If you've noticed your bar of Toblerone looking rather small and a far cry from how you remember it in your childhood, rest assured, you’re not the only one. In fact, consumers around the world are increasingly paying more for a growing range of products in ways that don’t show up on receipts.
Think of shrunk portions, thinner rolls, lighter bags, smaller cans — in this way, companies try to offset rising labor and materials costs without scaring us all off. But are they really succeeding? Also known as shrinkflation, the phenomenon has surely been noticed and well documented by people don’t find it fair to pay the same for a lesser net weight.
One such online destination, a subreddit called “Shrinkflation,” is dedicated to sharing some of the most deliberate and annoying examples of paying more for less spotted in practice. Below we wrapped up a collection of posts from there.
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This Is Insane
I’ve Been Bamboozled
Terry's Chocolate Orange Is Now Just "Terry's Orange" With The Word "Chocolatey" In The Description
This indicates that the quality has been reduced to the point where they cannot legally call it chocolate anymore
Shrinkflation is a form of retail camouflage in which consumers pay more for a growing range of products without actually realizing it. By shrinking usual product sizes and net weight, companies and businesses aim to cover rising labor and material costs without increasing the prices.
According to Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate and lawyer who has authored a number of consumer protection laws, including the regulations under which the Massachusetts Lemon Law operates, consumers check the price every time they buy, but they don’t check the net weight. Dworsky has been tracking shrinkflation for more than 30 years, and he shares the results on his website Consumer World.
Sometimes I Like To Flip The Chips In The Store Shelves
Ah Yes ± 25ml, Thank You WD-40
You can't always get the last amount of oil out of the can before the pressure has gone. Leaving oil in the can that's thrown away. My experience has told me that the smaller cans (100ml) are the worse for this. I went through a phase of opening up the "empty" cans to see how much was left. Maybe I should have formalized the results and publicized them for widespread comparison. https://www.facebook.com/739827619/videos/3134983986753041/
The Shrinkflation Of The Old Pringles Design (165g) To The New (134g)
“When the price of raw materials, like coffee beans or paper pulp goes up, manufacturers are faced with a choice: Do we raise the price knowing consumers will see it and grumble about it? Or do we give them a little bit less and accomplish the same thing? Often it’s easier to do the latter,” Dworsky told The Washington Post.
This Shrinkflation Of Toblerone In The UK, Is Still Mind-Boggling
Not a bad thing! The most violent chocolate in the world. It tricks you! You try gnawing it down and the sweet taste starts to melt in your mouth, Then you get brave and bite down only to get the roof of your mouth punctured by the chocolate Swiss alps!
Inflation In The UK 344% Up For A Bag Of Rice From Last Year
Is It Shrinkflation When They Just Lie About The Weight? Paid For 12 Oz Of Fish, Got 10.6 Including The Wrapping
Dworsky also argues that when small bags of candy have been downsized, you are not likely to eat two bags instead. "But for orange juice, cereal, paper towels, toilet paper, peanut butter, whatever — consumers just have to buy it more often."
Although products don’t shrink by half and the changes are usually barely noticeable, these little differences add up to your pocketbook. If you're getting 10% to 12% less of a product, that's equivalent to a 10% price increase, and if you’re a regular consumer of that product, you will start feeling the difference pretty soon.
This Must Be Their Way Of Saying “We Decreased The Amount But Kept The Container Size The Same” (Oikos Yogurt, 5.3 Oz)
When I Was A Teen, These Stretched The Length Of The Package. Those Were The Days
one time my daughter had a black hole on her tongue and we rushed to the dentist ($$$) before she finally admit that she had two packs of that thing the night before... iiissshhhh...
The Top Box Is From A Well Established Reoccurring Promotion
I see what they did there. Very clever . Took me a moment to see lack of % sign.
On the other hand, we can try to see the positive side of shrinkflation and argue that we may indeed be saving some calories. In the context of the obesity pandemic, this may be a small but important step. When six-packs of bagels go from 24 oz to 22 to 20 oz, the chances are you will still be buying the same number of packages but end up eating a lesser amount of food.
