Shrinkflation and product quality

Here's some market data on cacao and coffee prices- and this is just the increase is raw ingredients, not energy, transport or labour costs.

Exactly, as well as the increases in energy and raw materials, you have the increase in NMW which will hit everywhere from the factories to the supermarkets.

Plus you also have the supermarkets dictating terms and selling a lot of these items at 'round pound' price points meaning that they want the item to be sold for £1 and tell the manufacturer to make it work at whatever price they pay them for the item to maintain their profit.

And when it doesn't work any longer, it suddenly goes up to £1.50/2 because the supermarket doesn't want to sell the item for £1.36, £1.74 or whatever the increase in costs would naturally take the price to.

It's shit, but consumers can do a lot to help themselves by paying attention and thinking about what they buy, also not buying brands, which are rarely better quality or nicer but have a name and advertising that needs paying for. I've never bought brands like Heinz, Cadbury or Lurpak and don't think they are any better than supermarket equivalents that are much cheaper.

Any thing made by Heinz is a ridiculous price. Now that's one firm that is totally taken the piss.

Cadburys has been rank since Kraft took them over. I had a Biscuit Boost the other day and it was foul. I couldn't finish it. I used to love them.
Then there the other problem that all clothes seem to be made of plastic these. Cotton and wool are getting rarer.

You are so right! Take Kenco coffee. 200g in Sainsburys. £8.45. I got excited seeing it in B&M for £6.45. DH then said ‘it’s on Nectar price for £6.61’.

I would have dashed off to get some until it was revealed it was 190g. So apart from ripping us off (if b&m can sell it for £6.45 what can’t Sainsburys?) for every 20 jars they make an extra £6.61/8.45. The jar size is still the same so many people don’t notice!

coffee, butter (200g not 250g), biscuits in fact you bloody name it it’s shrunk. But many people simply don’t notice.

Patrick Grant's book Less is brilliant on this subject.
Standards of pretty much everything have been dropping pretty much consistently since the 1970s and have fallen off a cliff in the last ten years.

His suggestion is that we buy better, pay more, buy less and look after it. Workers will get a fair wage, our stuff will be more pleasing and better to use and there will be less waste.

Now poor quality things are badly made from shoddy materials - mostly oil based - in countries where people and the environment are exploited. The only people who gain are the richest whilst the majority of us are no better off than we were fifty years ago financially or in terms of level of happiness.

With the possible exception of cars everything is worse than it was.

We life in an era of enshittification.

I voted YABU. Manufacturers can't win! If they maintain the volume and quality then the price would often shoot up as the price of raw materials and basic ingredients have increased. If they lower the quantity and quality too much then people complain that it's no longer the same product and feel ripped off. So manufacturers will often increase the price a bit and lower the quality and quantity a bit and hope this uneasy compromise irritates fewest people.

I run a business and have maintained the quality and quantity of my offering but get really annoyed when people complain about the price and assume that it should be lower because a few years ago the price was actually lower and they have decided this is the 'fair' price that should be charged. Have they seriously not noticed that the price of everything has increased? We have had years where inflation has been running at 10%. How on earth do you expect businesses to freeze prices in this context? It is completely unrealistic. I am making less profit than I used to but I am charging a lot more. That's just how inflation works and it's painful for everyone, not just the consumer.

I can highly recommend Larios if you visit Spain and get it in duty free. Cheap as chips and I prefer it to Bombay/Tanqueray etc.

Thank you for this post. Really needed a giggle and doesn't life take funny turns. You're a comedian with extensive loo roll knowledge🤣🤣🤣

I’m assuming from the responses that pp don’t work in manufacturing.

it’s a nightmare…manufacturers are dealing with steep increases in energy and raw materials. There are huge added expenses from supply chain disruptions as a result of global instability. Add to that the rapid rise of regulation in the eu means there is huge pressure on margins…these companies are not charities and need the backing of investors who want to see a return on their investment.

Many FMCG’s are looking to cut staff.. Nestle announced 16000 are going last week.

If that is an industry trend it will be a disaster for employment and the economy.

So yep… either the prices are going to keep going up, or there will be shrinkflation… or both.

I can help you here after extensive research ;)

I believe the best loo rolls for number of sheets per pound are the spring force ones from Tesco.

if you value softness then the value choice is Lidl’s Floralys.

If you have no Lidl, then Tesco SuperSoft long rolls are the best value.

I cannot believe this is my specialist subject. Not how I saw my life panning out.

Totally correct, I know this. It is irritating, though, and really sneaky. Buyer beware and all that, but sometimes buyer is tired, perimenopausal and distracted. I won’t buy Bombay Sapphire premix again.

Had a look on Which? magazine to say if they had anything to say on the matter of shrinkflation. They've been covering it for years, here are a couple of screenshots from their most recent report (13 Oct 2025).

Which right could you claim was being breached? As long as they print the size/weight on the packaging, the goods are "as described".

Better to buy a litre of gin and mix it yourself then.

I completely agree. I don't have an issue with increasing prices but I do have an issue with deception which it feels like companies are doing by both increasing the cost and reducing the quality.

See other threads on mumsnet this morning ref digestives.

For the past few times I've cooked bolognaise I've been accusing DH of over eating as there are less leftovers, it was only when I saw the thread on mumsnet that the pack size had reduced that I understood why there was less leftovers!

This has been going on for years and predates the cost-of-living crisis.

You mention tissues. Kleenex Balsam used to have 72/box, it changed to 64/box probably about 5 years ago. I used to pay £1/72, it has crept up to £2/64 so I now only (bulk) buy when it's on offer.

Also Jaffa Cakes go from 12/box to 11 then 10 - I stopped buying them.

Bahlsen used to be 9/box and is now 8/box, whilst I used to buy them on offer at £1/box (usual price £1.35?) they're now £2.25/box and on special they're £1.75. They're a special treat now.

Heinz ketchup in glass bottles was £1.20 pre-pandemic. It wasn't on the shelves for about 3 months (fair enough, manufacturing got interrupted for a lot of things back then) then when it reappeared it was £1.70. It's currently £3 and has been for quite some time. I buy other brands now.

The size always seemed to drop when it was approaching a 'price point', a cost that presumably their marketing dept had decided would be the threshold between customers still buying it or buying another brand. It was probably about ten years ago I watched Coca Cola's 2 litre bottle inch its way up to £1.99, then drop to 1.75 litres rather than go over £2.

Another trick I noticed would be that a product would go on special offer in absolutely every supermarket, then after a month or two the price would go back up but the size would drop simultaneously. That was a sneaky one! Or like the Heinz I mentioned earlier, things go off the shelves for a bit and come back much dearer, as if they think we'll have forgotten what it used to cost.

Kellogs frostie cereal bars were 6 for £1.25 now 4 for same price (this happened in September with return to school). My dc has afrid and its a safe food, eats one a day.

Re toilet rolls nicky ones on amazon go on offer regularly and are reasonable quality.

If you look at Cadburys, they have actually removed that much cocoa content that they are no longer allowed to call it chocolate as there isn’t enough cocoa content.
If you look at the front of the bar it’s now simply called cadburys dairy milk. They have removed the word chocolate. Such a shame!
The price has still increased for poorer and smaller quality.

You are right, Possibly they think their customers prefer a reduction in quantity without compromising on the quality