Okay, so I’m up at 2 a.m. (anybody out there my age will understand and know I’m not partying) making a couple of pieces of toast and as I watch the bread disappear into the toaster’s maw it dawns on me that the bread looks pretty small in there.
Memory tells me it used to pretty much fill up the space allotted to it. Indeed, the toaster gurus wouldn’t make the toaster any larger than they had to, now would they? So, what’s with all the extra space? Could this be another example of shrinkflation?
Shrinkflation? A 2017 British report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) found more than 2,500 products that have shrunk in weight, length, volume and any other measure of quantity or amount you can imagine, but guess what, they are the same price or even more expensive.
It seems that grocery shoppers are most influenced by price and the majority don’t rise to the challenging exercise of calculating unit price, so if the price tag is familiar, in the basket it goes.
So, what better an idea than to apply a modest price increase to keep up with inflation, but with no notice reduce the quantity you are receiving. Let’s look at a few examples.
We are waving goodbye to summer and the good old hot dog, a decidedly questionable mainstay of picnics. Regardless, remember when you bought a dozen wieners to nicely dovetail with a dozen hotdog buns?
Well now you get 10 hot dogs and those 10 don’t match up with the 12 buns. So what do you do, throw away two buns or buy another package of wieners? Hmmm … now you have eight extra wieners. Buy another dozen buns? More hmmmming – sounds like an eighth-grade math problem.
While I am on wieners, remember when they used to stick out of both ends of the bun? Good luck with that today. The buns sure aren’t longer, probably smaller, so something is definitely shrinking.
And while we are on questionable food products how about the chocolate bar? Chocolate has had a big shrink and it’s kind of extra sneaky.
Take Toblerone – great chocolate. According to the ONS Report, Toblerone has shrunk 12 per cent since 2012, but the box is the same size. All they did was change the shape of the chocolate to give you less.
Ditto with your favourite “by the cash register” chocolate bars. They used to fill up the package – now test the ends of the wrapper. Find a little empty space? A lot of empty space? Hmmmm (again).
Well, we shouldn’t be eating that stuff anyhow, right? So, how about something really important like toilet paper. Does the roll fit in the holder with a lot of extra room?
Yup, each square used to be 4-1/2 inches on a side and now, and I just measured, it’s 4 inches. That’s about 26.5 per cent less (it’s an area measurement). So, if you think that 1,000 sheet roll isn’t as big around as it was, you’re right – but it isn’t as wide, either. Sigh.
Shrinkflation is everywhere. A few grams here, cut out a few millilitres there, sell you ten franks instead of twelve, make the box a few millimetres smaller, change the shape of a product to make it smaller but look the same, tea, coffee, fruit juice – it’s commonplace.
Annoying in the extreme, but survivable and worthy of some consumer complaint. However, there may another problem that may be a tad more serious.
A whole lot of economic decisions, both government and other are predicated on a statistic called the Consumer Price Index. It is a measure of how much we pay for selected goods and services and is the basis of all inflationary calculations.
It affects interest rates, pension indexing, investment decisions, wage indexing, benefits, real incomes, inflation projections and a whole lot of other seemingly important stuff I don’t really understand. The bottom line, it’s apparently critical and I’d really like to know if shrinkflation is included in those calculations.
Sadly, the best information I can dig up provides no better answers than “maybe” and “partly” – not very reassuring, good reader, but it’s all I have.
So, when you toddle down the grocery aisle, perhaps cast a jaundiced eye at those price tags – the cost may not be the same as the price. If the bag of chips you are eyeing seems a little lighter than it once was, nod your head knowingly.
Finally, perhaps consider flinging off a letter to the makers of a few of those shrinking products and tell them you’d appreciate it if they would stop shrinking their products.
Who knows, if enough of you write they might stop before there is only one peanut in the bag, individually shrink-wrapped and ready for your enjoyment.
