Shrinkflation: Are You Paying the Same Amount for Less Product at the Grocery Store?

What’s the deal with “shrinkflation”?

It is not my imagination that my weekly grocery store trips are growing increasingly expensive. Inflation in America has jumped 7.9% in one year and is currently at a 40 year high. There is no question that Americans are paying more for everything, including food.

However, it’s not just higher prices consumers should watch out for. You may have heard this buzzword mentioned lately.

Shrinkflation is when a company puts fewer products, like chips or crackers, in its packages but keeps the price the same.

Shrinkflation is nothing new. This practice has been going on for decades. Edgar Dworsky, a consumer rights lawyer, told Quartz, “Downsizing comes in waves, and it tends to happen during times of increased inflation. Bottom lines are being pinched and there’s three basic options: raise the price directly, take a little bit out of the product, or reformulate the product with cheaper ingredients.”

The term shrinkflation isn’t even a new one, which was news to me as I hadn’t heard of it before this year. However, British economist Pippa Malmgren gets the credit for coining the term in 2009.

Proof of shrinkflation.

According to Food & Wine, Quartz, and the consumer advocacy site, MousePrint.org, the following products have all gotten smaller recently.

• Doritos contain about five fewer chips. Frito-Lay confirmed they dropped the weight of the 9.75-ounce bag to 9.25 ounces.
• Wheat Thins have 28 fewer crackers per box now that the package weight went from 16 ounces to 14 ounces.
• A 4.1-ounce tube of Crest 3D White is now 3.8 ounces.
• Keebler Chips Deluxe cookie packages have shrunk from 11.3 ounces to 9.75 ounces, while the family size is down from 17.2 ounces to 14.6 ounces.
• Gatorade bottles have added an indention in the middle, and the weight has shrunk from 32 ounces to 28 ounces.
• Charmin’s Mega Roll lost 20 sheets. The package shows 264 2-ply sheets are now down to 244 2-ply sheets.

Check out the subreddit.

If you’d like to report your shrinkflation discoveries and read about others, you can head over to this subreddit which is dedicated to keeping up with the latest downsizing discoveries. For example, a recent post shows that Dollar Tree Teddy Grahams have gone from a package of ten to six.

Forget about shrinkflation and calculate unit prices.

You don’t have to be a victim of sneaky marketing tactics. Calculate unit prices for items by dividing the cost of the product by its weight or unit amount to compare prices. Sometimes grocery stores will do this for you, and you can see the unit price labeled below the product on the shelf. You may see a product advertised as being “on sale,” but when you figure out the unit price, you will see a different sized package that’s not on sale could end up being a better deal.

Companies may use the shrinkflation tactic on one size of their product, but that doesn’t mean consumers can’t purchase the product at a reasonable price. Just stick to comparing by unit price so you aren’t paying more for something you could get for less.

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Note: an original version of this story was previously published on NewsBreak.