These Used To Be 6 To A Pack. Same Price Of Course
Same thing happened to chicken fil a frozen lemonade..... use to come in sizes and I always got the large at 3.75........ then a bit over a year ago they made the only size a small and raised the price to 4.25..... so you get less for more than a large used to cost..... I was so mad we stopped going to chick FIL a
I Remember When The "Good Stuff" Mix-In Cup Was Full In Chobani Yogurts. Now Less Than Half
Breyers Chocolate Chip Used To Be Jammed With Chocolate, Now It’s Almost Just Plain Vanilla
I Bought A New IKEA Utensil Holder And It Kept Tipping Over. Turns Out It's The Same Dimensions And Material As The Old One I Have But It Weighs Over 50% Less
Oreo Filling Isn't Just Thinner... Now It Doesn't Even Reach The Edge
This Is Now “Double Stuffed”
Big Mac Hit With The Shrink Ray?
They Couldn't Even Wait Until The Old One Was Gone To Put Up The New Size
Yes, This Is New And Unused
Pack Of Gum
I'd love to see the stats how much they save per year on this. Must be a shitload, like that time an airline took out 1 olive from every salad and ended up saving hundreds of thousands on fuel...
Plenty Of Room To Spare
Cat Food. Was $55 For 24, 5.8 Oz Cans. Now $62 For 24, 5.1 Oz Cans. That's .7 Oz. Less Per Can, And $7 More Per Case
and strangely it is one of the most expensive pet foods, yet has the worst quality - full of c**p
Oreos Shipped With Three Cookies Face Down
Omg! This Is The Best One Yet! From The Previous Post About Bolthouse Dressing, I Called Them Out On Twitter. Lmao
$0.99 For The Top One Last Year. Just Bought The Bottom One For $1.97
Never Thought I'd Catch It So Blatantly Myself - Grocery Store In Canada
Now It's Serious... Not My Dino Nuggets Too
Nugo Bars Advertised As 50g But Coming In At 41g
Wife Bought Paper Towels From A Chain Store Brand Today. Regular Roll Core For Comparison
Same Price. Bought The Last One 3 Weeks Ago, And A New One Today For Thanksgiving
How is it toast? It is bread (with garlic) In UK we call this err... garlic bread.
Scott Toilet Paper - 2019 vs. 2021 Comparison
I Can Now Fit All Of My Groceries In A Ziplock, Yay!
2 Twix Short Of A Yard
Not the Twix- anything but the Twix- take the Reese’s pieces instead-
Softsoap Made Their Bottle Smaller. This Was Their Response
Shrinkflation Has Been Hitting Everything
Even LEGO Can't Escape!
To be fair, the 2010 model was an ultimate collector's set that retailed for $260 and the 2021 set retails for about $70. So not really shrinkflation.
In Response To The Post About Folger's Coffee, I Call Them Out On Twitter. This Was Their Response. But Wait, There's More!
This Is Getting Serious
Yup. BW3 changed that a long time ago. You used to get a dozen wings for a certain price. Now you only get 10 wings, unless you pay quite a bit more, and then you get 15. You cannot buy a dozen wings anymore. So, I no longer patronize BW3. Those with a local business have much better deals and I prefer to see them succeed. Not my job to fund the stock payers of large corporate-owned businesses.
Seen This While Stocking Cookies
I Fill Canisters With Our Dry Goods, The Past Year Things Have Gone From Filled To Nearly Spilling, To This
Maybe it's time to make your own mashed potatoes? Normal potatoes, not cardboard.
Can Of Great Value “Pringles” Is A Third Empty When Opened
Can anyone make a projection, in how many years will they be selling only one potato chip in a can?
Monster Coming In With Some Scary 25% Shrinkflation
I Knew Something Was Fishy When I Bought My Creamer Yesterday
The Slices Of This Chocolate Orange Have Hollows Now
New Take On Shrinkflation: Exact Same Product Miraculously “65% More”
Half A Pickle
This Used To Be Completely Full
Wood Flooring, Now With Less Hardwood!
It’s quite normal that there are sold different qualities. You have to compare (and pay more) to get the thick ones.
Same Product, Now More Expensive, And 25% Less...
Plant based burgers are advertized as better for you, and implied better for the enviroment. When you check the nutritional values, they have more calories. Another case of " Accentuate the positive". Heavy sigh...
