No, you don't need to get your eyes checked. And no, you aren't looking at your groceries through a funhouse mirror. That bag of chips or Halloween candy you just bought has indeed gotten smaller. Way smaller, in fact.
Shoppers have taken to social media to compare the price and size disparities of products purchased as recently as six months apart. Take one glance at these products and their smaller counterparts (boxed macaroni and cheese, M&Ms, and tortilla chips), and it's hard to deny that they're shrinking.
This trend is hardly anything new. So-called "shrinkflation" has reached ridiculous heights lately, affecting many packaged food items and even fast-food orders, toilet paper, and cleaning supplies. In some cases, products have shrunk by 25 percent, although the shrinkage is often more incremental. According to NPR, the same box of Kleenex you bought prior to 2022 had 65 tissues; now it only has 60. Chobani yogurts went from 5.3 ounces to 4.5 ounces. Bags of "Party Size" Fritos are much less full of party since they went from 18 ounces to 15.5 ounces.
What Is Shrinkflation?
A portmanteau of "shrink" and "inflation," shrinkflation is the practice of keeping the price of a product the same (or even increasing it), while shrinking its size. If you ever shook out a bag of snack-sized Doritos to find but a mere whisper of chips inside, this is a prime example of shrinkflation.
Shrinkflation has been a practice since at least the 1950s. Due to widespread issues like back-ups in the supply chain, decreases in the labor force due to demand for higher wages, and the cost of raw materials, companies use shrinkflation to keep their profits up.
The grocery industry already operates on ultra-thin profit margins, so shrinkflation is a way manufacturers can combat the rising costs that undercut those profits. The result, while unnerving when you start to notice it, is the least painful way for manufacturers to cope in inflationary times, and it's often is more popular than the alternative, i.e., raising prices.
Some Stores Are Putting Warning Labels on "Shrinkflated" Products
As of 2023, 73 percent of U.S. consumers rank shrinkflation as a major concern. Retailers are starting to combat the ever-creeping reality of shrinkflated items on their shelves. Grocery stores like France's Carrefour are going so far as to put up signage to alert consumers about products that have been shrinkflated. A consumer advocate is Australia recently called for supermarkets to start using shrinkflation labels to warn shoppers and shame brands.
One might ask, why not increase the price but keep the size the same? Well, that's just not how retail psychology works. According to Mark Stiving, the chief pricing educator at Impact Pricing, consumers are more likely to notice when the price of an item goes up over the size of the product decreasing.
While that's the case at first, most customers do eventually notice an incremental change in a product's size. Some customers might become loyal to another brand instead, especially since shrinkflated items rarely, if ever, rebound to their original size and pricing.
What Products Are Most Affected by Shrinkflation?
According to AARP, some of the most necessary products are sadly often the most shrinkflated: toilet paper, cereal, yogurt, laundry detergent, and shampoo and conditioner.
Perhaps you've noticed that one item in particular has taken a big hit in terms of price increases? Snacks. Yes, those crucial life-sweeteners are often way more expensive than they used to be. That doesn't mean you need to forego a magically shrinking can of Pringles; rather, just stay aware of the pricing of the goods you tend to buy.
It's not all doom and gloom, though. One way to combat shrinkflation is to switch to cheaper, store-brand items. Consumers can vote with their wallets, which is the best way to send a message to manufacturers that shrinkflation should not be here to stay.
