Americans are paying more for smaller packages as companies battle supply chain disruptions, vacant positions, and rising inflation — a new phenomenon known as “Shrinkflation.”
Examples include shrinking products like oatmeal, tuna cans, pretzels, paper towels, and ice cream containers.
A tub of Breyers Ice Cream, for instance, shrunk from 64 ounces to just 48 ounces – a 25% reduction.
“It’s really a way to conceal higher prices,” said Kim Sovell, a marketing professor at the University of St. Thomas. “We’re very deterred by price increases. We’ll switch brands. … We focus on cost over quantity. Cost over quality.”
Shrinking products and rising prices. From cereal to soap, paper towels to pretzels, you might have noticed you're not getting as much as you used to at the grocery store. It's called Shrinkflation and its real.https://t.co/DRQxuQQaeQ
— CBS4 Miami (@CBSMiami) October 5, 2021
“We check prices every time we shop but we rarely check weight,” she added.
Other examples include Huggies Diapers and Cottonelle toilet paper. Both products will increase prices by 4% to 9% throughout next year.
“Any time we start slowing down manufacturing and shipping while in the U.S. demand for products is high, what we’re going to see is supply not being able to meet demand, which is a sure-fire way to have increased prices,” Sovell added. “We’ll come to realize that maybe it isn’t necessarily devious or sneaky but necessary … for business, necessary to keep providing us the products that we want to be able to use.”
Read the full report at CBS Minneapolis.
