Shrinkflation and product quality

[Tinytimmy123]

I am putting this on AIBU but I don't really believe i'm being unreasonable, although im prepared for someone to come along and tell me that im asking for the impossible in some way.

I am getting increasingly mad infuriated and frustrated with diminishing quality and quantity but simultaneous increasing prices.

How are companies allowed to get away with this? The 'col crisis' seems to have been used for ongoing customer exploitation.

So many things smaller but more expensive, from toilet paper to food. Even the humble chocolate bar is being taken over by plastic shit but the price increases. Surely Consumer Rights should be able to insist on CLEAR reporting of recipe and quantity changes ?

All this because im running out of tissues in the middle of the night ! 😄

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Fantastic😂😂😂😂...next stop Mastermind!

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.

Personally speaking I don't expect prices to stay the same but I will question why something has to go up in price AND down in size AND often quality simultaneously, particularly when the price has gone up to 1/3 more. Then you hear that the actual producers of grain or milk or whatever the main ingredients are, are not getting paid any more money and are often operating at a loss. it makes you wonder if the larger corporations are seeing an opportunity and exploiting it.

Overall we are having our food, and yes luxuries, eroded to become either more unhealthy or tasteless because whatever nutrients are being replaced by plastic versions. If we accept a deterioration in our food standards it will be doubly hard to get any quality back.

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.

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

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.

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.

While i agree costs have risen for global, energy, delivery etc reasons, which is inevitable, to a point. As per your example of Cacao prices, the products concerned have often had the Cacao all but removed and replaced by likely cheaper and more 'plastic' versions. Therefore the product is no longer the original. My understanding ( which could of course be wrong) was that if a 'recipe' changed, according to trade descriptions, could it still really be called the same product? Some chocolate bars dont even have actual chocolate or milk in them theyve been removed and replaced by faux flavouring. They neither taste the same, nor better. So if youre selling (and this is just a random choice not necessarily the specific case in point ) a lion bar and it now costs £2 but is the same size and tastes the same then so be it, rather than a smaller, plastic tasting chew.
My feeling is that alot of the major companies are exploiting the circumstances to make even bigger profits under the camouflage of the current global situation. Lets see how many major companies come out with significantly reduced year end profits. Its usually the case they dont take any hit or maximise their profits, but the consumer takes the hit in price, taste and health.