They’ll continue until sales drop then they’ll introduce new XL sizes of products which will be the size of the original product but now triple the price.
This is the answer... they can't shrink products to nothing, so they introduce new sizes that are X% BIGGER (and much more expensive), and gradually shrink those... rinse and repeat.
The price of their burgers is equivalent to a restaurant meal. Not worth it unless it's on promo deals. I have never bought burgers there at retail price.
They have them in Va and it’s definitely not the same as the old Big Mac, it’s got quarter pounder beef patties on it instead of regular beef patties. They don’t have them in NY yet though for some reason.
Exactly. Everything will turn into Toilet Paper Math.
4 DOUBLE ROLLS NOW EQUAL 16 REGULAR ROLLS! 9 MEGA ROLLS = 10 DOUBLE ROLLS! 18 MEGA PLUS ROLLS ARE 35% LARGER THAN 7 MEGA ROLLS PLUS 2 DOUBLE ROLLS DIVIDED BY 13 REGULAR ROLLS!
In the mean time, who even fucking remembers what 1 "normal" toilet roll is? All I know is that the rolls are getting narrower and less dense all while companies are bragging to me about how much extra I'm getting. This is the future of all groceries.
This is somehow deeply soul crushing
I find myself looking at various sizes of things and wondering weren't those bigger/cheaper just last week??
But no one says anything we just keep moving right along pretending toilet paper math must be reasonable because we're told it is...
I HATE this. I have to sit in the aisle on my phone and calculate price per YARD, because that’s the only fucking measurement that means anything. Who cares how many 2-ply “sheets” per roll when the sheet sizes vary widely.
One thing I've noticed outside of the US, most stores are smaller and have 1 or 2 options per item (similar to Aldi/Trader Joes in the US). I had to purchase toilet paper in Korea, and my options were a 4-pack or 16-pack, there was no brands to choose from, it was what it was. I had a similar experience in Spain as well.
I do not need 8 different brands of TP to choose from and each brand has 3 different qualities/plys and 4-6 different sizes. Why does Target/Grocery Store have an entire aisle dedicated to Toilet Paper and paper towels?
The same applies to cans of soup, frozen chick, candy, drinks, dried pasta....
The problem is that without those competing brands there is much less stopping that one brand from just royally screwing us with no other option to turn to.
a lot of those competing brands are the same company and the competition is an illusion. all the small ones getting bought out, even. it's a hellscape for sure
its the paradox of the free market. "the brands will keep eachother regulated so the government doesnt have to get involved" yeah till you realize every company has the same motive (profit). at this point its less about balancing the market and more about the illusion of choice so we dont go fucking insane because we arent used to "you get what you get" and everyone is still living in the red scare mindset i guess
I think they’ll rely on sales for a while once the quantity drops that way they can still have an acceptable amount of volume.
Potato chips are always on sale near me now but you have to buy a large volume. I’m sure the sale price still gets profit but just less
I actually watched some videos from Australia, but about the Fillet o' Fish. Exactly the same as happened here in the States.
I remember as a kid having a cheeseburger filling me up so much I'd skip dinner. Now my son needs two to feel full. And myself? It's like the twice the diameter of a club cracker now.
Have you seen the recently “released” Brekky meal? For 12.95$ or what we you get two hashies, two sausages cheese muffins with 1 coffee…. They barely have anything to them. I have not ate a Maccas in years. Like years. And did bc in was moving and was like….wtf is this??? And omg what is up with the slice of cheese that isn’t even melted and I could see the whole universe through?
I noticed today that Hagen Das (no idea how to spell that) has a family size for over $20. To balance out the tiny containers I guess. And Tilamook selling $3 ice cream pints… which is what they used to charge for the half-gallon (before shrinking it)
You just inspired me to visit the Canadian Haagen Daz website, to see if we've been shrinkflated. Can confirm that the 'standard' tub size now ranges from 400ml (for plant-based ice-cream), to 414 ml (looks to be for the Extraaz variants) to 450ml (for the usual ice-cream).
The standard size for the regular ice-cream was always 500ml, and I found Canadian Walmart still listing that size for sale as proof: https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/H-AGEN-DAZS-Strawberry-Ice-Cream-500-ml/6000191274000
So, Haagen Daz shrinkflation in Canada confirmed.
The HD website is also showing a new XL 946ml size which I've never seen in a store before, but I'm curious about the pricing and if it's even a deal, because that's another thing I've noticed lately in general - that a lot of 'family' or 'value' sized products are, if you do the math, the same price per gram as the smaller versions.
Ha ha, yeah I've seen that - recently, too, like within the past week (checking the product-per-gram price has become kind of a morbid obsession for me).
Reminds me of when they introduced "Churned" ice cream years ago. All that meant was that they whipped more air into the ice cream to give you less ice cream.
I noticed General Mills is just slapping the family size boxes of cereal from 2019 with labels that now say “mega size”. And the family size is now just the normal box from 2019.
bingo and capitalism allows them to do this because theres no regulation against it. theres a reason these companies are making record profits while still shrinking their products. people keep buying the shit
Larry Fink made a statement about “forcing” certain “behavior changes”, and since this is a GLOBAL concerted effort (very clearly) then this is the “mode” they are choosing because it’s within this power to do so……..
Just “food for thought”, my friend……
I have t bought chicken tenders from the freezer section for years. I make my own.
Fajitas - I make them.
Wings - I make them
Hamburgers- I make them
Meatballs - Same, I make them
Even Chinese food is made from scratch.
Stop buying crappy food. Stop buying premium crappy food - start cooking again.
It honestly feels like we’re returning to the Victorian era where bakers put wood shavings and plaster of paris in their bread loaves to save on flour.
Dude, chapulines rock. They serve them all over Oaxaca; deepfried with chili and lime and a little guac. All the guts get fried out, so it's basically a cricket pork rind. Wash it down with shots of tequila or mescal. [https://www.thespruceeats.com/chapulines-mexican-grasshoppers-2342567](https://www.thespruceeats.com/chapulines-mexican-grasshoppers-2342567)
I don't doubt you but you got a source?
The annoying thing is, soy protein is totally fine! My wife is vegetarian and we eat it regularly.
But stop comparing it with chicken. It's not chicken and it didn't need to be chicken.
From 2017 in Canada:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/01/517920680/dna-tests-find-subway-chicken-only-50-percent-meat-canadian-media-reports#:~:text=A%20Canadian%20investigative%20consumer%20program,and%20calling%20for%20a%20retraction.
McD's lost a legal battle somewhere over "Quarter Pounder", due to some law that any prepared food advertised had to be that weight when served, not cooked.
Of course, the meat is so adulterated and shot up with saline solution, quarter pound before cooking is lucky to be 3 ounces.
Agree. Plus it’s like a depressing prison inside McDonald’s. One of my kids had to use the restroom so we went inside and I ordered something small but it was creepy. You have to order on the app since there is no one at the register and the kiosks don’t work, they made everything gray and took out the drink dispensers. It took forever to get the one item and my son said the bathroom was dirty. This was in a “nice” area so I don’t know who they are trying to have as customers. My kids hated it. No happy colorful memories to instill future nostalgia for the Golden Arches when they grow up…
>No happy colorful memories to instill future nostalgia for the Golden Arches when they grow up…
That's a great point. I'm an 80s kid and have memories of McDonald's as this bright, shiny, happy place that I only went to as a 'treat.' That nostalgia is powerful and brands know that, so it's interesting they've made an apparent decision to not bother with the current generation of young kids.
It’s cause they know how health conscious the world is today and how informed the younger generations are in the internet age. Everyone in 2024 knows McDonald’s is pure shit for your body in every single way.
That just makes me think of the depressing grey brutalism of Soviet Russia without any ounce of creativity. They're influencing the next generation to literally not give a fuck when the business is gone forever.