Simply Lemonade Have Gone From 64oz To 59oz To 52oz Over The Years While The Price Has Remained The Same Or Increased
Dawn Is Trying To Distract You With Their "Wacky New Lid". I Also Like How The Dude's Thumb Conveniently Covers The Number Of Ounces This New Bottle Contains
The Packaging Of These Cookies Have Been Changed To Remove 1 Cookie To Cut Costs While Shelf Price Is The Same
The Eight-Year Old Recipe I'm Using Calls For "15 Oz. Can Of Stewed Tomatoes". All The Cans Are Now 14.5 Oz
14oz To 12oz
Candy Bar Statistics
Nine Bucks For This At Subway
From 9.7 To 8.8 And From Aluminum To Plastic
It’s Happening To Everything And You Have To Read The Fine Print
Same Price, Less Than Half The Product From Nerdwax (4.25g vs. 2g At $10 Apiece)
Aldi Bake From Frozen Pain Au Chocolate. The Ones On The Left Bought Last Month
In 2018 The Bigger Bottle Was $5.97. Then It Was $6.97. Today It Was $6.97 With A New, Smaller Bottle
Shoprite Brand Tissues. Opened A New Box And Thought I Was Crazy Until I Checked With The Box We Still Had From The Bathroom
Haven't These Always Been 24 Packs?
They have been doing a lot of these things lately. In 2019 Coke decided from one second to the next, that 500ml bottles now had a filling of 450ml for the same price of course. Didn't fly so well with the biggest grocery chains in Switzerland. They decided to boycott those products and Coke got kicked out of the stores. Later they actively circumvented the general importer and bought coke directly from Poland, where sizes were not yet changed. Same happened to some other big companys like Nestlé... The companies negotiated and now we're back to 500ml bottles. So boycott works, but only if the big stores help. Most people don't realize the problem bc the changes are not that easy to spot when shopping.
This Should Be A Crime
Why Walmart?
Same Price For 3 Cans Less Worth Of Cat Food. 3 More Cases A Year I'll Have To Buy
New Size On The Right
Ok but you know how there’s a stand on the bottom of ice cream so it looks like there’s lots but there is a rim on the bottom?
Damn It Costco. 425 Sheets Down To 380. 1,592 Sqft Down To 1,425 Sqft
Right One Is From A Few Months Ago
Kikkoman's Soy Sauce Is 33% Smaller For The Same Price
I Guess Nuts Are To Expensive To Cover My Cone Anymore
Bought A Bottle Of Febreze For The First Time In A Few Years, Still Had The Old Bottle. New One Is 37.5% Smaller
Hamburger Helper Went From 6.6oz To 5.5oz Recently
"Gigantic" Fun Dip Cherry Yum Diddly Dip Ain't What It Used To Be
Remember When These Came With 6 Crackers?
Aww they can't be hitting the peanut butter crackers too I live off those, man
New Hand Soap Bottle Appears Wider But Has 6oz Less. Still "800+ Pumps" Somehow
Old Spice (Two-Pack Of 2.5oz For $7.99 In Feb 2022 V.s. Three-Pack Of 3oz For $8.76 In Oct 2019)
Mike's Pizza 75g Smaller, 1$ More
Febreeze Circa 2011 vs. Today
Isn't febreeze also the one you can remove part of the bottom off as well? So it's actually smaller than it looks here.
Recipe From Back When Cans Were 18oz, Not 15oz
Pringles Shrinkflation. Left Is 200g, Middle Is 180g, Right Is 165g
Same Fooking Price
Ice Is Going From 10lb Bags To 7lbs. Price Stays At $2
Repost But I Thought You Guys Would Like This
This is actually funny. It shows that we are getting more donut over the years.
Tastes Like S**t Too
Same Great Price! Now With Fewer Bars!
Just Noticed My Syrup Contains 5% Less Maple
Adulterated with corn syrup probably. Most commercial honey is the same, can be as little as 2% honey.... yup 2% no typo.
Laundromat Shrinkflation From Lone Pine, Ca
I noticed this at a laundry mat near my house recently. A quarter gets you one minute less dryer time(from 6 minutes to 5).
Same Size Jar, Now With 15% More Water!
