To think shrinkflation is getting out of control?

[Forwardthinkingturtle]

I’m sick of buying toothpaste in a huge box only to find that it’s a small tube 75ml. Even the ones that promise “25% extra free” are only 100ml which is what the standard size was a couple of years ago, so you’re not actually technically getting anything free!

Toilet rolls have shrunk and the quality is crap… excuse the pun.

I had a Magnum ice cream for the first time in a while and I honestly thought it was a mini sized one. They used to have 4 in a pack and now they only have 3.

Don’t even get me started on a Toblerone!

AIBU to despise the dishonesty of brands way more than the actual price inflation? Prices have risen but just be honest about what you’re selling (or not selling!) to us.

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 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!

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

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

I hate ridiculous over packaging. It so wasteful.

Bahlsen?
Chocolate biscuits..

Packet has less biscuits in

And they taste like utter shite.

They have changed the chocolate- it's tasteless and greasy like so much chocolate is now.

{Palm oil?}

I bought a packet last week and was appalled at the gross changes.

Fox’s biscuits have an inner tray with a massive lip so the outer looks like a bigger pack. Con artists.

They should be legally obligated to declare shrinkflation on the packaging for a year after the change. Personally all this nonsense has made me cook more from scratch because I hate feeling ripped off.

Ditto.
I didn't notice it had shrunk until I got it out of the fridge. I felt lied to and swindled.

DH and I are both boycotting it.

Also bloody Twinings teabags. Love their Earl Grey, but the standard sized box has shrunk.

ETA I also hate it when things are massively over-packaged to pretend that there's more in the packet than there really is. You end up with more plastic than food.

I've noticed a lot of toilet roll tubes are wider than they used to be so they can sneakily have less paper on each roll.

Also look at this awful attempt at a toffee finger from Quality Street. You used to get a decent length finger, this is a baby pinkie at best. The toffee pennies are awful now too. The toffee is really soft so they seem to come quite misshapen and they're a fraction of the size they used to be.

We definitely need some more legislation protecting consumers from producers reducing size and quality.

It’s shit and so blatant. I’ve stopped buying so many things. Whole foods have gone up too but at least you can’t really shrink a broccoli. Don’t ever bother eating out either, as the last time I got a chicken wrap for £5 the wrap was completely folded in half - making it half the normal size - with one piece of chicken cut in half.

I've noticed a lot of toilet roll tubes are wider than they used to be so they can sneakily have less paper on each roll.

I noticed this yesterday - can fully put my hand inside the tube

A lot of the time it's just another way to rip us off.

I hate it, but all the consumer research shows people would actually rather pay the same for smaller than more for the same size.

Chicken has always been fowl....

Lurpak spreadable. They've reduced the tub sizes (500g/400g, 1kg/750g) and reduced the butter content.

The loo roll middle thing has been going on for a few years.

Sainsburys did a nice deep individual shortcrust chicken pie. Crumbly crisp proper tasting pastry, smallish firm chunks of roast chicken breast and thick brown tasty savoury gravy. Very nice. £2

New recipe. About 33% more shallow in size. Circumference same. Mushy wet soft soggy pastry with no flavour and a very weird aroma, kind of like wet pet food biscuits. Slimy blobs of wet loose textured chicken in an almost transparent water "gravy" that was reminiscent of shiny cellulose (slightly) thickened piss with a couple of flecks of black pepper that looked like particles of dirt. It absolutely stank upon cutting it open. Still £2

I took one small bite and had to spit it out. It was indescribably disgusting. It stank so bad I nearly threw up. It was cooked on day of purchase, well within date, had no signs of mishandling and went from shop fridge to home fridge within 15 minutes on a cold day.

We used to buy one each every week. My DH took the boxes from the new improved ones back and asked for a refund, which they gave. Won't go near any of their pies now. How much extra profit does it make for sainsburys to ruin those pies because I can guarantee very few will buy one twice and it might make shoppers suspicious of their own brand stuff en masse.

We, as shoppers, must learn, if the retailer puts shit on the shelf, to leave that shit where the supermarket places it and keep our money. Nothing will change until we do.

Doesn't the shelf label say sheets per roll? That's the marker, not the tube size.