By Ian Gargan
Americans continue to have their wallets accosted by runaway inflation rates, courtesy of the Biden Administration and their apparent hatred for the American people! Marketing companies working with major manufacturers have implemented a legally deceptive way to remain equally or become even more profitable, without consumers becoming aware or frustrated. Consumers don’t realize they are being taken advantage of because instead of raising the price on that jar of mayonnaise they “Redesign the package” and remove a few ounces from the package size. The term is coined Shrinkflation, they find this practice leads to less consumer complaints versus an increased price. Skim a few ounces off the top and nobody is the wiser…
But Americans are the wiser. They don’t think we’ll realize we’re getting less Frosted Flakes out of the box or wipes from a toilet paper roll. What usually lasts a week is now only lasting four days. Shrinking the size of a package or filling it less is not illegal, in fact this has been common practice for ages. Products are clearly labeled which protects manufacturers from being accused of deceptive practices. But who examines exactly how many ounces of Fruity Pebbles are in a box? And even if you did, should we make a journal to keep track? I’ve learned the key is to check the per unit pricing. This will show how much you’re paying for each unit of that product and compare with its competitors.
One website, Mouseprint.org is gathering information and pointing out to Americans that companies like Quaker who makes Life cereal have increased the height of the box, rebranded the Giant Size to Family Size but removed 2.5oz of product. And it’s not just for humans, dogs are going to feel it when that 50lb bag of food is downsized to a 44lb bag. Even Miracle-Gro has cut ¾ of a pound from their plant food.
Personally, I only noticed when my usually 12oz box of Crispix only made me 3 bowls of cereal. After accusing my family of eating it, I realized I was duped by Kellogg’s. I inspected the net weight and it said 9.6OZ! I was already paying $4.99 but now I’m paying .10 cents more an ounce. I know that sounds like a minute thing to complain about with more drastic issues like the price at the pumps but spread that across your entire shopping trip. You’re either going to spend more to compensate for the loss or shop more frequently.
Huggies have removed 12 diapers from each case to keep the price level. That’s 3-4 days for some parents, over time, you are paying for a whole extra case for every 7 you purchase. It resembles a reverse rewards card, buy 7 but pay for 8! Charmin has shrunk the Mega Pack from 396 sheets per roll to 366. A party sized bags of chips have been reduces from 18oz to 16oz.
Messing with portions of food is one thing but to mess with a person’s coffee is a whole different story. Folgers took 8oz of grounds out of the container but still claims it makes the same 380 cups it used to. Now I never got 380 cups out of it in the first place, I like my coffee with a little kick! Now to afford that extra boost in the morning I’ll need to park my car halfway to work and run the rest of the way.
Men, women, children, dogs, and plants are all being affected by a decrease in unit size, and they are pretending like Americans won’t notice. Large corporations feel the everyday consumer spending their hard-earned money on products will remain blind to their actions. We’re not going to be curious why we are going shopping more often. We won’t notice our coffee is a little weaker much like the higher ethanol gas flooding the market right now. Sure, it might look and smell like gas, but it isn’t getting the same results and we see it. All the corporations want is to appease their stockholders, so the moral of the story is to buy from companies that care about you. Not the Mega-Woke conglomerates, not the liberal virtue signaling companies that change their logo to a rainbow every June 1st but only within the USA. We need to spend our money with companies that deserve it. Buy American when you can and make the value of your dollars count. When it comes to the dollar, the consumer holds the power.
i was in food store recently and saw a Herr’s Potato chip guy/salesman stocking products on shelves. I told him if they keep shrinking the size of the bag and charge the same price soon the bag will be the same size as in a vending machine. OUTRAGE and ridiculous.
same thing with the Pepperridge Farm Goldfish crackers. picked up a bag about a year ago and thought, sheesh…. this thing weighs nothing like i remember. same price 3.89 fpr a 6.5 oz bag, Funny and rightfully they sell when on sale like 2 for $6 or 3 for 8, otherwise they don’t move.
Previously noted by self comparison. Good spot for Fox The Five or Tucker .
How discouraging! We need our country healed and soon!
More package than food. Pay MORE for Packaging and GET LESS FOOD.
I’ve had Single mothers telling me this and other people.
DO NOT LET THEM GET AWAY WITH THIS BECAUSE IT’S DICTATOR Beijing biden FAULT FOR ALLOWING IT.
THIS IS OUR FOOD AND MONEY THEY ARE STEALING FROM US WHILE KEEP RAISING PRICES AND TAXES WITH IT.
I’ve been seeing this for years. Go see if you can find 3 lb can of coffee. That was the “standard” for many decades coffee came in 1, 2, or 3 lb. Cans. Now it’s 12 oz. 20 oz and 34.5 oz.
Read the label, read what’s in the box and compare, experiment, try it. I tend to be a food snob; I think the better brands are better and sometimes I believe they are. But I’m finding that sometimes the better brands aren’t any better, they’re just presented better. I don’t appreciate the deception companies think they’re getting away with so cleverly. We’re going to pay more for less that’s a fact. For most of us that means we can’t just walk through the store and buy what we want like we use to. We’re going to have to put a little more effort into buying what we need and stop throwing so much away.
