Is it time something was done about shrinkflation?

I haven’t found a supermarket brand I like yet. It is an example though.

Food, clothes, utilities, holidays. Everything except electronics unusually. Profiteering of a level I've personally never seen before (40's).

Yeah, I can see a lot of people stopping eating a Crunchie because Cadbury has lost the royal warrant.

When the core price of everything used to produce products, and the overheads go up, then the price needs to go up. Or the quantity or quality go down for the same price. Otherwise the business will be losing money and then not able to operate at all.

Some prices just wouldn't be sustainable if they were increased in line with what it costs to deliver the product, and make a profit on it too. Offering less of the product, for the same or an increased price (but not as increased as it would be) especially luxury things that people would then just do without, not buying it at all.

There is undoubtedly some profiteering along the line, and some businesses taking advantage, but ultimately when you're buying a product which now costs more to produce, you're either going to pay more for it, or get less for the same price.

Some would prefer higher prices and the same sizes, personally I think the pp who suggested higher prices but with smaller and cheaper pack sizes would be the best idea - but even then implementing that would cost money that needs to be found from somewhere.

Don't get me wrong it's annoying, but when costs to produce services and goods go up, then that has to be covered somehow.

Supermarket profits are still going up so they could afford to stop doing this

Shrinkflation is a response to falling living standards.

If the economy is fixed, and living standards rise, then we will see a lot less shrinkflation.

I would not hold your breath.

6€ for 10 eggs today
admittedly organic, so pricier, but

2.50 for chilli heatwave doritos now and they are barely bigger than a grab bag! Used to be thw big sharing bag but now it's about 1/3 smaller.
Just being ripped off continuously.

Expect a lot more of it thanks to labour growing the economy by implementing an employers national insurance

Also the sugar tax and healthy eating campaigns impacted product size (not saying the latter was necessarily bad)

costs of inputs have gone up a lot and pp is right that you have to look at profit margins - for a lot of businesses these have gone down despite prices going up. However big conglomerates can absorb some of the pain

@VegTrug - no Dairy Milk now contains Shea Butter (which is actually a wax) - it definitely didn't contain that years ago. I stopped eating Cadburys a few years ago when I genuinely thought a bag of Mini Eggs had gone off they tasted so bad!

doesn't anyone follow the news anymore?
floods in spain
droughts in france
plant disease (olive oil, chocolate, coffee)
harvest not accessible due to conflict
fertiliser more expensive

and I sury missed out a lot more...

Smaller portions are probably a good thing.

What so many people don't understand about Cadbury is that Dairy Milk (and products which state they contain actual Dairy Milk chocolate) is still the same! It's only bars that don't contain Dairy Milk that have changed. Twirl & Wispa for example, they’ve changed and are horrible. Dairy Milk buttons however, they’re still original and beautiful!! 🤤

You're joking? 3?!?

Had some of those round crispy chocolate mints at Xmas , they were half the width as previous years.

we need to look at the profit margins of the companies making the products. They claim they have no choice because the cost of the raw ingredients have gone up so much but if they’ve made more money in 2024 than they did in 2023 then they’re talking rubbish. Alas, if we do much to prevent them from making too much profit, they’ll take their factories else where.

I was wondering AR Christmas why I bought the tubs of chocolates as they are about 500g now where they used to be 1kg. I think the celebrations was even less. Personally I'm going to skip them in future and get the list chocolates from Costco because price per kilo it's probably cheaper maybe.

Personally I'd rather just skip things like Crisps when you get 6 in a bag.

My OH would do this, he only buys branded products, he is almost certainly on the spectrum and has ADHD, not diagnosed, wont be tested but I work in this area with a high level in my client group and have been to lots of assessments with the servce users so am almost certain

So he has two problems, firstly he cant remember and doesnt know how to find good value, its meaningless to him, he will see a stand with 'offers' on them and think its a good offer even though end of aisle offers are nearly always brands and always cost more than the stores own make

Secondly, he cant look properly at things, if you notice in supermarkets the most expensive products and brands are at eye level, your heinz beans are at eye level, your tesco own are right down the bottom, he is not capable of looking around the shelves to see different things, he only sees what is in front of him

He also thinks that the 'offer' stands are where that product is, so if he goes for coffee and the stand in front of him at the end of the aisle has coffee on it, he thinks he is at the 'coffee section' and there it is in front of him, he wont think to go to the hot drinks section and find all the coffees there

We have quite a lot of 'disputes' about shopping, I cant bear it as I cant bear the thought of being swindled and thats what supermarkets do to you.

Supermarkets dont make money on their own brand, they make money on brands.

Potato waffles are not the same as potato wedges!!!

Why do people always try to change what people eat. If someone wants potato waffles, thats what they're going to buy and eat.

Buy less processed food. Vegetables in particular have not risen anywhere near as much as packaged foods. To the person complaining about potato waffles, try buying potatoes and making potato wedges instead

I wouldn’t say much cheaper - it’s around €11/12 a litre even here (France) for middle of the road stuff. Lots of things are more expensive, but some strange things like dishwasher tablets are cheaper. All in all, supermarket shopping costs me more in France than the UK, excluding wine…. Chicken, fruit, veg are noticeably pricier. Food really is cheap in the UK, even if it has gone up a lot

Lone voice in the wilderness - if only 'cos my fat arse needs crisp packets to shrink a lot further yet.

That's a crazy difference, makes me wonder why people buy the birds eye ones, they are pretty much the same who ever makes them