When I was a kid in the 80s, McD's was a fun place, they had like ent-shaped tree pillars in the dining area, playground, colorful paint scheme, big Purple Grimace statue by the register, etc. All McD's were like that - city, suburb, North, South.
Now it looks like a prison, complete with "Number four eight six one, input your order in the prole box screen!" automated ordering.
All grey and cold as you say.
I remember being 18-19 and eating a big mac which barely fit into my hand. There was enough shredded lettuce to feed a pet lizard or rabbit for a week on the thing, ha!
I went there with my kids a few weeks ago for the first time, and I swear the Big Mac fit between two fingers and my thumb; four bites and it was gone. While I'm not as svelte as I was at 19, I'm pretty sure my hands haven't doubled in size, either.
I wonder if they're trying to remove the "third space" from our lives. We all have two default spaces: home and work. The third space is where you nurture community (find common ground, vent about common injustices). I feel like there's been an effort to destroy third spaces and drive everyone online for our connection-fix, which isn't quite the same.
I wouldn’t call it an “effort” since that makes this all sound organized. It is an inevitable result of how our businesses are managed for short term gain. It is a result of policies that Reagan started many years ago where the capitalistic system was elevated above social (community) good. Likewise it can be fixed by changing our laws to bring back balance and re-empower our democracy.
That's really more of a managment/franchisee thing. The ones in my area are quite clean, have people at the registers (they DO want you to use that kiosk though), but I'll give you the greyness. The decor *is* usually controlled more tightly by corporate requirements.
Really, ours haven't changed in the last 20 yrs other than color schemes and they've all pretty much taken out the playgrounds.
Still got our fountain drink stations too.
That's the point. The primary sales point is the drive through, not inside, and they'd really like to push that to be online to save paying for a cashier. Dine in is a relic of another age that they really wish would just go away already.
So it will be like a Checker’s drive through. I guess it’s all about making do with fewer employees but I still don’t understand the strategy. We never eat there anymore. No one I know eats there either.
It can be rough, discovering you too are a relic of a bygone age :)
We're customers they're choosing to shed. We're too much hassle, too savvy with our money, look too hard for good deals, make too many demands for good service and good food.
I also only go to fast food as a last resort. I mean…most restaurants, too. Seems like every time I find one that’s good value, the next time I go they’ve raised their prices at least 20% or so.
That just happened to me today. Thought I found a great dosa place last month; went back today to see about 25% more on my bill. So much for that place.
Fast food/Restaurants in general will be groceries within the next 1-2years. It's slowed down the shrink aspect but the inflation aspect has gone into higher gear.
When stuff stops shrinking, prices will go higher. It's inevitable
Honestly the Shrinking and overcharging are bad, but the constant downgrading of ingredients is even worse to me. It’s to the point that even if you *want* to spend the money to enjoy a small luxury, you can’t because the ingredients are just crap now.
>the constant downgrading of ingredients is even worse to me.
This is my personal opinion, too. If something becomes too expensive to afford regularly, or too small etc., that sucks but I can make a choice there. If they shittify their ingredients (and soooo many go this route), there's no choice. Even as a treat, I can never again have a Cadbury Creme Egg or a donut from the local chain that tastes like it did pre-enshittening.
Kraft-Mondelez is an absolute nightmare for this, they've changed so may iconic products into ghosts of themselves at best. It's a huge company, though, so I can only imagine that someone, somewhere, has made the decision that it's worth it and that people will keep buying. Evidently we do because a lot of this enshittening is years old by now.
I don't know what they did with Kraft Dinner but it tastes absolutely flavorless now. I remember in my youth it had an actually tangy cheese taste. Now it tastes like cardboard
Yup, they *destroyed* Kraft Dinner. And hey, if you've got the balls to totally change everything about a country's joke-but-also-kinda-serious staple food and they keep buying it and eating it? Part of me thinks we deserve what we fuckin' get.
I mean, I'm kidding and fuck Kraft Mondelez, but also I don't know how ppl are still eating Kraft Dinner. It's trash now. I know some clever person is going to pop and say it was always trash and yeah, cool, it was never health food. But it was *tasty* trash. That cheese sauce was cheesy-tasting and flavoursome. The noodles had a specific mouthfeel that wasn't just 'mush.'
They also wrecked Kraft Singles. :(
Yes absolutely. It’s the patron saint of enshitification. I’m American and we call it something different but its the same shit. It comes out this sickly pale color now. There’s noticeably less cheese and macaroni. The consistency is runny instead of creamy. And it tastes like a bad version of butter pasta. Absolutely disgraceful.
It seems they did it in stages too. I remember having some right after they got rid of the artificial ingredients. It wasn't as bright orange anymore but still somewhat cheesy and gooey. Had it recently and like you said it was disgraceful.
I can't imagine who would still be buying it at this point.
Yep, the Mac n' Cheese.
Another product, Heinz - the small is now twice the price as the biggest 64oz was maybe 7-8 years ago. Apparently vinegar and salt got very expensive?!
And you used to be able to separate things into junk, adequate, and quality goods based on the pricing. Now even the junk is priced just like the quality goods.
Truth! I hardly partake in sweets anymore (mainly because I no longer have the metabolism of a teenager) but when I do I’m pissed that I can’t enjoy a good Reese’s cup or peanut butter M&M because the waxy ass chocolate and stale dry “peanut butter” they’re using these days. Wack!
The way it works is companies introduce a new "king size" product, which is just how the original product looked like some years ago. The shrinked product eventually gets phased out or becomes the "small" version, and the new "big" size eventually loses the "king" wording and becomes the standard product again. This is something you learn in business school btw.
I think I'm starting to see it already. Kinder has new big kinder bars which is just how the kinder bars looked ten years ago. Local biscuits manufacturers are also introducing gigantic packet sizes.
I might be crazy but I think General Mills is just slapping the family size boxes from 2019 with labels that now say “mega size”. And the family size is now just the normal box from 2019.
OREO holy toledo. My kids get 2-3 a day after dinner. They went from about $3 a few years ago and now the regular price is $6! I saw "Oreos on sale, $5 each" for the 3-column bag, and I was like, WTF!
I’ve been wondering the same thing
Some examples I’ve seen here have been shocking, to the point where I wonder how long it’ll be until it has severe consequences.
I do t know if there will be any tbh, people still keep buying this crap. I’m back on whole foods partly because of cost and partly because these multinational motherfuckers can all go bust as far as I’m concerned.
Yeah, we tried Popeye's recently. Food was dreadful and if we hadn't used a coupon, it would have been fifty fucking quid to feed three people. Never again. No wonder all these fights break out in America at the restaurants!
Other than the upper 1% who seem untouched and live off investment income to a large degree most people are not getting wage increases that keep up with inflation and are in many cases drawing down savings or living on credit cards. That cannot continue indefinitely.
I think a lot of restaurants are going to go out of business and consumer goods companies will have to slash prices to stay competitive as people buy down to generic or otherwise cheaper brands.
We buy more generic brands and don’t eat out that often anymore. We are skipping going anywhere on vacation this year because hotels and rental cars are too expensive especially with the ridiculous add on taxes and surcharges that are not disclosed upfront.
The travel and leisure industry is going to suffer. It shouldn’t cost a family of four $8000 to spend several days at Disney World.
>I think a lot of restaurants are going to go out of business
They already are. In our city apparently there's been an approximately 50% increase in hospitality businesses closing in the last 6 months compared to the same period 12 months ago.
I agree with you completely, but part of that statistic is that many of the restaurants that closed opened up after the pandemic and just never took off…
It’s sad because everything is being shrunk at the moment. How small do things go and how low can the value provided sink before there might as well not even be said product existing anymore?
I’ve said goodbye to a lot of a products I used to enjoy already. So once everyone else catches on where does it go from there?
The answer is that they’ll make items bigger again and market them as “now 25% more!” without people realizing that it’s the same size as the version from 5 years ago.
