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Shrinkflation
- smitty1e 7y agoWhen it comes to the atrocious American diet, smaller fast food portions could be as much a feature as a bug.
- bbczfvhmj 7y agoYes, but that’s irrelevant. Americans are being told inflation is x because the CPI doesn’t normalize. And this has huge socio-economic consequences
- lotsofpulp 7y agoI don’t think the US government would use something that obvious to fool people. https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/05/can-shrinking-packages-trick-inflation/index.htm https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/05/can-shrinki... The problem with US CPI is that the nation isn’t moving in the same direction as a whole, with some places and populations making gains far greater than others. It’s impossible to capture this one metric.
- headbansown 7y agoThe CPI has been gamed into uselessness because governments and corporations have indexed things like pension increases to it. The "hedonic substitution" concept is particularly disingenuous. Seniors can't afford steak any more and buy hot dogs instead? Inflation's gone down, yay!
- notahacker 7y agoThe CPI does normalize. There's a hedonic adjustment model which takes into account everything from TV screen sizes and types to sleeve lengths. https://www.bls.gov/cpi/quality-adjustment/questions-and-answers.htm https://www.bls.gov/cpi/quality-adjustment/questions-and-ans... It isn't perfect - arguably there is no such thing as a perfect way of capturing the differences between changes in what's available and what's expected over time with respect to things like CRT vs LCD monitors - but portion sizes are relatively simple for adjustment
- gsich 7y agoIf you pay less - why not. But that's not what's happening.
- jmpman 7y agoJust noticed this on toothpaste from Costco.
- tudorw 7y agoSame with discount supermarkets, they seem to have a supply of almost identical products, but with more 'air' in the box and a visually competitive price, but per KG not competitive, not all supermarkets show the price conversion, and if you are a mother of 3, with 30 minutes to buy groceries it's not really meant to be a challenge to understand the value offering of a product, 'supermarkets' markets are not super efficient markets, they are leased boxes where various mega-corps battle it out for who can sell some basic low-grade ingredients for a significant mark up.
- dannyw 7y agoKeep in mind that on most items, supermarkets have margins of just a few percent. There’s a reason why everything else tends to be more expensive, but you are right that the quality of goods sold have seriously declined and continue to decline.
- jrs235 7y agoCostco's Kirkland toilet paper is now half an inch narrower than before. Food manufacturers are making packages and serving sizes, like yogurt, smaller and smaller.
- headbansown 7y agoI believe Consumer Reports used to show instances of this and call it the "grocery shrink ray." Corporate greed and willingness to deceive: news at 11.
- Razengan 7y ago> Corporate greed and willingness to deceive * Need to maximize profits.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoWhat is the deception? Are the measurements correct on the packaging? Does the calculator app on phones work? It’s really not too much to ask people to divide price by quantity. Choose to give business to shops that show unit prices.
- tudorw 7y agoClaiming on the packaging that the product is 'renewed', without mention the size reduction, seems pretty much deception?
- lotsofpulp 7y agoMight as well outlaw marketing then. Generally, business don’t advertise negative changes. In this case, the relevant information for a buyer is clearly stated, and accurate, and no false information has been conveyed. The buyer simply has to check the unit price and ignore the other words.
- headbansown 7y ago> Might as well outlaw marketing then. Yes, because reasonable regulation requiring clear communication to consumers about product changes == outlawing marketing.
- lotsofpulp 7y ago
- demosito666 7y agoThis is pretty bad in Russia now. Since economy and real incomes are shrinking, it's hard for retailers to just raise the price. So everything is shrinking in volumes, literally all groceries now have smaller package than two years ago.
- gorgoiler 7y agoInflation is commonly measured against the price of goods, at the consumption end of the pipeline. Are there other measures of inflation that incorporate the price but where it is also normalized by what consumers actually get for that price? Somewhat flippantly as an additional example to shrinkflation, if price indices now incorporate AAA games, how do they account for Fallout 4 (2015, 85% rating) versus Fallout 3 (2008, 90% rating)?
- wcoenen 7y agoIn the EU, the price indication directive helps consumers to deal with this. In addition to the item price, unit prices (e.g. per kilogram or per liter of product) must also be indicated.