Any company that I catch doing that has just lost a customer … for a very long time if not for good! I realize that their motive might not be to support the deception of the DemocRats, but they need to be politically responsible/involved with what is happening and not recruited as dunces for the Commie DemocRats.
Big corporations have been shrinking their packages/raising prices for many years. I remember when Libby’s shrank the size of their canned solid pack pumpkin, which made me change the recipe for pumpkin pie. Nothing new here, although sometimes they did this just because they could. Now, it seems, they do it because they must.
Devil’s advocate speaking. Kellogg’s, General Mills, Frito-Lay, Folger’s, and all the rest are feeling the pinch just like we are. Their costs are rising for fuel, shipping, labor, insurance, materials, and government compliance. So what are they to do? I’ll pay extra for plain Cheerios because I don’t like the store brand. But for cream cheese, I’ve started buying Walmart’s “Great Value” brand, and there’s hardly any difference between that and Philadelphia’s 1/3 less fat. Big difference in price, though–80 cents vs. $2.50+. I felt like something salty when shopping today, but when I saw the price for a 4.5 oz. bag of chips–almost 4 bucks!–I didn’t hesitate to put it back on the shelf.And that’s the option we consumers have–to buy or not to buy. That is the question.
Who eats crispix?
Prices go up when fuel goes up. History shows when fuel goes down in price, prices on consumer products never go down. What a racket!
Been this way every Dem. president since Carter.
I also noticed that McDonald’s drinks are smaller so now you get around 24 ounces instead of 32 ounces. Soon you will get a 14 ounce of the quarter pounder instead of an actual quarter pounder. Just saying…….. Impeach biden and harris after the midterm elections……..
This has been going on for years….shrinkflation…
This is nothing new! If you didn’t know about it, you haven’t been paying attention.
Yes, my mom has asked me to get her 16 oz cans but alas, they are 14.6 oz cans…etc., etc. and so forth with the downsizing from cranberries to tuna fish and on.
We occasionally go to ALDI’s food store here in central Florida and I purchase the Sweet & SaltyNut Granola n Chocolate snack bars, 6 per pack. When I got home, I opened one and noticed the bar is about 3/4” smaller. Same package though. No price change, still a good value, but I was thinking okay, so this is “Build Back Better” (?) Nuts!
Mad magazine had fun with this way back in the sixties lampooning candy bar manufacturing for shrinking product. However, the scale of this phenomenon today is off the charts.
I found it interesting that the author referenced Charmin reducing the Mega Pack from 396 sheets per roll to 366. That’s not all Charmin did. I bought Charmin toilet paper recently, as I usually do. When I went to use it, it felt thin. I looked at it, and while it wasn’t transparent, I could see shadows. I tried to pull a sheet apart; couldn’t do it. I looked at the package and sure enough: “3 x stronger than the leading *1 PLY* tissue.” Reducing ounces and charging the same price is bad enough. Now we have to use twice as much toilet paper to get the same result.
I know this might sound nutty, (pun intended), but I bought a one and a half pound bag of Macadamia nuts at Costco in Roseburg Oregon, for just under $20. Most folks probably wouldn’t do that, but I love Macadamia nuts and it’s been a long time since I’ve had any because of how expensive they are in an 8 oz. jar of them; about $7 or $8 bucks for just a small jar. This was a one and a half pound bag of them for under $20. If one looks hard enough you can find some deals. I’ve noticed too though, that when an item is outrageously priced, that it will sit on the shelf. No one wants to pay that much. We watched the prices come down like $5.00 or more for an item like that.
The power lies with the people! If you don’t buy it, they’ll be forced to lower the prices.
Remember when the 99 cent only store sold items for 99 cents? Now it’s the $1.29 store. 30% inflation is everywhere. Prices didn’t go up, printing worthless money requires more of it to buy less.
It’s time to boycott. The government is dong nothing about shrinkflation and outrageous prices in general so the only way to reverse it is to not buy. In the old days boycotting was used when consumers were taken advantage of and it worked. Boycotting is temporary for consumers because manufacturers will be forced to reduce prices and bring back large standard containers again or go out of business. Money talks and it’s pretty much the only way to fight it. It’s up to us!
It’s time to BOYCOTT. The government is doing next to nothing about shrinkflation and outrageous price increases in general, so the only way to reverse it is for consumers to stop buying as much as possible. In the old days boycotting was used when consumers were taken advantage of and it worked. Boycotting will force manufacturers to reduce prices and bring back large standard sizes again or go out of business. Money talks and it’s pretty much the only way to fight shrinkflation and high prices. It’s up to us! I refer you to this article from 2017: independent.co.uk/voices/shrinkflation-ons-business-practice-fraud-capitalism-chocolate-strawberry-jam-brexit-financial-sector-crime-banks-a7857976.html. The U.S. government should be doing something about this but so far it hasn’t, probably because of corporate lobbying. Shrinkflation is a crime and in the long run will need to be regulated so once it is under control it won’t happen again. Profit margins also need to be regulated. Big pharma has held us hostage forever over healthcare and now we are being held hostage because we have to eat. It all has to stop, now.