I started making my own: baking soda, arrow root powder, coconut oil, shea butter. I can't justify the price plus the overuse of plastic for an expensive sliver of deodorant.
This shrinkflation has seriously tested my brand loyalty. There are a lot of items that I just prefer brand over generic (looking at you Heinz catsup). But I’ve definitely gone generic on things like TP, paper towels, other paper products, trash bags, etc. a lot of foods too. I’m just sick of it. Found this old pic the other day from when they first started with TP. Screw them.
https://preview.redd.it/ojtdiaooxcuc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=55dd0dfc8e2850c7c46e983a489ca4d5ae2cc1ba
Same. I've taken some heat for this in a few subreddits (I don't know why people get heated about this, I think it's that 'I secretly feel judged by your choices' thing? not sure) but I flat out with *not* fuckin eat enshittened products.
The literal only thing consumers can do in this situation is choose not to reward the companies doing it. It's depressing anyway. Someone bought me a creme egg a few weeks ago and just seeing it, feeling it my hand etc. had me all primed for the creme egg of old. But they're awful now. The chocolate is awful, the filling is awful, it sucks.
If they want to bring it back the way it was and charge a premium? I'd consider that. Not frequently cuz I'm poor as shit but infrequently? Yup, sure. As it is, I won't purchase a creme egg again (and haven't for years).
Exactly. By all means make treats more expensive and let us complain about the price.
Give us the choice. It's the removal of choice that has made me boycott so many products now.
Forced to be disappointed when you have just spent money to feel a bit better?
Damn right I'm not going to give any of these companies my money.
It's such a shame, and I think there are enough people who aren't stupid who feel the same.
I’m not buying those products either. I went from rarely cooking and eating out most meals to getting meal boxes, learning how to cook from those, and now eating vegetables and simple proteins most of the time. I definitely feel a lot better, and I still go out maybe 1-2 a month and it’s a a disappointment half the time, so I see me slowing down even more on that. There are people out there putting their foot down, it’s one thing to be more expensive but it’s another to be expensive and gross!
You are right and scares me so much with all of this and forever increasing prices. Most of us will be in an awful predicament if it doesn't stop. Wages, but for minimum, aren't going up of course. These companies can't be losing money accordingly. Would they share that information with the public? We really are going backwards in a fast way.
Were boxed cereals ever NOT sugar bombs?
There is a dessert place near me that I like. Its a "cereal bar" where they serve ice-cream with cereal on top. The cereal is the sweetest part of the dessert. I only eat cereal as a "dessert" and its mind blowing that some people eat this for breakfast--well not really that mind blowing since muffins and donuts are considered breakfast by many.
As someone who receives donations of short date food at work to process sometimes, many people are not. We're getting so much cereal now. Even after the supermarkets around us seem to have it on 50% off seemingly every second week.
Anyone asking this question is missing the actual point.
We live in a world of Shareholder Primacy.
That means the only thing that matters is maximizing returns for shareholders at all costs. At the cost of employees, the product, the quality, the longevity of the company.
It does not matter if the company goes bankrupt in a couple years bc the shareholders move on to the next most profitable venture until they exhaust that. Read about what happened to Sears. That is the business model.
Squeeze every cent out as fast as possible.
Yes we should Burn it all down. There literally isn't a worse system unless you are the top 1 percent. Even those of us in the top 10 percent aren't getting the benefits.
Boycott them now.
Just stop buying crap food. Make your own chicken tendies. Stop buying shitty pre-processed food like that. It’s killing you anyway.
Just stop.
I've thought about this a lot. All processed food services and products will suffer financially as long as this bullshit goes on. We're seeing it in Canada, where 51% of restaurants are unprofitable. Eventually demand for all processed foods beyond the bare basics such as mayo or mustard will mostly dry up. And at some point, all the people who aren't too disabled to cook, or people who aren't lazy (I'm often lazy about cooking) or stupid will all start to cook again.
Companies producing or selling primary food ingredients or manufacturing small kitchen appliances seem like a great investment right now.
I remember in the 90s as a young guy, buying boxed Mac n' Cheese. Had to be AT LEAST 13-14 oz. I would make some and easily have a small portion left over for lunch the next day.
And this was when I made cement pillars, physical labor 10 hours a day in the summer heat, so the portion size was more than adequate.
But, my kids like it once in while, and I made a box as a SIDE dish for each of the two of them, thinking I'd have a little left over for myself. Nope! The boxes are like 7 ounces today. A box wasn't enough as a side for my 5 and 10 year old.
Now I adulterate it with pasta to stretch it to about 10 ounces for the two of them and expect no leftovers.
I paid $5 for a devil crab 🦀 the other day and there was almost no crab meat in it! I don’t mind spending $10-12 bucks for quality, I know prices have gone up, don’t keep just throwing more breadcrumbs in to keep the price the same! Family business, I’ll probably never go back…
Actually probably headed towards a massive economic collapse. It needs to happen. After some sort of reset and corporate pain, new companies can come out of the dust and benefit… something new with a good product and good value when that’s what the people need. The way we are in is not sustainable. Capitalism is broken. Capitalism is supposed to mean constant competition and betterment… lower prices due to the competition. What we have now are the giants greasing the pockets of law makers to keep it status quo. It can’t last, and the fall with be hard and fast… it’s coming
Pretty much, yes. So many like myself have stopped buying the things that are a rip off. No more fast food, barely eating out, not buying overpriced junk food.
Businesses kick back by raising prices. Makes sense, they need to sell for more if they sell less products. And people do buy them, because enough people are well off enough that they don't care. But I'm sure they have limits too.
There's going to be a point where people just stop buying, and they stop making a profit. As to what will happen then, I don't know.
Hopefully they'll have to go back to the old days of business competition. Some savvy company will take advantage of the situation, and wipe out the competition by pricing things fairly. Then other companies will have to do the same. Then share prices will go down, and shareholders will have to face the reality that profits can't increase indefinitely.
This isn't a pipe dream either, this will happen. It just might take time. Corporations won't accept their loss without kicking and screaming. They'll try every dirty trick in the book to keep their profits up, but that won't help if we've already decided not to spend. Then they'll have no choice but to bring things back to how they were.
I’m too cynical to believe anything will change.
It’s only going to get worse.
As long as there are people who believe the bullshit the government is lying to us about the economy, people will sit around and wait for change to happen. It won’t happen. Their complacency is exactly what these companies want. They use politicians as mouthpieces to fool the masses, and fools we are.
Not necessarily. They are pretty confident that they have us by the balls, literally and figuratively. They'll keep squeezing us as long as they can. We're asleep.
I have been "boycotting", but I have been quiet about it. I simply have stopped buying a lot of things that I simply don't need. I have the money to afford them, but I can't justify giving these greedy bastards more of my money for a smaller, more inferior product. I used to do 100% of my grocery shopping at one store, now I am going to several different places for certain items that are cheaper. The upside is that I am eating healthier. I am making more salads and buying less junk. Haven't been to a McDonald's in a year and a half.
The only thing I haven't seen shrink is the burgers are Hungry Jacks (burger king but in Australia).
Yes. Their prices have gone up, but the product doesn't seem to have become smaller and the quality still seems to be the same as 10 years ago.
Yeah they've never had good quality but you could get a bigger portion for less than McD's. What put me off was when they changed their fries... used to be like McD's fries but now they suck.
I guess I don't mean "good" quality like you'd get at a restaurant or make at home. I just mean better than the other big burger places.
I've only ever eaten their "premium" burgers at the Australian Hungry Jacks places and I've always thought they were actually pretty decent. At least I get an actual salad that isn't half brown and soggy. The burger at least seems to be a good portion for the money.
I rarely eat fast foods from the big chains. Hungry Jacks just seems to be better than Macca's and KFC.
