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394

Warren and Dean demand Coke, Pepsi and General Mills stop ‘shrinkflation’ (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

59 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Democratic lawmakers accuse companies of shrinking product sizes while charging consumers the same price

It's becoming a common experience for Americans going to the grocery store: your bag of chips seems lighter, your favorite drink comes in a slimmer bottle, and you're running out of laundry detergent more quickly than usual. And yet things are staying the same price.

On Monday two Democratic lawmakers launched an attempt to get to the bottom of the phenomena, accusing three major companies, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and General Mills, of shrinking the size of products while charging consumers the same price -- a price-gouging practice known as "shrinkflation".

...

“Shrinking the size of a product in order to gouge consumers on the price per ounce is not innovation, it’s exploitation,” Warren and Dean said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this price gouging is a widespread problem, with corporate profits driving over half of inflation.”

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I was looking to find what this actually does about shrinkflation and couldn't find it.

If this is some fact-finding committee i swear I'll lose my mind. The shrinkflation's not even subtle, and its much much more than the paltry examples listed.

Like it's so insulting i stopped me bad habit of eating kids cereal as a treat/dessert. The fact there's no value prospect anymore is one thing, sure but the size of these goddamn cereal boxes got so small so fast even my lizard brain (the one ad guys work so hard to manipulate) gets angry instead of tempted.

I leave the grocery store imagining it's on fire every week and I bet I'm not the only one

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[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (8 children)

The federal government should just enact a national unit price mandate for fair comparison shopping.

Currently, eighteen (18) states and one (1) territories have unit pricing laws or regulations in force. Ten (10) of these have mandatory unit pricing provisions. They are: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and the District of Columbia.

https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/national-legal-metrology/us-retail-pricing-laws-and-regulations

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago (7 children)

This is the right way to go about it. Telling companies they can’t do x or y doesn’t jive with capitalism if they aren’t deemed monopolies.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 week ago (7 children)

On the one hand, shrinkflation is a fucking awful thing to do to consumers.

On the other hand, I wish people would see the fact that they're eating fewer chips and drinking less sugary soda has a silver lining.

Maybe keep the physical shrink and shrink the price too?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

That's not silver lining. That's a flake of silver from the CEO's toilet paper after he wiped his ass and threw it in the mixer

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Right, I mean the issue isn't necessarily the smaller serving size, it's the much higher price per quantity of product. That said it isn't all upside since the volume of a container increases faster than its surface area and therefore larger packages use less packaging material per quantity of product leading to less trash (assuming the product is fully consumed and not partially thrown away).

There's a balancing act in play where the ideal size is the average amount that a person would consume within the products shelf life (once opened). That minimizes food waste and excess packaging material.

Since averages when applied to people are notoriously bad (see E.G. attempts at making an average fighter pilot seat) it's best to offer a variety of package sizes so that consumers can purchase the one that best meets their consumption needs. So as to not encourage over consumption though, the cost of packaging materials should probably be averaged and applied to the quantity of product such that price per quantity of product remains linear instead of being cheaper as the volume of the container increases.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Standardizing 'serving size' would help too.

The 'serving size' of an 7.5-ounce can of Coke is... one can.

The 'serving size' of a 12-ounce can of Coke is... one can.

The 'serving size' of a 16-ounce bottle of Coke is... one bottle

The 'serving size' of a 20-ounce bottle of Coke is... one bottle.

The 'serving size' of a 2 liter bottle of Coke is... about six.

No wonder everyone ignores that phrase.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Yes, proportional change would be better although when it ccomes to cereal it is the person pouring the cereal that decides how much a serving is.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Absolutely. With some things, the physical shrinkage is not going to change portion size. But chips and soda were specifically mentioned.

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