- edw 7y agoI have no idea whether there are any regulations in the US regarding this, but nearly every chain store that sells grocery products also lists prices normalized to some product-relevant unit. These prices are on the shelves, directly next to the actual price, often in another color.
- headbansown 7y agoThat is the case in the U.S. as well. Although I've seen unit pricing of products in different sizes use different units (e.g. one product using ounces and the other quarts) that if not done deliberately to make comparison difficult still has that effect.
- namibj 7y agoNot a problem with metric units.
- gruez 7y agoOnly if the density is close to that of water. A quick google search says that approximating 1g = 1ml would work for yogurt (1.04g/ml), but not for honey (1.40g/ml).
- namibj 7y agoThey don't mark out honey in different base units. Some things are sold by volume, but even yogurt is sold by mass. It's partially because packing density is rather variable between different sources/grades, and also not as easy to handle as weight (just add on top, and don't care about the shape of the contents of the bowl).
- madiathomas 7y agoCoca-Cola South Africa reduced the size of a can from 340ml -> 330ml -> 300ml. Their justification was that the government introduced sugar tax to fight obesity. Yep. We do have African countries with obesity problems. Price has always gone up. Anyway, it is a healthy move. They must reduce it further and we will have a healthy nation.
- 14 7y agoHere in British Columbia we just raised the cost of a can deposit from 5 cents to 10 cents. I already whined about the size of the can decreasing and now you pay twice as much deposit for even less pop. Overall I only ever drink pop rarely but with the added deposit I have been reconsidering if such a small pop size is worth my money at all.
- reallydontask 7y agoMy limited understanding of inflation calculations is that this should result in a increase in inflation as we're getting less product for the same price. I read a long time ago about some quirks of the inflation calculations: Say 27" TVs are part of the basket of products, but it's no longer so easy to buy a 27" TV, so they pick up the next size up, say 32" and the price is the same as for 27" but because this is a better TV (bigger for sure), it is deemed that the price of TVs have fallen as your buck can buy more TV. I would dearly love for somebody with knowledge of the subject to confirm/deny/clarify the above
- chii 7y ago> quirks of the inflation calculations it's correct - improvements to tech is considered this way as well. I personally don't believe this is a good measure.
- jnty 7y agoI don't understand how the situation above is a 'quirk' and not a straightforward example of deflation. The price of a typical TV - now represented in the basket of goods as a 32in TV - has fallen. The fact that lower prices might lead people to buy larger TVs is no more surprising than a fall in the price of meat leading people to buy more steak.
- reallydontask 7y agoThe price is the same, it has not fallen. You get a bigger TV for the same price but this is not the same thing as a lower price for the same TV, which is what most people would recognise as lower inflation. That's why I said it was a quirk
- jnty 7y agoThe price of a 32in TV has presumably gone down though right? And the same would surely be true of a 29in TV if you could find one. The fact that the market has moved on and you have to tweak your basket of goods is a measurement quirk, not a definition issue. It's not very different to finding out you can buy a 12-pack for as much as a 6-pack used to cost. Also deflation.
- netcan 7y agoI think to claim an x-flation, you need to be describing more than just a price/quantity change. It has to be at "monetary" scale. Anyway, the end of definition for shrinkflation (or inflation/deflation generally) is the interesting part these days "process of items shrinking in size or quantity, or even sometimes reformulating or ^^reducing quality ^^"...per dollar. Shrinking burger sizes (most of the Wikipedia examples, amusingly) aren't a trend to be worried about. There's only so much that can go under the radar. Reformulating or reducing quality OTOH... This one is a total black box in many senses. It's hard to say if services are increasing/decreasing in quantity and quality. These are far less legible than steel & automobiles. What's the price controlled trend in quantity/quality for financial services, legal services, etc. educational services.... These illegibles are trending up, as a proportion of the overall economy, so their trends matter a lot.
- doe88 7y agoThis year in France, Coca Cola reduced the standard size of their bottles from 1.5L to 1.25L while keeping the same price. If I remember correctly the main argument was to handle a new tax on soft drinks without (overtly) increasing prices.