Reducing by 10% is too much. The customer will notice it. We must not reduce by more than 7-8%, “because it is already starting to appear”.
Every business is worried about losing customers if they raise their price first, “so the solution is to take off 15-20 grams and change the packaging to hide it.”
Article is in French so you may have to hit a translate button.
This shit has been going on forever.
The #10 cans of coffee used to be a kilo. Then it was 2 lbs (908). Now I think its 850 grams. And the price has gone up.
As a bonus, stock prices of traded companies usually go up when their products weight or volumes go down.
Buudy, it has been happening for decades. I am not sure how people can continue to get fat with the constant reduction in the size of junk food packages.
Yea…just look at a pack of Bacon.
Used to be 1 Pound (454 grams)
Now..?? 350 Grams and 4 times the price.
They aren’t hiding anything from the smart consumer; this has been going on for years. My latest beef is with a company where I purchase beeswax candles. Lately, I noticed the tea lights were slipping out of their cups; they weren’t as snug as they were. Plus, they didn’t appear to have the same burn time. I had a hunch so I took some older candles and some newer ones and weighed them. The newer ones were two grams lighter. Every, single one. I buy in bulk, 125 candles per box. That’s 250 grams of beeswax less than my previous orders. Plus, each time I order, the price has increased. They’re not hiding anything.
The bastards even shrunk our coins over the decades and stole what value it had in them.
Plastics and scrap metal and that’s the value of our Canadian currency.
Banning plastics also means our currency is illegal as well.
Oh no Jojo, say it isn’t so, our plastic money, worthless? I guess I better start using my credit cards more often.
Even the Mexican peso has more value than Cdn currency. At least there you can buy something with your pesos!
As Buddy said, this is nothing new.
Here in the US, ice cream used to come in 1 gallon cartons. Now it’s 3 quart (3/4 gallon) containers, and in some cases 1/2 gallon.
Canned vegetables and sauces came in 16 ounce cans. Then it was 15 ounce, then 14 ounce.
Some folks say “this helps avoid price increases”. How is that? It actually makes it more expensive, both in actual cost per ounce and in purchasing by need. If a recipe calls for a 16 ounce can of tomato sauce, you have to buy two 14 ounce cans to have enough – and then what do you do with the 12 ounces extra? And recipes can’t always be adjusted in quantity; trying to reduce 1/2 teaspoon of salt by 12.5% (16 oz – 14 oz = 2 oz, or 1/8th) is impossible.
It’s a fact of life, but it sucks. I’d much rather they announce “we have to raise prices”; it’s easier to budget more and maintain stable purchasing and consuming habits.
The first I’d really noticed the shrinkflation was back when they reduced the 5-pound bag of sugar to 4 pounds. Then came the quart-and-a-half half gallon of ice cream, but they were loading the ice cream up with so much other candy and crap that they had to start calling it “frozen dairy dessert” because there wasn’t enough milk fat in it to legally qualify as ice cream. Then came the cold cuts, the bacon, the sausage, the soups and the canned vegetables, the pasta, the cookies and chips, the cereal – it’s just about everything by now. You gotta be careful if you’re planning on cooking, nothing works out to even numbers any more.
The same thing started with frozen vegetables a few years ago. At least with the smaller packages, I can store them easier in the freezer compartment of my fridge.
I like the old joke. I wish the girls downtown would do like Kellogg’s did with Corn Flakes. Instead of putting the price up, make the box smaller!
It’s been going on for decades.
Humbug #7 (1958) has an article on “Rascally Packaging Techniques”.
e.g., raising the bottom of a tub of ice cream; lowering the surfaces
but not the edges of chocolate bars, etc., etc.
Then 4 months later Humbug raised its price, but not its page count.
–Bad News
Cheese is one example, they use to sell it in 500 gram blocks, then it went down to 450 and now it’s down to 400 or 350 and they upped the costs as well. They really think we’re stupid. Chocolate milk is around 8 dollars a jug, booze is cheaper than milk where I live.
And those extra large condoms, man they’ve shrunk!
🙁
Bags of softener salt . Some are now 18 kg instead of 20.
OJ in the US has been 59 oz instead of 64 for years. I expect OJ will go to 53 or 48 oz. soon.
Although there may be hope as inflation rages, that weights and measures will go back to normal when they have to raise prices anyway. Puffs cubes went to the “MEGA CUBE!” of 80 sheets, which I think(?) it used to be around 2000. I know they went to 72 sheets, then 64, 56, and finally 48 sheets (supposedly according to their new packaging/ Advertising/ Lying.) i never saw a 48 sheet box. Same cardboard box, just less sheets and weight over the years.
The most ridiculous cut backs are the “Premium Brands,” like Haagen Dazz.
The “pints” cost about $5-6 dollars American, and they are only 14 ounces. The freaking packaging costs more than 2 Ozs of cream and sugar.
Ben and Jerry may be Antisemitic Israel Hating Secular Jews, but they kept their Ice Cream at a Full Pint so far.
The cigarettes in The Fifth Element come to mind.
Not news. A 6 pack of bagels (store brand) now comes with 5
16 OZ pack of coffee now (if you look at the label) says 14.5 OZ
Chocolate bars we used to purchase for cooking were 8 OZ, manufacturer went to 4 OZ bars but did not reduce price to half of what it was. Been going on a very long time in USA and getting extremely noticeable now. Welcome to “shrinkflation”, soon to be followed by “devaluation” and “stagflation”.