5 ms·

France's Carrefour puts up 'shrinkflation' warning signs

41 points by taubek 3y ago

RugnirViking 3y ago
Excellent move. Anybody complaining clearly has misaligned incentives to the good of the market - good information to make informed choices is crucial.
lioeters 3y ago
Great idea, I hope more companies implement this, to actually benefit the customers instead of the standard practice of ripping them off in a million clever ways.
lm28469 3y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37522858 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37522858
tetris11 3y ago
I like it, but I don't understand it. The consumer doesn't know how much Carrefour paid to (e.g.) Nestle to buy the inflated products, so how is it not in Carrefour's interest to simply hike the price and blame Nestle for it? Or is the price inflation from Nestle simply too high for Carrefour to pay, and they know that any extra efforts on their part to reap profit from these shrinkflated products would anger consumers.
- lopis 3y ago
  But it's not a out the price, it's about the sneaky shrinking of the contents of the package.
- DonsDiscountGas 3y ago
  If the manufacturer was raising prices then yeah Carrefour would probably do that. But "shrinkflation" is when they reduce the package contents (eg 830 grams of baby formula instead of 900g) and keep the price the same. The supermarket can't change the package contents. I'm quite sure they change the labels where appropriate (prices often have $/liter or whatever) but people often don't pay attention to that stuff.
  - tetris11 3y ago
    I guess I'm still stumped on why Carrefour care then.
    - alephnerd 3y ago
      They're in the middle of price negotiations with Nestle and other branded suppliers
- refurb 3y ago
  Others could probably add greater detail, but I believe major brands can set a maximum price for consumers.
- ornornor 3y ago
  I thought most of what’s for sale in a typical supermarket now in Europe or America is more or less on consignment anyway, and manufacturers sign complex agreements with store brands regarding shelf placement, height, length, and price. How much do retailers actually control the price of what they sell, except their own brands and bulk produce?
prmoustache 3y ago
I wonder if they do the same with their own carrefour branded products? Like for any successful "brand" product, they often sell a clone of their own brand (that is usually cheaper or cheaper/gram). I guess these stickers are meant to steer consumers towards their own product first more than to put pressure on the brands distributors. I hope they play it fair and don't shrink their products the same way while only putting stickers on their competition.
- DonsDiscountGas 3y ago
  I'm curious about that as well, but I suspect for store brands they compensate by shifting to cheaper ingredients, which is even harder to detect. Or maybe just leave it the same and lose a little profit margin, but put up these signs to try and make people more price sensitive and get more sales for the cheaper store brands.
  - OfSanguineFire 3y ago
    > I suspect for store brands they compensate by shifting to cheaper ingredients Considering that store brands are often just repackaged versions of name brands, off the same production line that cannot be changed much, does this happen? In any event, even name brands shift to cheaper ingredients as much as they possibly can without falling afoul of labelling laws.
  - prmoustache 3y ago
    I am pretty sure most come from same factories and have just different QC. They won't throw away as many items that would have cosmetic issues for example. Having said that, I know of one example of store brand where the ingredients are usually different: Migros in Switzerland. And what is particular is that they just put less weird stuff on them. For example they would rely less in taste enhancers, food dyes, and all other stuff most of the industry is adding into processed food to make them feel and look better/fresher. And in the end the Migros products regularly stand on top of the list of the healthier variant of a processed product kind when tested in lab by the local consumer report association.
layer8 3y ago
Discussed two days ago (390+ comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37522858 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37522858
humanIDunknown 3y ago
I live in France, I checked local Carrefours in the city center, nothing... I went to Paris last week and saw nothing. Apparently this is only in big supermarkets outside the center...

41 points by taubek 3y ago

Excellent move. Anybody complaining clearly has misaligned incentives to the good of the market - good information to make informed choices is crucial.

lioeters 3y ago

Great idea, I hope more companies implement this, to actually benefit the customers instead of the standard practice of ripping them off in a million clever ways.

lm28469 3y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37522858 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37522858

tetris11 3y ago

I like it, but I don't understand it. The consumer doesn't know how much Carrefour paid to (e.g.) Nestle to buy the inflated products, so how is it not in Carrefour's interest to simply hike the price and blame Nestle for it? Or is the price inflation from Nestle simply too high for Carrefour to pay, and they know that any extra efforts on their part to reap profit from these shrinkflated products would anger consumers.

lopis 3y ago
But it's not a out the price, it's about the sneaky shrinking of the contents of the package.
DonsDiscountGas 3y ago
If the manufacturer was raising prices then yeah Carrefour would probably do that. But "shrinkflation" is when they reduce the package contents (eg 830 grams of baby formula instead of 900g) and keep the price the same. The supermarket can't change the package contents. I'm quite sure they change the labels where appropriate (prices often have $/liter or whatever) but people often don't pay attention to that stuff.
- tetris11 3y ago
  I guess I'm still stumped on why Carrefour care then.
  - alephnerd 3y ago
    They're in the middle of price negotiations with Nestle and other branded suppliers
refurb 3y ago
Others could probably add greater detail, but I believe major brands can set a maximum price for consumers.
ornornor 3y ago
I thought most of what’s for sale in a typical supermarket now in Europe or America is more or less on consignment anyway, and manufacturers sign complex agreements with store brands regarding shelf placement, height, length, and price. How much do retailers actually control the price of what they sell, except their own brands and bulk produce?

prmoustache 3y ago

I wonder if they do the same with their own carrefour branded products? Like for any successful "brand" product, they often sell a clone of their own brand (that is usually cheaper or cheaper/gram). I guess these stickers are meant to steer consumers towards their own product first more than to put pressure on the brands distributors. I hope they play it fair and don't shrink their products the same way while only putting stickers on their competition.

DonsDiscountGas 3y ago
I'm curious about that as well, but I suspect for store brands they compensate by shifting to cheaper ingredients, which is even harder to detect. Or maybe just leave it the same and lose a little profit margin, but put up these signs to try and make people more price sensitive and get more sales for the cheaper store brands.
- OfSanguineFire 3y ago
  > I suspect for store brands they compensate by shifting to cheaper ingredients Considering that store brands are often just repackaged versions of name brands, off the same production line that cannot be changed much, does this happen? In any event, even name brands shift to cheaper ingredients as much as they possibly can without falling afoul of labelling laws.
- prmoustache 3y ago
  I am pretty sure most come from same factories and have just different QC. They won't throw away as many items that would have cosmetic issues for example. Having said that, I know of one example of store brand where the ingredients are usually different: Migros in Switzerland. And what is particular is that they just put less weird stuff on them. For example they would rely less in taste enhancers, food dyes, and all other stuff most of the industry is adding into processed food to make them feel and look better/fresher. And in the end the Migros products regularly stand on top of the list of the healthier variant of a processed product kind when tested in lab by the local consumer report association.

layer8 3y ago

Discussed two days ago (390+ comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37522858 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37522858

humanIDunknown 3y ago

I live in France, I checked local Carrefours in the city center, nothing... I went to Paris last week and saw nothing. Apparently this is only in big supermarkets outside the center...