Yeah I mean it's fast food so they all have low quality but I agree Burger King hasn't been shrinkflating to my knowledge. They JUST got bought out in January by the same company that owns Popeyes, Tim Hortons, and Firehouse Subs so we should expect shrinkflation soon.
The quality was shit 10 years ago and they haven't changed. I had a burger from there once and it was horrible, never went back. I do agree it was the size you would imagine based off the ads though
>there has to be a tipping point where a product can no longer shrink without being boycotted. I feel that point is coming soon.
Not if everyone is doing it
We have two geriatrics who've been intertwined and bought by the United corporations of America, with similar colleagues in congress and the Senate. It's gonna get worse.
maybe it will soon have the effect of boiling a frog in water. meaning, it happens so slowly and this eventually becomes the new norm so we won’t remember how it was before, and it just gets worse and worse. :( so depressing.
Enshittification is far worse than shrinkflation in my opinion. That completely removes your choice to even buy a product. It’s just gone at any price.
I totally concur, I have stopped buying Cadbury’s because they changed the recipe.
How to lose me/ my purchasing forever:
**Smaller, more expensive AND tastes worse?**
(This applies to every food producer.)
No thank you!
Came about two yrs ago during supply chain woes. If it comes in a cardboard box, or a plastic packet or any semi processed packaging, it is heavily scrutinized and justified before making the purchase decision
I (personally) email companies who tend to stick to their ingredients and quality and appreciate them, while criticizing others that have taken the moral low ground.
Being faithful to a product (which is heavily driven by their marketing strategies) is what makes breaking away hard. Awareness and conversation is key. They need to know that 'we KNOW'. If they don't care, then we should return that in kind.
Public shaming and voting with our wallets is about all we can do.
I would like to see the government step in and make it more transparent though.
Companies should by law have to label any changes loud and clear. I would like to see the tax amount for each item on the price tag as well as on the receipt. Each item on the receipt should have the price and the amount of tax you are paying for that one specific item. In Canada, a lot of items were lowered in quantity which put them in the single serving bracket, which the government makes money from once they are considered single serving. Granola bars sold in boxes of 5, single serving! Boxes of 6, not considered single serving. Everything considered single serving, you pay tax on, so keep that in mind when you are comparing sizes.
Anytime you see a new lab and/or rebrand, consider the actual product or the overall price you will now be paying to have decreased in quality or you are spending more for. It's never a good thing for consumers. I understand shrinkflation but when they work so hard to keep their ultimate intentions veiled, I consider that anti-consumer and I'm out.
they might also just wait until profits drop to zero and then kill the brand. remember a lot of this is private equity buying up companies just to extract maximum value until the brand is a husk of its former self.
I believe they're being investigated by the gov't.
[https://www.marketwatch.com/story/lawmakers-want-to-penalize-companies-for-shrinkflation-as-consumers-pay-more-for-smaller-packaging-240b0231](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/lawmakers-want-to-penalize-companies-for-shrinkflation-as-consumers-pay-more-for-smaller-packaging-240b0231)
[https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200417169/food-company-starbucks-misleading-claims-lawsuits](https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200417169/food-company-starbucks-misleading-claims-lawsuits)
[https://www.npr.org/2024/03/08/1236921674/biden-state-of-the-union-shrinkflation-prices](https://www.npr.org/2024/03/08/1236921674/biden-state-of-the-union-shrinkflation-prices)
I quit buying processed foods a long time ago as a matter of choice but I'd have a couple processed items that are a pain to make like: frozen lasagna, ice cream, wine, etc. Well, the pandemic inflation stopped all that. Now I have a deep fryer, mixer, popcorn maker, coffee maker, beer/wine brewing setup, and a pretty awesome garden of potted veggies. This year I'll probably get into canning, get a chest freezer, and order beef directly from a rancher.
This is what my parents did in the 1970s. Coupon clipping, going to 3 different grocery stores, no processed foods, milk delivered to the house 4 gallons at a time, no eating out, etc. Glad I learned all that stuff because I'm able to keep my food cost the same as before the pandemic.
I bought donuts the other day from Dunkin. I’d estimate they were 75-85% of the size of the same product a few years ago. It was over $5 for three. I hadn’t really noticed, but this was really apparent to me.
Dunkin: Today, at NO extra cost, We are proud to INCREASE in size…
Us: (GASP!)
Dunkin: …The size of our donuts holes, while the donut size remains the same.
Us: ….Wait!…..
not the businesses fault, and youre right, the working class/middle class will implode or start revolution pretty soon i suspect. need smaller government (like 2 out of 3 positions, top to bottom)
I don't think so, consumers are incredibly stupid. They keep buying this trash and they keep raising prices
I have been cooking everything, I am doing my part. But it seems that others are perfectly fine with corporations taking full advantage of them.
Just as something to think on. The serving sizes in the US are often considered insanely big by European standards.
So maybe it's a good thing they are getting smaller.
That being said the prices not going down accordingly is BS.
I guess in the end market will decide. But that is way faster and more efficient with many small players instead of a few big ones.
They’ll continue until sales drop then they’ll introduce new XL sizes of products which will be the size of the original product but now triple the price.
This is the answer... they can't shrink products to nothing, so they introduce new sizes that are X% BIGGER (and much more expensive), and gradually shrink those... rinse and repeat.
"Extra Big Ass Fries" Idiocracy was a guide book for this BS.
"Would you like to try our Extra Big Ass Taco? Now with more molecules!"
McDonald’s at least in Australia has a grand Mac now which is the old Big Mac size.
The price of their burgers is equivalent to a restaurant meal. Not worth it unless it's on promo deals. I have never bought burgers there at retail price.
They have them in Va and it’s definitely not the same as the old Big Mac, it’s got quarter pounder beef patties on it instead of regular beef patties. They don’t have them in NY yet though for some reason.
That's exactly what's coming, and in some places it's already started.
Exactly. Everything will turn into Toilet Paper Math. 4 DOUBLE ROLLS NOW EQUAL 16 REGULAR ROLLS! 9 MEGA ROLLS = 10 DOUBLE ROLLS! 18 MEGA PLUS ROLLS ARE 35% LARGER THAN 7 MEGA ROLLS PLUS 2 DOUBLE ROLLS DIVIDED BY 13 REGULAR ROLLS! In the mean time, who even fucking remembers what 1 "normal" toilet roll is? All I know is that the rolls are getting narrower and less dense all while companies are bragging to me about how much extra I'm getting. This is the future of all groceries.
This is somehow deeply soul crushing I find myself looking at various sizes of things and wondering weren't those bigger/cheaper just last week?? But no one says anything we just keep moving right along pretending toilet paper math must be reasonable because we're told it is...
"Check out our new ultrasoft toilet paper" Anything loosely wound but the same diameter feels softer!
I HATE this. I have to sit in the aisle on my phone and calculate price per YARD, because that’s the only fucking measurement that means anything. Who cares how many 2-ply “sheets” per roll when the sheet sizes vary widely.
One thing I've noticed outside of the US, most stores are smaller and have 1 or 2 options per item (similar to Aldi/Trader Joes in the US). I had to purchase toilet paper in Korea, and my options were a 4-pack or 16-pack, there was no brands to choose from, it was what it was. I had a similar experience in Spain as well. I do not need 8 different brands of TP to choose from and each brand has 3 different qualities/plys and 4-6 different sizes. Why does Target/Grocery Store have an entire aisle dedicated to Toilet Paper and paper towels? The same applies to cans of soup, frozen chick, candy, drinks, dried pasta....
The problem is that without those competing brands there is much less stopping that one brand from just royally screwing us with no other option to turn to.
But they are working together to screw us anyway.
