Democratic lawmakers accuse companies of shrinking product sizes while charging consumers the same price
It’s becoming a common experience for Americans going to the grocery store: your bag of chips seems lighter, your favorite drink comes in a slimmer bottle, and you’re running out of laundry detergent more quickly than usual. And yet things are staying the same price.
On Monday two Democratic lawmakers launched an attempt to get to the bottom of the phenomena, accusing three major companies, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and General Mills, of shrinking the size of products while charging consumers the same price – a price-gouging practice known as “shrinkflation”.
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“Shrinking the size of a product in order to gouge consumers on the price per ounce is not innovation, it’s exploitation,” Warren and Dean said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this price gouging is a widespread problem, with corporate profits driving over half of inflation.”
On the one hand, shrinkflation is a fucking awful thing to do to consumers.
On the other hand, I wish people would see the fact that they’re eating fewer chips and drinking less sugary soda has a silver lining.
Maybe keep the physical shrink and shrink the price too?
What we need is regulation on serving sizes. Restaurants offer giant soda sizes because the cost of the actual product was almost nothing in comparison to the infrastructure required to serve it. Selling a $2 soda is roughly the same profit at 8 oz or 32 oz. So why not offer the 32 oz for 15 cents more and make the customer feel better about the value for their money? Plus, it’s addictive and reinforces taste hunger which encourages binge eating and triggers a physiological response to the meal.
Unfettered capitalism would scoop out your insides and sell them back to you if it generated profit. Sugar, salt, acid, and fat should be tightly regulated additives.
Yes, proportional change would be better although when it ccomes to cereal it is the person pouring the cereal that decides how much a serving is.
The problem is lack of consent.
If I’m buying less chips than the last time, I should be informed, not in fine print, but in obvious terms.
A few companies tried to pawn off their shrinkflation by going the health route. A journalist then asked, “Why, then, are you not advertising the health benefits of this new size?”
I wish I could find the interview because the spokesperson simply gaffed and showed that it was not about health. It was about money.
Right, I mean the issue isn’t necessarily the smaller serving size, it’s the much higher price per quantity of product. That said it isn’t all upside since the volume of a container increases faster than its surface area and therefore larger packages use less packaging material per quantity of product leading to less trash (assuming the product is fully consumed and not partially thrown away).
There’s a balancing act in play where the ideal size is the average amount that a person would consume within the products shelf life (once opened). That minimizes food waste and excess packaging material.
Since averages when applied to people are notoriously bad (see E.G. attempts at making an average fighter pilot seat) it’s best to offer a variety of package sizes so that consumers can purchase the one that best meets their consumption needs. So as to not encourage over consumption though, the cost of packaging materials should probably be averaged and applied to the quantity of product such that price per quantity of product remains linear instead of being cheaper as the volume of the container increases.
Standardizing ‘serving size’ would help too.
The ‘serving size’ of an 7.5-ounce can of Coke is… one can.
The ‘serving size’ of a 12-ounce can of Coke is… one can.
The ‘serving size’ of a 16-ounce bottle of Coke is… one bottle
The ‘serving size’ of a 20-ounce bottle of Coke is… one bottle.
The ‘serving size’ of a 2 liter bottle of Coke is… about six.
No wonder everyone ignores that phrase.
Those serving sizes actually make sense though. The ones that don’t are for instance a small bag of chips with a serving size like 1.5 servings where it’s very obvious the serving size was picked not based on the expected consumption (I’m certain the expectation is that the entire bag will be eaten in one sitting), but in order to make the nutritional information seem more reasonable. Or a single candybar with a serving size of 2.5.
There needs to be a distinction between single serving packaging vs. multi-serving packaging (which should be resealable), and that should be based on actual consumption not attempts to massage the nutritional into.
They will just have to raise prices. It won’t actually benefit consumers
Price gouging is a pejorative term used to refer to the practice of increasing the prices of goods, services, or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair by some.
Nothing to do with deceptive packaging.
It was greed
They can just raise the prices more
The rest went to shareholders
The rest always goes to shareholders. You imagine inflation going like this:
Price is $4, so it’s sold for $5. When the price goes to $6, it’s sold for $7
Inflation actually goes like this:
When the price is $6, it’s sold for $7.50 because shareholders don’t like lower margins
You’re right about raising prices, but it will benefit consumers. If you’re making a recipe, you won’t have to buy 2 things instead of one and then figure out what you’re gonna do with a weird fraction of some ingredient.
It’ll be less wasteful in terms of packaging too. That’s better for the environment.
Fuckingcapitalists
All their “deals” are like 10.5oz canned sodies for $10/12pk or 3 pks for $20. They sell sugar and water and carbonation and they price it like expensive spring water. It’s poison.
Coke, Pepsi, and General Mills must have missed their payments.
