4 ms·

I feel like food prices are likely lower than they should be, so I kind of view this as "the market is working"? It's not great for consumers, but I don't thin

by cwkoss 5y ago

I feel like food prices are likely lower than they should be, so I kind of view this as "the market is working"? It's not great for consumers, but I don't think shrinking sizes is necessarily worse than raising prices. Is it that people may not notice that some find objectionable? I think I'd rather reduce farm subsidies and raise the minimum wage, and let the market reprice accordingly, rather than try to legislate against 'shrinkflation'

Dayshine 5y ago
It is incredibly annoying to find you suddenly need to spend twice as much money to make the same meal rather than the 20% of extra unit price.
- cwkoss 5y ago
  50% of previous value is obviously worse than 80%. If the effective price change was the same between the two would you have a strong objection to resizing vs raising price?
  - Dayshine 5y ago
    I need 100g. The product went from: 100g: £1 to 80g: £1 So I have to spend £2 to buy 160g, and waste 60g (£0.6) I would much rather the product was 100g at £1.2, where I would be "wasting" £0.2.
dpedu 5y ago
Why are food prices lower than they should be? By how much? Shrinking sizes IS raising prices.
- cwkoss 5y ago
  The commodification of foods has led to a race to the bottom: quality is reduced to make it seem like you're getting a better deal when you really aren't. - Fruits and vegetables are getting less nutritional as we've optimized for shelf-life, size and appearance. - Ingredients in processed foods are tweaked to appeal to the lizard-brain and maximize profit at the expense of nutritional value. ex. adding large amounts of high fructose corn syrup to make otherwise unpalatable low-quality ingredients more appealing - Farm subsidies have led to overproduction of low-nutritional-quality grains and encouraged the creation of processed foods which can capitalize on this market distortion Many cheap foods that are available today are not healthy because market forces push them into cutting so they are able to compete on price. I'd rather prices or portion sizes get worse than continuing this race to the bottom.
  - dpedu 5y ago
    What you're describing is reducing what the consumer receives from food for the purposes of maximizing profits. Whether that'a s function of altering the nutritional density, using lower quality ingredients, or simply reducing the overall volume what you are describing is in fact shrinkflation.
MikeUt 5y ago
> I feel like food prices are likely lower than they should be, so I kind of view this as "the market is working"? Lucky for us supermarket chains, food companies, and agribusiness, are very transparent when it comes to their costs and profit, so this is easy to verify. /s

by cwkoss 5y ago

Dayshine 5y ago

It is incredibly annoying to find you suddenly need to spend twice as much money to make the same meal rather than the 20% of extra unit price.

cwkoss 5y ago
50% of previous value is obviously worse than 80%. If the effective price change was the same between the two would you have a strong objection to resizing vs raising price?
- Dayshine 5y ago
  I need 100g. The product went from: 100g: £1 to 80g: £1 So I have to spend £2 to buy 160g, and waste 60g (£0.6) I would much rather the product was 100g at £1.2, where I would be "wasting" £0.2.

dpedu 5y ago

Why are food prices lower than they should be? By how much? Shrinking sizes IS raising prices.

cwkoss 5y ago
The commodification of foods has led to a race to the bottom: quality is reduced to make it seem like you're getting a better deal when you really aren't. - Fruits and vegetables are getting less nutritional as we've optimized for shelf-life, size and appearance. - Ingredients in processed foods are tweaked to appeal to the lizard-brain and maximize profit at the expense of nutritional value. ex. adding large amounts of high fructose corn syrup to make otherwise unpalatable low-quality ingredients more appealing - Farm subsidies have led to overproduction of low-nutritional-quality grains and encouraged the creation of processed foods which can capitalize on this market distortion Many cheap foods that are available today are not healthy because market forces push them into cutting so they are able to compete on price. I'd rather prices or portion sizes get worse than continuing this race to the bottom.
- dpedu 5y ago
  What you're describing is reducing what the consumer receives from food for the purposes of maximizing profits. Whether that'a s function of altering the nutritional density, using lower quality ingredients, or simply reducing the overall volume what you are describing is in fact shrinkflation.

MikeUt 5y ago

> I feel like food prices are likely lower than they should be, so I kind of view this as "the market is working"? Lucky for us supermarket chains, food companies, and agribusiness, are very transparent when it comes to their costs and profit, so this is easy to verify. /s