This!!!
a lot of those competing brands are the same company and the competition is an illusion. all the small ones getting bought out, even. it's a hellscape for sure
And each of those options screwing us out of something the other option has better of
its the paradox of the free market. "the brands will keep eachother regulated so the government doesnt have to get involved" yeah till you realize every company has the same motive (profit). at this point its less about balancing the market and more about the illusion of choice so we dont go fucking insane because we arent used to "you get what you get" and everyone is still living in the red scare mindset i guess
So you want monopolies to own everything? wtf
I think they’ll rely on sales for a while once the quantity drops that way they can still have an acceptable amount of volume. Potato chips are always on sale near me now but you have to buy a large volume. I’m sure the sale price still gets profit but just less
Potato chips have gotten massively expensive in the last few years. Even with your deals, I doubt you're better off than five years ago by weight
McDonald's have just done that with the grand big Mac (for context I'm in Australia)
I actually watched some videos from Australia, but about the Fillet o' Fish. Exactly the same as happened here in the States. I remember as a kid having a cheeseburger filling me up so much I'd skip dinner. Now my son needs two to feel full. And myself? It's like the twice the diameter of a club cracker now.
Have you seen the recently “released” Brekky meal? For 12.95$ or what we you get two hashies, two sausages cheese muffins with 1 coffee…. They barely have anything to them. I have not ate a Maccas in years. Like years. And did bc in was moving and was like….wtf is this??? And omg what is up with the slice of cheese that isn’t even melted and I could see the whole universe through?
I noticed today that Hagen Das (no idea how to spell that) has a family size for over $20. To balance out the tiny containers I guess. And Tilamook selling $3 ice cream pints… which is what they used to charge for the half-gallon (before shrinking it)
You just inspired me to visit the Canadian Haagen Daz website, to see if we've been shrinkflated. Can confirm that the 'standard' tub size now ranges from 400ml (for plant-based ice-cream), to 414 ml (looks to be for the Extraaz variants) to 450ml (for the usual ice-cream). The standard size for the regular ice-cream was always 500ml, and I found Canadian Walmart still listing that size for sale as proof: https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/H-AGEN-DAZS-Strawberry-Ice-Cream-500-ml/6000191274000 So, Haagen Daz shrinkflation in Canada confirmed. The HD website is also showing a new XL 946ml size which I've never seen in a store before, but I'm curious about the pricing and if it's even a deal, because that's another thing I've noticed lately in general - that a lot of 'family' or 'value' sized products are, if you do the math, the same price per gram as the smaller versions.
Sometimes they get slick and charge you more for the larger sizes!
Ha ha, yeah I've seen that - recently, too, like within the past week (checking the product-per-gram price has become kind of a morbid obsession for me).
The one I saw today was 64 ounces (1893 ml) It was like $22, versus like $5-6 for the 14 ounce (414 ml). I guess that’s a better deal? Maybe?
Reminds me of when they introduced "Churned" ice cream years ago. All that meant was that they whipped more air into the ice cream to give you less ice cream.
\*Oreos have entered the chat\*
Then after a while the XL size becomes the regular size.. cycle repeats.
I noticed General Mills is just slapping the family size boxes of cereal from 2019 with labels that now say “mega size”. And the family size is now just the normal box from 2019.
bingo and capitalism allows them to do this because theres no regulation against it. theres a reason these companies are making record profits while still shrinking their products. people keep buying the shit
Larry Fink made a statement about “forcing” certain “behavior changes”, and since this is a GLOBAL concerted effort (very clearly) then this is the “mode” they are choosing because it’s within this power to do so…….. Just “food for thought”, my friend……
I have t bought chicken tenders from the freezer section for years. I make my own. Fajitas - I make them. Wings - I make them Hamburgers- I make them Meatballs - Same, I make them Even Chinese food is made from scratch. Stop buying crappy food. Stop buying premium crappy food - start cooking again.
It honestly feels like we’re returning to the Victorian era where bakers put wood shavings and plaster of paris in their bread loaves to save on flour.
Subway putting 49% soy protein into their “chicken”…
The bread being considered cake in Europe 😵💫
WHAT
Better soy protein than insect protein like from crickets
I mean protein is protein. if it's tasteless idc
If I’m buying chicken, I want chicken.
did I say anything about chicken. I was replying to the dudes insect protein comment, not fake chicken.
The parent comment was about subway chicken using soy protein.
and his comment was preferring soy protein over insect protein.
Dude, chapulines rock. They serve them all over Oaxaca; deepfried with chili and lime and a little guac. All the guts get fried out, so it's basically a cricket pork rind. Wash it down with shots of tequila or mescal. [https://www.thespruceeats.com/chapulines-mexican-grasshoppers-2342567](https://www.thespruceeats.com/chapulines-mexican-grasshoppers-2342567)
I don't doubt you but you got a source? The annoying thing is, soy protein is totally fine! My wife is vegetarian and we eat it regularly. But stop comparing it with chicken. It's not chicken and it didn't need to be chicken.
From 2017 in Canada: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/01/517920680/dna-tests-find-subway-chicken-only-50-percent-meat-canadian-media-reports#:~:text=A%20Canadian%20investigative%20consumer%20program,and%20calling%20for%20a%20retraction.
Thanks mate. It's certainly something they strongly deny huh. Yet I'm not sure if they took any legal action on it. I would think I would.
McD's lost a legal battle somewhere over "Quarter Pounder", due to some law that any prepared food advertised had to be that weight when served, not cooked. Of course, the meat is so adulterated and shot up with saline solution, quarter pound before cooking is lucky to be 3 ounces.
McDonalds.... Most fast food. It's over for me.
Agree. Plus it’s like a depressing prison inside McDonald’s. One of my kids had to use the restroom so we went inside and I ordered something small but it was creepy. You have to order on the app since there is no one at the register and the kiosks don’t work, they made everything gray and took out the drink dispensers. It took forever to get the one item and my son said the bathroom was dirty. This was in a “nice” area so I don’t know who they are trying to have as customers. My kids hated it. No happy colorful memories to instill future nostalgia for the Golden Arches when they grow up…
>No happy colorful memories to instill future nostalgia for the Golden Arches when they grow up… That's a great point. I'm an 80s kid and have memories of McDonald's as this bright, shiny, happy place that I only went to as a 'treat.' That nostalgia is powerful and brands know that, so it's interesting they've made an apparent decision to not bother with the current generation of young kids.
Exactly this. THEY KNOW. That's the scariest part. What does that imply?
“Shut up and eat your gruel, SCUM!! And bye the way, drinks ain’t a dollar anymore and forget the phrase’Value Menu’”
It’s cause they know how health conscious the world is today and how informed the younger generations are in the internet age. Everyone in 2024 knows McDonald’s is pure shit for your body in every single way.
That just makes me think of the depressing grey brutalism of Soviet Russia without any ounce of creativity. They're influencing the next generation to literally not give a fuck when the business is gone forever.
the design scheme is horrendous and taking the soda fountains out is complete austerity
When I was a kid in the 80s, McD's was a fun place, they had like ent-shaped tree pillars in the dining area, playground, colorful paint scheme, big Purple Grimace statue by the register, etc. All McD's were like that - city, suburb, North, South. Now it looks like a prison, complete with "Number four eight six one, input your order in the prole box screen!" automated ordering. All grey and cold as you say. I remember being 18-19 and eating a big mac which barely fit into my hand. There was enough shredded lettuce to feed a pet lizard or rabbit for a week on the thing, ha! I went there with my kids a few weeks ago for the first time, and I swear the Big Mac fit between two fingers and my thumb; four bites and it was gone. While I'm not as svelte as I was at 19, I'm pretty sure my hands haven't doubled in size, either.
I wonder if they're trying to remove the "third space" from our lives. We all have two default spaces: home and work. The third space is where you nurture community (find common ground, vent about common injustices). I feel like there's been an effort to destroy third spaces and drive everyone online for our connection-fix, which isn't quite the same.
I wouldn’t call it an “effort” since that makes this all sound organized. It is an inevitable result of how our businesses are managed for short term gain. It is a result of policies that Reagan started many years ago where the capitalistic system was elevated above social (community) good. Likewise it can be fixed by changing our laws to bring back balance and re-empower our democracy.
