Noticing shrinkflation in supermarkets: smaller portions and fewer items in packs

[LadyVioletBridgerton]

Doesn’t everyone just hate this?!! To me, it’s almost worse than putting the prices up because it just seems so sneaky and almost grubby if you ask me. Just this week, I noticed there was one less corn on the cob in my Sainsbury’s bag (6 down from 7) There was one fewer sweet and sour chicken ball in my Morrisons’s Chinese fakeaway. And my ‘favourite’ was when we bought two steaks In Sainsbury’s but when we got home they were tiny because you could see the end of the steak but then there was a picture of a steak in the middle of the packaging. It successfully fooled us into thinking that the steaks were bigger than they were.

Ok, it’s just one thing at a time but when does it stop? I always joke that one day we’ll just be buying an empty packet.

Had anyone else found anything utterly ridiculous?

Yes. I don't mind on junk food like chocolate but I do on other food and toiletries.

My soap is now 90g instead of 100g. I would rather just pay more.

I always say that to DH that I’d rather pay more. It’s especially annoying when they only reduce it by a relatively small amount but the original amount was the perfect size and then you either need two (now too much) or have to make the smaller one stretch.

Flora tubs are down to 450g. It may have been a while before i noticed but im
sure they used to be 500g.

Shrinkflation is so annoying because it feels like they are trying to con us into cheaper prices or less increases. When we are just getting less product for more money tbh.

Noticed this with toothpaste.

I thought we were using more, but no the tube had shrunk ☹️

Most branded butter is now 200g instead of the original size of 250g the price is the same if not higher!

Not that it will help, but I used to work in commercial strategy and have planned many, many cost increases for grocery products. You’d be amazed at how much data goes into planning whether to reduce the size or raise the RRP. All that data that gets hoovered up when you use a Clubcard, financial models on price elasticity and so on.
(And it annoys me too!)

What annoys me is when they say special offer, crisps down to £1.75 from £2.20. It was always £1.75 before that but then the price shoots up £2.20 the following week. They’re doing that with everything knowing the special offer was the normal price!

McCains frozen jackets - was 8 now 6.
Bachelors cup a soup - was 6 now 4
butter - was 250g - now 200g
sausages - were 8 in a pack, now 6

drives me mad - do they think we don’t notice???

Ritz crackers are now square rather than the old larger rectangle

The shareholders will be happy at the end of the year though!

Nakd bars are sometimes 3 in a pack or 4 in a pack depending on where you shop but often the same price!

Same! forever buying toothpaste, so so tiny. For a family of four it last about a bloody week

Birdseye fish fingers, now 8 pack instead of ten, price the same

But the box is still huge! You open the end and this dinky thing falls out!

Your post reminded me of the fact that around 10 years ago I used to be able to buy three 500 ml bottles of soft drink from Poundland. Then it went down to 2 bottles for a pound. Now they are a pound each. I keep expecting them to go up to £1.25 a bottle any day now.

Frequently after buying a packet of 6 chicken breasts , on opening the packet it’s 5 chicken breasts and a third of a chicken breast 🤬🤬🤬 I know it’s making up the weight but sometimes I need 6 full breasts it drives me nuts !!!

I used to buy the orange nakd bars all the time and well over a decade ago they had orange oil in the ingredients, that didn’t last long ! In more recent years twice I have almost chipped a tooth on what seemed like a tiny stone maybe it was a hard piece of shell 😡 now I’m convinced they use the sweepings off the floor as an ingredient 😂 and they’ve gotten dryer too ! Sick of what starts off as a good product being cheapened to cut costs

I’ve been enjoying the Tunnocks ads on the radio at the moment as they’re promising there will be no shrinkflation on their products!

But yes it’s v annoying and so sneaky. I first noticed it with the go ahead Apple biscuits , you used to get five packets of three in the one big packet, now it’s four packets of three. Grrr

Fage Greek yogurt is in a slightly larger tub now ( probably intended to mislead ) but has only 450g instead of the normal 500g.
Very annoying.

MacVitie’s digestive biscuits- 20% less in a packet and more expensive.
How do I know? They go into a specific container, I used to have 9 biscuits too many to fit in. Now they fill the container with room to spare
🤬

My DH came home with some Country Life butter which has quietly shrunk to 200g (the price hasn’t shrunk). I could have sworn it was 250g just the other week.

I've noticed that Alberto Balsam shampoo and conditioner have shrunk in the last couple of years from 400ml to 350ml to now 300ml with a distracting packaging redesign/ new improved formula each time the content volume shrunk! I agree it's a bit sneaky!

Nescafé Cappuccino.

they got supermarkets to clear their shelves of the old packs, left it a couple of months then released the new packs with one less sachet in the box (7 down from 8) and reduced the amount of product in each sachet.

then they played jiggers pokery with "special offers" just to obfuscate further.