm in my 30s, and I've never experienced @#%! relentlessly getting incrementally more expensive like things have the last few years. It's wild and it unsettles me, as I know it's just about unchecked greed, and wouldn't bet on it slowing down any time soon.
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Shrinkflation @lemmy.ca setVeryLoud(true); @lemmy.ca Food with artificial sweeteners tastes bitter and unsweetened?
Today's culprit is... Jello's Chocolate Pudding! Oh wait, no, "pudding snacks", whatever in the label-regulation-dodging fuck that means.
Posting here because this has quickly become a very common shrinkflation tactic where the manufacturer substitutes fructose/sucrose in their main product with the cheaper aspartame and stevia and calls it "healthy". There is no sucrose-only version of this product anymore.
However, these shrinkflated products taste bitter, unsweetened and are completely unappetizing to me. So I end up having to look at labels very carefully (usually some thin text at the bottom of the label) to make sure they didn't sneak in some artificial sweetener.
The strangest part is I haven't seen or heard of anyone complaining about it, are we in the minority of people for who artificial sweeteners are bitter, like Cilantro that tastes like so
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Shrinkflation @lemmy.ca usualsuspect191 @lemmy.ca Soap getting slimmer
They're careful to make sure the bottle still looks the same from the front, but from the side you can see the difference.
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Shrinkflation @lemmy.ca Lichen The Kitchen @lemmy.ca I thought I'd treat myself with some coconut chocolates
Little did I know I'd be surprised from how much filler they added to their product.
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Shrinkflation @lemmy.ca setVeryLoud(true); @lemmy.ca Célébration Raspberry truffle, shallow packaging
I think they've been like this for a while though. Clearly a way to sneak out 2 cookies without the consumer noticing.
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Shrinkflation @lemmy.ca CanadianCorhen @lemmy.ca shrinkflation vs skimpflation, which do you hate more
Really pissed off that we are fighting inflation, skimpflation and shrinkflation all at the same time.
Buying chocolate granola bars, only to realize after they only "chocolaty" instead really pissed me off!