Shrinkflation - the increasingly common practice of reducing contents/quantity or product size instead of increasing price (or lower increase in price than otherwise). Examples on TV news yesterday included tubs of sweets/chocolates like Quality Street and Celebrations. One I recall a few years ago was buying my wife a big Toblerone bar only to find the ‘valleys’ were wider than the ‘mountains’ where always before the valleys had just been narrow gaps to aid breaking of thebar: I felt cheated and disappointed. 0ther bars of chocolate, and numerous other things, are now significantly smaller than they used to be. Yes the weight indicates, but meaningless if familiar with the product and not accustomed to checking the weight, Personally I think it is a deplorable practice, and I’d rather they were honest and simply increased price where manufacturing costs etc dictate, or otherwise change the packaging very visibly, e.g. different shape or very different size (e.g. half).
What do you think? What’s the worst example you’ve encountered?
And what if hifi started to do it - e.g. a speaker with same name but poorer drivers or smaller enclosure? Or an amp with same name but reduced power capability or lesser quality components? Or a power supply with smaller transformer and capability?
My cousin acts as a Companion at the football, for which he gets a free ticket. In return he buys me a programme, a hybrid coffee/tea (we have literally no idea what it is they think they’re serving us) and a bar of chocolate. He has taken to returning the Yorkie with the comment “May I have an adult sized one please.”
I bought some Neurofen the other day and the price made me think, I am sure they used to be cheaper than that. When I got home and opened the packet there were 6 tablets in the packet not the old 8 !
Well this is an interesting one. Supermarket packets of 16 ibuprofen cost pence compared to pounds for fewer Nurofen…So I would suggest the content has got cheaper, even if the Brand hasn’t!
Why buy expensive Nurofen, rather than non-name-brand Ibuprofen at a fraction of the price? Ditto Anadin etc. Ditto ibuprofen creams etc. The active ingredient is exactly the same (N.B most common Ibuprofen tabets are 200mg, but 400 is available while creams are available at different strengths. AFAIK paracetamol tablets/caplets/capsules standard at 500mg)
Funnily enough I thought the same when eating a KitKat just a few days ago.
The other thing that can change is ingredients: on the news a couple of weeks ago was that Penguin bars have apparently changed to “chocolate flavoured coating” aka imitation chocolate not meeting the minimum legal standards to be called chocolate, such as inadequate cocoa content. Interestingly decades ago I liked Penguins, though didn’t eat often. Then one day I had one and didn’t really enjoy it. Same a few weeks or months later, but on that occasion I looked at the label and found it said chocolate flavoured coating. Roll on maybe another decade and upon reading one of their labels I was surprised to see it had gone back to being chocolate, so I tried one and found I liked it. At the time ssumed that they must have had a fall off of sales, traced the timeline and reversed. I can only assume they either have forgotten, or think people re less discerning today.
Many cans are now 440ml down from 500ml and many bottles are now only 330ml.
Extreme care is needed as some brands - e.g. Old Speckled Hen - are sold in both sizes, depending on how greedily rapacious the retailer is! Of course the price hasn’t gone down; it’s even increased in one place I used to shop at.
It’s the supermarkets.
When wholesale prices increase - say fresh beef. The pie makers will want to further the costs to the supermarkets - although the supermarkets put pressure on that the shoppers will not buy.
So the pie makers will fill the pies with less beef.
Of course with luxury goods we are all too familiar the yearly price increase.
In the mid 80s I worked in a formal office environment, most of us still in our 20s. A friend used to buy a big Kat Kat every day and eat half in the morning and half in the afternoon. We had the MD’s daughter in the office on work experience for a few months.
One morning she turned to my friend and said “ I don’t know how you can only eat half of that as I find that two fingers never satisfy me”
We all tried not to laugh but failed and my friend was choking.
I have remembered another: microwave popcorn. We used to buy a box of two and kept in the cupboard in readiness for when we fancy it on a home movie night or whatever. One of the inber packs used to be plenty for two people (some might say more than enough, but it depends how much of a pig you are!) After a couple of rounds of shrinkflation, the last time we bought one – which indeed was the last, never again – one wasn’t really even enough for one person.
I hadn’t seen the news piece mentioned- but Quality Street was the first thing I thought of.
Double black marks for the plastic containers now used instead of the tins. Mrs AM has bought a correct sized “winter-themed” tin for this year, but I’ll be looking on eBay in the new year for a good used example, I think.
Cans of beer is an interesting one, as the 500ml and even pint cans are still readily available. But the prices for 330ml cans of decent beer do seem like they’re all trying it on a bit. This is especially the case where “table beers” of around 2.8% are priced the same as 5% beers, despite the lower duty. I get it for alcohol free beers - the process is much more complex - but just brewing a slightly weaker beer ? Pass the duty saving onto the drinkers, I say.
If only. We have minor celebrations when we go to away games and find actual Bovril. When we asked for it at a gone game we were assured they sold it and were promptly served hot chocolate. He now orders a tea. I have a black coffee. They taste identically of both.
I ignore the actual prices for lots of things and look at the price per 100g, per litre etc. so I know I’m comparing like with like.
Mind you, my usual supermarket has recently reduced the font size of the unit price on its price tags to the point of near-invisibility!
On a more positive note, I noticed the other day that maple syrup, of all things, has barely changed in price for about ten years! (Which, in real terms, of course, means it’s got cheaper)