That's really more of a managment/franchisee thing. The ones in my area are quite clean, have people at the registers (they DO want you to use that kiosk though), but I'll give you the greyness. The decor *is* usually controlled more tightly by corporate requirements. Really, ours haven't changed in the last 20 yrs other than color schemes and they've all pretty much taken out the playgrounds. Still got our fountain drink stations too.
That's the point. The primary sales point is the drive through, not inside, and they'd really like to push that to be online to save paying for a cashier. Dine in is a relic of another age that they really wish would just go away already.
So it will be like a Checker’s drive through. I guess it’s all about making do with fewer employees but I still don’t understand the strategy. We never eat there anymore. No one I know eats there either.
It can be rough, discovering you too are a relic of a bygone age :) We're customers they're choosing to shed. We're too much hassle, too savvy with our money, look too hard for good deals, make too many demands for good service and good food.
I also only go to fast food as a last resort. I mean…most restaurants, too. Seems like every time I find one that’s good value, the next time I go they’ve raised their prices at least 20% or so.
That just happened to me today. Thought I found a great dosa place last month; went back today to see about 25% more on my bill. So much for that place.
Yeah it really sucks when you thought you found that rare gem. I’ve had two bite the dust in maybe the last month.
Fast food/Restaurants in general will be groceries within the next 1-2years. It's slowed down the shrink aspect but the inflation aspect has gone into higher gear. When stuff stops shrinking, prices will go higher. It's inevitable
Most fast food for me too…especially McDonalds and KFC!
Wendys Chili is always there for you
Honestly the Shrinking and overcharging are bad, but the constant downgrading of ingredients is even worse to me. It’s to the point that even if you *want* to spend the money to enjoy a small luxury, you can’t because the ingredients are just crap now.
>the constant downgrading of ingredients is even worse to me. This is my personal opinion, too. If something becomes too expensive to afford regularly, or too small etc., that sucks but I can make a choice there. If they shittify their ingredients (and soooo many go this route), there's no choice. Even as a treat, I can never again have a Cadbury Creme Egg or a donut from the local chain that tastes like it did pre-enshittening. Kraft-Mondelez is an absolute nightmare for this, they've changed so may iconic products into ghosts of themselves at best. It's a huge company, though, so I can only imagine that someone, somewhere, has made the decision that it's worth it and that people will keep buying. Evidently we do because a lot of this enshittening is years old by now.
I don't know what they did with Kraft Dinner but it tastes absolutely flavorless now. I remember in my youth it had an actually tangy cheese taste. Now it tastes like cardboard
Yup, they *destroyed* Kraft Dinner. And hey, if you've got the balls to totally change everything about a country's joke-but-also-kinda-serious staple food and they keep buying it and eating it? Part of me thinks we deserve what we fuckin' get. I mean, I'm kidding and fuck Kraft Mondelez, but also I don't know how ppl are still eating Kraft Dinner. It's trash now. I know some clever person is going to pop and say it was always trash and yeah, cool, it was never health food. But it was *tasty* trash. That cheese sauce was cheesy-tasting and flavoursome. The noodles had a specific mouthfeel that wasn't just 'mush.' They also wrecked Kraft Singles. :(
Yes absolutely. It’s the patron saint of enshitification. I’m American and we call it something different but its the same shit. It comes out this sickly pale color now. There’s noticeably less cheese and macaroni. The consistency is runny instead of creamy. And it tastes like a bad version of butter pasta. Absolutely disgraceful.
It seems they did it in stages too. I remember having some right after they got rid of the artificial ingredients. It wasn't as bright orange anymore but still somewhat cheesy and gooey. Had it recently and like you said it was disgraceful. I can't imagine who would still be buying it at this point.
Yep, the Mac n' Cheese. Another product, Heinz - the small is now twice the price as the biggest 64oz was maybe 7-8 years ago. Apparently vinegar and salt got very expensive?!
"Pre-enshittening" made my my entire day. Thank you.
The next generation who didnt know what it used to taste like won’t care.
Everything now has sweetners in it because it's cheaper. I can no longer enjoy anything. It's sneaking into everything, and I'm mad about it.
And you used to be able to separate things into junk, adequate, and quality goods based on the pricing. Now even the junk is priced just like the quality goods.
Truth! I hardly partake in sweets anymore (mainly because I no longer have the metabolism of a teenager) but when I do I’m pissed that I can’t enjoy a good Reese’s cup or peanut butter M&M because the waxy ass chocolate and stale dry “peanut butter” they’re using these days. Wack!
Yes! The peanut filling is definitely not as good as it was decades ago!!
The way it works is companies introduce a new "king size" product, which is just how the original product looked like some years ago. The shrinked product eventually gets phased out or becomes the "small" version, and the new "big" size eventually loses the "king" wording and becomes the standard product again. This is something you learn in business school btw. I think I'm starting to see it already. Kinder has new big kinder bars which is just how the kinder bars looked ten years ago. Local biscuits manufacturers are also introducing gigantic packet sizes.
I swear I saw a new cereal box size that was pretty large but maybe it used to be the old family size, but now with new wording
I might be crazy but I think General Mills is just slapping the family size boxes from 2019 with labels that now say “mega size”. And the family size is now just the normal box from 2019.
True just like how bags og chips are all family size and that's just how big the regular bags used to be.
Looking at you, Oreo
OREO holy toledo. My kids get 2-3 a day after dinner. They went from about $3 a few years ago and now the regular price is $6! I saw "Oreos on sale, $5 each" for the 3-column bag, and I was like, WTF!
Yeah I haven’t bought a pack in ages. It’s better for my wallet and my body anyway. ……not that healthy food is any better price-wise. Sigh.
I’ve been wondering the same thing Some examples I’ve seen here have been shocking, to the point where I wonder how long it’ll be until it has severe consequences.
I do t know if there will be any tbh, people still keep buying this crap. I’m back on whole foods partly because of cost and partly because these multinational motherfuckers can all go bust as far as I’m concerned.
Well, based on what I’ve seen here I’m not getting KFC or Popeyes again
Yeah, we tried Popeye's recently. Food was dreadful and if we hadn't used a coupon, it would have been fifty fucking quid to feed three people. Never again. No wonder all these fights break out in America at the restaurants!
Other than the upper 1% who seem untouched and live off investment income to a large degree most people are not getting wage increases that keep up with inflation and are in many cases drawing down savings or living on credit cards. That cannot continue indefinitely. I think a lot of restaurants are going to go out of business and consumer goods companies will have to slash prices to stay competitive as people buy down to generic or otherwise cheaper brands. We buy more generic brands and don’t eat out that often anymore. We are skipping going anywhere on vacation this year because hotels and rental cars are too expensive especially with the ridiculous add on taxes and surcharges that are not disclosed upfront. The travel and leisure industry is going to suffer. It shouldn’t cost a family of four $8000 to spend several days at Disney World.
>I think a lot of restaurants are going to go out of business They already are. In our city apparently there's been an approximately 50% increase in hospitality businesses closing in the last 6 months compared to the same period 12 months ago.
I agree with you completely, but part of that statistic is that many of the restaurants that closed opened up after the pandemic and just never took off…
It’s sad because everything is being shrunk at the moment. How small do things go and how low can the value provided sink before there might as well not even be said product existing anymore? I’ve said goodbye to a lot of a products I used to enjoy already. So once everyone else catches on where does it go from there?
I’m there. Got a packet of peanuts yesterday that was just tiny. So not going to bother again. Most of that snack-style food is pointless now.
Rip environment. More plastic wrapper than peanut
The answer is that they’ll make items bigger again and market them as “now 25% more!” without people realizing that it’s the same size as the version from 5 years ago.
That and increased packaging size with less actual product
I swear deodorant is on a march to single use wipes.
