To think shrinkflation is getting out of control?

I hate ridiculous over packaging. It so wasteful.

I stopped buying anchor butter for this reason. It’s sneaky. If they increased the pack size it would say on the pack but not the other way round.

I put a 250g block of butter next to the shrunken anchor packs so other shoppers would see.

The things you mention that come in different sizes are actually very different sizes/weights. Cereal is in 1kg/350g boxes (or 450g), peanut butter also in large tubs of 1kg and jars of 360g. So 2 quite different options. Mayo and ketchup is another one where you'll get different sizes (I think there are 3 options for Hellmanns).
But what you're asking for is the pre- shrinkflation option to be available alongside the post shrinkflation - in your example a pack of 7 Kitkats alongside a pack of 8. The 2 are simply not different enough to be offered as separate choices.

Whilst lots of brands come in different sizes and formats (eg individual yogurts vs 500g pots) these are meeting different consumer needs or targeting different shoppers. A 500g pot of yogurt is going to be bought by the same people, for the same purpose as a 470g pot. Same with Kitkats - people who eat a lot of them will buy the large pack whether it's 16 or 15, and people who want a smaller pack will buy that whether it's 8 or 7.

I hate shrinkflation as much as the next person, but it just isn't going to happen that there is a choice between 2 very similar pack sizes.

Tesco have these non frozen ready meals, quite expensive here in ireland 8 euro, eg meatballs and pasta. 2 years ago the product had about 20 meatballs, it now has 12 and yet it still 'serves 4'. 3 teeny meatballs per person. It has forced me to cook more 'from scratch', so suppose it is good. Chocolate forget about it. I just don't buy it anymore.

You sound like my DH. Everytime we go shopping, he points out what's shrunk/ risen in price. I was embarrassed to give "fun size" treats to the kids trick or treating as they were so small :)
Just wanted to add that I totally agree!

The rotten veg is down to the rotten weather we've had.

The filthy veg and rotten inside, yes! It’s been awful recently.
Also weird chicken breast texture. Fresh meat, not frozen. It’s awful, seems uncooked even when it is cooked through. Foul stuff.

Magnums have come in packs of 3 for as long as I can remember.

I noticed this too. Plus when you slice veg open, far more likely to be, well, decomposed these days.
I have had bad onions repeatedly from Sainsbury's and am fed up about it to the extent that I'm now going to return them!

But loads of things come in different size options -- often with not all that much difference between the sizes - always the same brand and variety.

Off the top of my head, peanut butter jars, cereals, many chocolate brands, toilet rolls...

I had a two finger twin the other day, it actually made me laugh it was so tiny.

Absolutely. Have you seen the bags of Monster Munch in a multipack lately. Tiny.

But offering the 'old' and the 'new' size still takes up twice as much space on the shelf as just either the old or the new. No retailer is going to list a 14 count and 16 count pack of Kit Kats - it doesn't make commercial sense.

And Nestle would have to alter their production line to do counts of both 14 and 16. And have 2 sets of packaging, and 2 different sizes of boxes to ship out to retailers, and all the systems set up to manage orders and supply chain for 2 different sizes. It just wouldn't work. And it would cost money - and guess where that gets accounted for... in the price on the shelf.

The purple ones are shit now

It's not just shrinking products, they also change the ingredients and they are worse quality.

The same has happened with clothes, they're all synthetic materials, shoddily made for premium prices.

We're getting completely ripped off.

We should take a leaf out of the French legal system and force suppliers and retailers to show clear, prominent signs to effectively rumble themselves every time they try to hoodwink their customers by pulling this trick.

They also tend to use cheaper fish than cod as standard now, too.

Not sure if that's just reductions in international cod stocks, or if there's also an element of increasing profits for them too?

Lidl basic toilet rolls used to be great value, but now they made them thinner and rougher, without any warning at all.

It might just be us, but we've now switched to Asda ones, so that worked well for their profits if there are loads of previously-happy regular customers like us.

If I wanted to use Bronco or Izal bog roll, I would get in my time machine and travel back 40 years to my primary school!!

They really do think we're too dumb to notice.

They wouldn't need loads of sizes, though - just the 'new' size and the proper one.

Kit Kat seem to manage offering many different flavours, bar sizes and pack sizes - with a 7-pack and a 14-pack (used to be 8 and 16) frequently bizarrely costing the exact same price.

The only reason they don't is that it would give their game away and make it blatantly clear what trick they were banking on.

It's the Aldi (the Plenty ripoff one) that gives me the rage. They doubled the price and halfed the thickness. Fucking thieving cunts.

It's the worst crime of the cost of living crisis. The corporate overlords couldn't even let us peasants keep our chocolate.

I wonder how long it will be before they have to shrink fish fingers. Had to wrestle DH to keep them in the online basket once he spotted that a box was £8! Vaguely remember when fish fingers and Heinz beans was a budget meal.

What I'm about to say is not on many people's radar WRT "shrinkflation" because technically, it's not a "shrink".... But once you notice it you can't unnotice it.

Fresh veg like Celery, leek, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, etc, in all major supermarket chains has gone dirty.

The "fresh" veg is FILTHY. You used to be able to buy a few leeks or whatever without soil covering the packaging.

And it's more expensive too.

This extreme capitalism corporate greed crisis is hitting us in more ways than one.

The depth of an Aldi Racer bar (snickers rip off) has literally halved recently! To add insult to injury they have attempted to disguise this by making the wrapper longer.