Shrinkflation

By now you must have realized that things have seemingly been getting more expensive out of nowhere and that the products must be getting bigger and that is why there is an increase in price, but in fact the opposite is happening. This is called shrinkflation.

Shrinkflation has been one of the most influential innovations in marketing as consumers have been so focused on how much they are spending that they do not realize how much they are getting for what they pay. This has become so common and effective that the French supermarket Carrefour has recently begun putting signs that warn the customer of potential shrinkflation.

An example of shrinkflation, the Toblerone chunk on the left is the new version. The one on the right is the one you might be used to. (The Guardian)

This is not something that can be easily changed, and the disappointing truth is that consumers will have to learn to live with these changes. Many people have found themselves switching to house brands in order to cut costs but for some essentials such as baby formula this simply is not an option. But these are not all the tricks that companies use, because sometimes companies will repeatedly downsize a product only to come up with a bigger version with a fancier name (which, as you might suspect, will be more expensive).

Chances are that we will continue to see shrinkflation affect many products. The best we can do is pay attention to products and be careful with what and where we buy them.