Have you recently noticed less cereal in the box? A scoop or two less ice cream in the container? It’s not just you – it’s actually happening, in a strategic move called “shrinkflation” that food companies use as costs continue spiraling due to widespread inflation.
Consumers get very upset when they see the prices on their 0ft-bought products go up, which sends them looking for other companies to buy from. To avoid this, companies will instead put less of a product in the same size container, which is what shrinkflation is. The vast majority of consumers do not pay attention to how much they are paying per ounce of a product and look solely at the size of the container the product comes in, thus allowing companies to put less in without any ill effects on their bottom line.
Don’t expect this tactic to be short-lived either. On Wednesday, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell reversed what the Fed had been claiming for a while – that the inflation we are seeing is “transitory” or temporary – saying that inflation could be more aggressive and last longer than they had expected.
“As the reopening continues, bottlenecks, hiring difficulties, and other constraints could continue to limit how quickly supply can adjust, raising the possibility that inflation could turn out to be higher and more persistent than we expect,” Powell said in a news conference.
The Fed did not say whether they plan to raise interest rates soon to offset rising inflation.
Consumer prices have risen 5.4% for the year ending June, the most since 2008 and even more than economists had expected.
Republicans have noted that President Joe Biden and Democrats’ spending plans, which come with price tags in the trillions, would exacerbate inflation issues which are now taking a big bite out of the value of Americans’ hard-earned dollars.
Bitcoin fixes this.
All the so called loser “experts “ got it wrong again.
They get it wrong on corona, get it wrong on the economy and fools still think they know what they are talking about.
Keep voted for the evil dems and you’ll have much more of this.
Just wait inflation rates sky rocket.
Why work when we can all get loads of food stamps.
I have no love for the democrats, but let’s not forget who started all the govt. programs we have now. It was Trump. It was probably warranted at the time because of Corona, but it was also done because elections were coming up. All those food stamps and all that unemployment compensation didn’t help Trump win and it doesn’t look like the democrats are ending it any time soon. A plague on all politicians on both sides. They only have self interest at heart.
This actually doesn’t hurt the consumer as much as people may think..more times then not, when either a big bag of food or bottle of beverage is purchased its not being used in its entirety anyway and the tail end goes into the trash.
Think flat soda/seltzer stale cerial etc
Some of this started years ago. When Hellmann’s started putting only 30 ozs of Mayo instead of 32.
Then Poland Spring put 5 gallons of water instead of 6.
And the price, of course, stayed the same.
Give these cereal companies credit; they’re really thinking out of the box.
This trickery has been going on for a while. The first time i noticed it was with orange juice. A certain company lowered it from 64oz to 59oz and was quite creative in promoting it. ” slimmer, easier to handle “. Do you remember there used to be a 5 pound sugar bag? Now there’s a 4 pound sugar bag. And the list goes on.