Why You May Be Paying The Same Price For Less Food At The Grocery Store

[left-of-center2012]

As each year passes, it feels like you get a bit less for your money. If you believe you have noticed the quantity of milk, cereal, juice, and more steadily falling while sticking to the same price, you might have witnessed "shrinkflation." According to Medium, this economic phenomenon falls under the category of inflation. With inflation, you expect to see the price of goods increasing as time goes along. Shrinkflation operates on the same principles and usually only occurs in the food and beverage industry.

In this situation, the price of an item stays the same, while the amount of the food drops. A noticeable moment of shrinkflation in recent memory occurred when Häagen-Dazs trimmed down their ice cream cartons from 16 ounces to 14 ounces in 2009. Shrinkflation can hit anywhere, but grocery stores face a particular vulnerability. It's something you may have recently noticed in your very own grocery aisle.

According to CBS News, food manufacturers have seen an uptick in food prices due to low employment numbers, supply chain shortages, and resource shortages. As a result, they have to adjust the cost of their products in order to rake in a profit, and have to decide to either raise prices on their goods or shrink their current packaging and offer consumers less at the same price. Many companies opt to slightly reduce packaging while keeping prices the same, assuming the average person won't notice a slight weight change in their foods and drinks. Shoppers have noticed shrinkflation on a wide variety of goods, ranging from paper towels to pet food (from companies like Royal Canin) to chocolate. Recently, Tillamook ice cream company announced it would reduce pint sizes from 56 ounces to 48 ounces.

As the economy starts to boom, demand for products should rise sharply, creating a supply bottleneck, so you have the potential to see shrinkflation get even worse before it gets better. For now, keep shopping smart and keep shrinkflation in mind next time you need to stock up.

Read More: https://www.mashed.com/429117/why-you-may-be-paying-the-same-price-for-less-food-at-the-grocery-store/?utm_campaign=clip

[hatrack]

1. Even basic stuff, like frozen mixed vegetables . . .

Just a year or two ago, you got a one-pound bag. Now it's 12 ounces, and prices continue to rise.

[FoxNewsSucks]

2. It's also annoying as hell

when recipes call for long-term-standard sizes, such as 32 oz bag, or 15 oz can, and that product is now a 29 oz bag or 14 oz can.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Yep, look at boxed cake mix decreased weights over the decades.

[Niagara]

3. This has been ongoing problem for at least a decade.

It's nothing new for the food companies to put less product in packaging for the same price. I remember discussing this issue with former co-workers during a lunch break 10 years ago.



This article was written back in 2011.
https://business.time.com/2011/03/29/all-new-packaging-less-food-same-price-what-a-deal/

[JNelson6563]

5. Soon cereal boxes will be as thin as dominos..

Funny to me how they leave height and width the same but depth of boxes gets thinner and thinner.

They are gouging because who's going to stop them?

[FakeNoose]

6. Didn't we used to call this "grocery shrink ray"?

The confusion is even greater now that so many U.S. grocery suppliers label with metric measurements (in combo with the U.S. equivalents) because they're selling the same product in other countries.

It's bad enough that I have to calculate on-the-fly how much they're cheating me by reducing the package size. Now the metric equivalents are making things even MORE confusing.