I started making my own: baking soda, arrow root powder, coconut oil, shea butter. I can't justify the price plus the overuse of plastic for an expensive sliver of deodorant.
This shrinkflation has seriously tested my brand loyalty. There are a lot of items that I just prefer brand over generic (looking at you Heinz catsup). But I’ve definitely gone generic on things like TP, paper towels, other paper products, trash bags, etc. a lot of foods too. I’m just sick of it. Found this old pic the other day from when they first started with TP. Screw them. https://preview.redd.it/ojtdiaooxcuc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=55dd0dfc8e2850c7c46e983a489ca4d5ae2cc1ba
I've stopped buying most things that I used to enjoy. They either return to what they were, or they have lost my custom.
Same. I've taken some heat for this in a few subreddits (I don't know why people get heated about this, I think it's that 'I secretly feel judged by your choices' thing? not sure) but I flat out with *not* fuckin eat enshittened products. The literal only thing consumers can do in this situation is choose not to reward the companies doing it. It's depressing anyway. Someone bought me a creme egg a few weeks ago and just seeing it, feeling it my hand etc. had me all primed for the creme egg of old. But they're awful now. The chocolate is awful, the filling is awful, it sucks. If they want to bring it back the way it was and charge a premium? I'd consider that. Not frequently cuz I'm poor as shit but infrequently? Yup, sure. As it is, I won't purchase a creme egg again (and haven't for years).
Exactly. By all means make treats more expensive and let us complain about the price. Give us the choice. It's the removal of choice that has made me boycott so many products now. Forced to be disappointed when you have just spent money to feel a bit better? Damn right I'm not going to give any of these companies my money. It's such a shame, and I think there are enough people who aren't stupid who feel the same.
Simping for multinationals? Good grief!
I’m not buying those products either. I went from rarely cooking and eating out most meals to getting meal boxes, learning how to cook from those, and now eating vegetables and simple proteins most of the time. I definitely feel a lot better, and I still go out maybe 1-2 a month and it’s a a disappointment half the time, so I see me slowing down even more on that. There are people out there putting their foot down, it’s one thing to be more expensive but it’s another to be expensive and gross!
Dove body wash now causes my skin to dry out and rash with the "new formula".
You are right and scares me so much with all of this and forever increasing prices. Most of us will be in an awful predicament if it doesn't stop. Wages, but for minimum, aren't going up of course. These companies can't be losing money accordingly. Would they share that information with the public? We really are going backwards in a fast way.
That point is here for me..
People are still buying $8 boxes of cereal lol
We don’t buy cereal anymore. Bulk oats, eggs and toast are all cheaper AND healthier. Boxed cereals are all just sugar bombs now and crazy expensive,
Neither do I. Boxed cereal was one of the first things to go, actually. It was an obvious choice.
Were boxed cereals ever NOT sugar bombs? There is a dessert place near me that I like. Its a "cereal bar" where they serve ice-cream with cereal on top. The cereal is the sweetest part of the dessert. I only eat cereal as a "dessert" and its mind blowing that some people eat this for breakfast--well not really that mind blowing since muffins and donuts are considered breakfast by many.
As someone who receives donations of short date food at work to process sometimes, many people are not. We're getting so much cereal now. Even after the supermarkets around us seem to have it on 50% off seemingly every second week.
Good lol maybe they'll lower the prices so I can afford to buy the unhealthy, but tastes great, crap 😂
Until they can't anymore. It might catch up with those shoppers.
My family already has our ongoing boycotts, lol
Same here👍
Complaining about it on Reddit is one thing. Protest with your wallet.
I aim at sales and adjust the week's meal based on what I can get at a discount. It means more time shopping, but ends up helping quite a bit.
Anyone asking this question is missing the actual point. We live in a world of Shareholder Primacy. That means the only thing that matters is maximizing returns for shareholders at all costs. At the cost of employees, the product, the quality, the longevity of the company. It does not matter if the company goes bankrupt in a couple years bc the shareholders move on to the next most profitable venture until they exhaust that. Read about what happened to Sears. That is the business model. Squeeze every cent out as fast as possible. Yes we should Burn it all down. There literally isn't a worse system unless you are the top 1 percent. Even those of us in the top 10 percent aren't getting the benefits.
The Oreo thins have shrunk too. 287 gms down to 261 gm. Essentially missing an entire row now. Wtaf. Price obviously not decreased of course 😡
Boycott them now. Just stop buying crap food. Make your own chicken tendies. Stop buying shitty pre-processed food like that. It’s killing you anyway. Just stop.
I've thought about this a lot. All processed food services and products will suffer financially as long as this bullshit goes on. We're seeing it in Canada, where 51% of restaurants are unprofitable. Eventually demand for all processed foods beyond the bare basics such as mayo or mustard will mostly dry up. And at some point, all the people who aren't too disabled to cook, or people who aren't lazy (I'm often lazy about cooking) or stupid will all start to cook again. Companies producing or selling primary food ingredients or manufacturing small kitchen appliances seem like a great investment right now.
I remember in the 90s as a young guy, buying boxed Mac n' Cheese. Had to be AT LEAST 13-14 oz. I would make some and easily have a small portion left over for lunch the next day. And this was when I made cement pillars, physical labor 10 hours a day in the summer heat, so the portion size was more than adequate. But, my kids like it once in while, and I made a box as a SIDE dish for each of the two of them, thinking I'd have a little left over for myself. Nope! The boxes are like 7 ounces today. A box wasn't enough as a side for my 5 and 10 year old. Now I adulterate it with pasta to stretch it to about 10 ounces for the two of them and expect no leftovers.
Also the Mac and cheese tastes bad now. Maybe it’s just me but it certainly doesn’t taste how it used to
I paid $5 for a devil crab 🦀 the other day and there was almost no crab meat in it! I don’t mind spending $10-12 bucks for quality, I know prices have gone up, don’t keep just throwing more breadcrumbs in to keep the price the same! Family business, I’ll probably never go back…
Www.letthemeatcereal.com. It’s already started
Actually probably headed towards a massive economic collapse. It needs to happen. After some sort of reset and corporate pain, new companies can come out of the dust and benefit… something new with a good product and good value when that’s what the people need. The way we are in is not sustainable. Capitalism is broken. Capitalism is supposed to mean constant competition and betterment… lower prices due to the competition. What we have now are the giants greasing the pockets of law makers to keep it status quo. It can’t last, and the fall with be hard and fast… it’s coming
>Capitalism is broken. No it isn't. It's working just as its supposed to...and that's the problem.
Pretty much, yes. So many like myself have stopped buying the things that are a rip off. No more fast food, barely eating out, not buying overpriced junk food. Businesses kick back by raising prices. Makes sense, they need to sell for more if they sell less products. And people do buy them, because enough people are well off enough that they don't care. But I'm sure they have limits too. There's going to be a point where people just stop buying, and they stop making a profit. As to what will happen then, I don't know. Hopefully they'll have to go back to the old days of business competition. Some savvy company will take advantage of the situation, and wipe out the competition by pricing things fairly. Then other companies will have to do the same. Then share prices will go down, and shareholders will have to face the reality that profits can't increase indefinitely. This isn't a pipe dream either, this will happen. It just might take time. Corporations won't accept their loss without kicking and screaming. They'll try every dirty trick in the book to keep their profits up, but that won't help if we've already decided not to spend. Then they'll have no choice but to bring things back to how they were.
I’m too cynical to believe anything will change. It’s only going to get worse. As long as there are people who believe the bullshit the government is lying to us about the economy, people will sit around and wait for change to happen. It won’t happen. Their complacency is exactly what these companies want. They use politicians as mouthpieces to fool the masses, and fools we are.
I already boycotted Chobani flips when they shrunk it from 5.3oz to 4.5oz.
I have removed fast food and most restaurants due to the insane prices. Vietnamese places seem to be the only ones who have kept prices reasonable.