Water is the first ingredient in the second one and tomato purée is on the first one
Tyson Even Threw In An Extra Patty To Make Up For Their Underweight Patties, And The Bag Still Came In Under Advertised Weight
When It Hits Home (Before & After)
Amazon Brand Dishwasher Pods (3months Ago vs. Today) 17.1% Less
Goodcook Brand Cookie Cooling Rack, Now Uses Far Less Material And The Price Has Risen
First They Raise Their Prices, Then They Shrink The Products. Dollar Tree Scouring Pads Going From A 5 Pack To A 4 Pack
38% Reduction In Bottle Size (32 Oz —> 20 Oz)
Seventh Generation Dish Liquid - 25 Oz. Before, 19 Oz. Now. Same Price
Old 175g Bag On The Left, New 145g Bag On The Right. Of Course They're The Same Price
Thought This Belonged Here
Does This Count?
All Brand Laundry Detergent, Now In A Bigger Container, Which Contains One Less Pac Than The Old One
Bomb Pops Are A Little Different Than I Remember...
Everybody Who Uses Lumber Knows This Goes Waaaay Back. They're Even Rounding The Corners Now
You are comparing boards with different specifications. The 1920 is sawn timber (50 mm), 1960 is levelled (48 mm) and the 2019 is planed timber (45 mm). Those specifications existed one hundred years ago and are still available today, and there is a difference of 5 mm from the "biggest" to the "smallest", and it's allways been like this. Most "hobby carpenters" can only get hold of levelled or planed boards.
Three Different “Family Size” Kemp’s Ice Cream
2017 Barbasol Can On The Left, 2020 Can On The Right
10 Cookies Last Year 99 Cents; This Year 8 Cookies $1.77
Tide Price Hike. I Searched For The Normal Bottle Of Tide Online And Found The Price Was Higher And The Bottle Was Much Smaller
Kellogg's "Family Size" Raisin Bran Used To Be 1kg, Then A Couple Of Years Ago It Shrunk To 755g. Just Bought A Box And Now It's 625g
Im curious now about the scoop size for the raisins. Still 2 scoops.
Creatine Went Up $7, For 100g Less But In A Bigger Container! And Smaller Serving Scoop
Same Price - 160ml Smaller
A New Two-Cookie Gap In Double Stuf Oreos
Gotta Clearance Out The 32oz To Make Way For 28oz Bottles
I've noticed this one. Every so often the 32 Oz. will pop up and I try to get them when I can.
Scott's Earthgro Mulch Reduced The Size Of Their Bags By 25% But Want You To Continue Paying The Same Amount
I Rarely Shave, And This Is The Difference A Year Makes
New Look! “Same Bottle”!
These Haribo Sour Bites Shrunk From 6.7 Oz To 4.5 Oz Since 2019 And The Price Is Still The Same
Same Capacity Coolers From Costco Purchased 1 Year Apart. Keeps Ice 1 Day Less (5 Days vs. 4 Days)
Tropicana Oj From Costco's
The Economy Is Healing
Cranberry pineapple "flavour". From concentrate "with added ingredients". Wtf is in this stuff??
Biscoff 1.15oz Less For The Same Price!
🧐Lemme check... I have one in my pantry bought yesterday... edit: nope, ours are still 250g packages 🤔 and it seems the two packages here are not the same thing. One has the biscuit inside in a row, the other one has each biscuit seperatly packaged. We need to compare same things not two different versions.
New (414ml) And Old (500ml). Same Price
The Chocolates Have Always Been Pathetically Small But Until 2020 The 24th Was Around 3x The Size Of The Others. This Year It Is The Same
12 Fl Oz = 350ml And Also 375ml
Don't forget: while this shrinkflation is happening, corporate profits and CEO pay are going way up. We're not all suffering together.
Oh, wholeheartedly agree with this. Late stage capitalism is an absolute criminal enterprise. Consumers only exist to support shareholders.
Load More Replies...Came here to say the same. This is my biggest problem with it. "Now with 50% more landfill waste!"
Load More Replies...Don't forget: while this shrinkflation is happening, corporate profits and CEO pay are going way up. We're not all suffering together.
Oh, wholeheartedly agree with this. Late stage capitalism is an absolute criminal enterprise. Consumers only exist to support shareholders.
Load More Replies...Came here to say the same. This is my biggest problem with it. "Now with 50% more landfill waste!"
Load More Replies...