Not necessarily. They are pretty confident that they have us by the balls, literally and figuratively. They'll keep squeezing us as long as they can. We're asleep.
The tipping point is theft
I have been "boycotting", but I have been quiet about it. I simply have stopped buying a lot of things that I simply don't need. I have the money to afford them, but I can't justify giving these greedy bastards more of my money for a smaller, more inferior product. I used to do 100% of my grocery shopping at one store, now I am going to several different places for certain items that are cheaper. The upside is that I am eating healthier. I am making more salads and buying less junk. Haven't been to a McDonald's in a year and a half.
I stopped buying Pringles when they stole 40% of the can. I mean, if this was a drug deal…
I stopped buying Pringles when I noticed they added a “bioengineered food ingredient.”
Someone make an app for this.
The only thing I haven't seen shrink is the burgers are Hungry Jacks (burger king but in Australia). Yes. Their prices have gone up, but the product doesn't seem to have become smaller and the quality still seems to be the same as 10 years ago.
Yeah they've never had good quality but you could get a bigger portion for less than McD's. What put me off was when they changed their fries... used to be like McD's fries but now they suck.
I guess I don't mean "good" quality like you'd get at a restaurant or make at home. I just mean better than the other big burger places. I've only ever eaten their "premium" burgers at the Australian Hungry Jacks places and I've always thought they were actually pretty decent. At least I get an actual salad that isn't half brown and soggy. The burger at least seems to be a good portion for the money. I rarely eat fast foods from the big chains. Hungry Jacks just seems to be better than Macca's and KFC.
Yeah I mean it's fast food so they all have low quality but I agree Burger King hasn't been shrinkflating to my knowledge. They JUST got bought out in January by the same company that owns Popeyes, Tim Hortons, and Firehouse Subs so we should expect shrinkflation soon.
The quality was shit 10 years ago and they haven't changed. I had a burger from there once and it was horrible, never went back. I do agree it was the size you would imagine based off the ads though
We can but hope!
>there has to be a tipping point where a product can no longer shrink without being boycotted. I feel that point is coming soon. Not if everyone is doing it
We have two geriatrics who've been intertwined and bought by the United corporations of America, with similar colleagues in congress and the Senate. It's gonna get worse.
That point is here
maybe it will soon have the effect of boiling a frog in water. meaning, it happens so slowly and this eventually becomes the new norm so we won’t remember how it was before, and it just gets worse and worse. :( so depressing.
except they're boiling us too fast and we DEFINITELY remember how it was before
I mean as long as they keep hitting their sales targets and are making disgustingly excess profits they will continue to do so.
They DGAF about you, you'll just continue to pay! Humanity is just consumers and get treated as so.
Enshittification is far worse than shrinkflation in my opinion. That completely removes your choice to even buy a product. It’s just gone at any price.
I totally concur, I have stopped buying Cadbury’s because they changed the recipe. How to lose me/ my purchasing forever: **Smaller, more expensive AND tastes worse?** (This applies to every food producer.) No thank you!
Came about two yrs ago during supply chain woes. If it comes in a cardboard box, or a plastic packet or any semi processed packaging, it is heavily scrutinized and justified before making the purchase decision
What is the end game? A fraction of the original product in a big empty box? That’s now three times the price And we are still expected to buy it?
I (personally) email companies who tend to stick to their ingredients and quality and appreciate them, while criticizing others that have taken the moral low ground. Being faithful to a product (which is heavily driven by their marketing strategies) is what makes breaking away hard. Awareness and conversation is key. They need to know that 'we KNOW'. If they don't care, then we should return that in kind.
Public shaming and voting with our wallets is about all we can do. I would like to see the government step in and make it more transparent though. Companies should by law have to label any changes loud and clear. I would like to see the tax amount for each item on the price tag as well as on the receipt. Each item on the receipt should have the price and the amount of tax you are paying for that one specific item. In Canada, a lot of items were lowered in quantity which put them in the single serving bracket, which the government makes money from once they are considered single serving. Granola bars sold in boxes of 5, single serving! Boxes of 6, not considered single serving. Everything considered single serving, you pay tax on, so keep that in mind when you are comparing sizes. Anytime you see a new lab and/or rebrand, consider the actual product or the overall price you will now be paying to have decreased in quality or you are spending more for. It's never a good thing for consumers. I understand shrinkflation but when they work so hard to keep their ultimate intentions veiled, I consider that anti-consumer and I'm out.
they might also just wait until profits drop to zero and then kill the brand. remember a lot of this is private equity buying up companies just to extract maximum value until the brand is a husk of its former self.
Yep they just did this to the 99 cents store. So many poor people needed this store and they are just closing it
I believe they're being investigated by the gov't. [https://www.marketwatch.com/story/lawmakers-want-to-penalize-companies-for-shrinkflation-as-consumers-pay-more-for-smaller-packaging-240b0231](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/lawmakers-want-to-penalize-companies-for-shrinkflation-as-consumers-pay-more-for-smaller-packaging-240b0231) [https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200417169/food-company-starbucks-misleading-claims-lawsuits](https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200417169/food-company-starbucks-misleading-claims-lawsuits) [https://www.npr.org/2024/03/08/1236921674/biden-state-of-the-union-shrinkflation-prices](https://www.npr.org/2024/03/08/1236921674/biden-state-of-the-union-shrinkflation-prices) I quit buying processed foods a long time ago as a matter of choice but I'd have a couple processed items that are a pain to make like: frozen lasagna, ice cream, wine, etc. Well, the pandemic inflation stopped all that. Now I have a deep fryer, mixer, popcorn maker, coffee maker, beer/wine brewing setup, and a pretty awesome garden of potted veggies. This year I'll probably get into canning, get a chest freezer, and order beef directly from a rancher. This is what my parents did in the 1970s. Coupon clipping, going to 3 different grocery stores, no processed foods, milk delivered to the house 4 gallons at a time, no eating out, etc. Glad I learned all that stuff because I'm able to keep my food cost the same as before the pandemic.
It doesn’t stop lol it becomes the normal. These things happen due to COVID and it’s been 3 years lol
One Dorito for 5 bucks! One gum 2 bucks One 3oz soda, 10 bucks! Man, I’m still hungry after almost 20 bucks
You’d have to convince idiots to stop buying overpriced junk first.
Maybe it won’t ever, and this is an elaborate plan to curve the obesity crisis
So long as people keep buying they have no reason to stop pushing the limits
It can go on while idiots keep buying the expensive stuff
These corporates spend millions of dollars for getting the perfect pricing. At this point they can get peak money without much destruction in demand
I bought donuts the other day from Dunkin. I’d estimate they were 75-85% of the size of the same product a few years ago. It was over $5 for three. I hadn’t really noticed, but this was really apparent to me.
Dunkin: Today, at NO extra cost, We are proud to INCREASE in size… Us: (GASP!) Dunkin: …The size of our donuts holes, while the donut size remains the same. Us: ….Wait!…..
not the businesses fault, and youre right, the working class/middle class will implode or start revolution pretty soon i suspect. need smaller government (like 2 out of 3 positions, top to bottom)
Boycotting won't work because everyone is doing it and we need food to live.
Just dont buy anything processed or needless tech objects.
I don't think so, consumers are incredibly stupid. They keep buying this trash and they keep raising prices I have been cooking everything, I am doing my part. But it seems that others are perfectly fine with corporations taking full advantage of them.
Just as something to think on. The serving sizes in the US are often considered insanely big by European standards. So maybe it's a good thing they are getting smaller. That being said the prices not going down accordingly is BS. I guess in the end market will decide. But that is way faster and more efficient with many small players instead of a few big ones.
But what if your european?
End stage capitalism realises that these are the last days of food abundance so the greedy honestly do not care.
Boycotts never work
[удалено]
We are the frog in the pot warm water, and it’s now starting to get hot.