Shrinkflation-less product-same price-is raising new alarm among consumers. The phenomenon has been known for some time, but the layering of price hikes in food and energy prices is refreshing the protests.
Shrinkflation, old vices
The practice of disguised price increases is so stinging that the German consumer association Hamburg Consumer Center has been dedicating the ‘Shame of the Year‘ contest to it for several years. A race to the black palm that in the last edition saw Mondelez, Mars and Ferrero excel.
The UK Statistics Institute in 2017 calculated that the practice of shrinkflation was applied to 2,500 products over 5 years.
Even in France, the phenomenon arouses outrage. Foodwatch France has just launched a petition asking the food industry for more transparency on price increases.
The spotlight turned on by the Antitrust Authority
In Italy, the phenomenon came under the crosshairs of the Antitrust Authority last May. Providing additional material useful to the Authority in determining whether shrinkflation can be defined as a deceptive trade practice provides Altroconsumo.
Italy’s first consumer association has collected concrete cases through the contribution of the ACmakers community and has promoted a petition to say no to dear-spending and ask the government to watch out for price increases and to extend and make existing shopping vouchers accessible to more people.
Italian shrinkflation champions
According to Istat already between 2012 and 2017, there were a total of 7,306 cases of weight changes or reduction in product packages, Altroconsumo recalls.
The association points to 5 exemplary cases:
- Philadelphia light (200 to 190 grams),
- Kinder Brioss (280 to 270 grams),
- Bistefani Krumiri (300 to 290 grams),
- Spumador drinks (1.5 to 1.15 liters),
- Disposable tissues, 10 to 9 tissues per pack.
The other practices of disguised price increases
In addition to the shrinkflation technique, masked price increases are flourishing with the special format technique. In this case, the brand launches a new version of an existing product, keeps the same price but reduces the quantity. The consumer who is already brand-loyal falls into the trap very easily.
This practice is applied, for example, on
- Pavesi Caramel Drops. With 200 g less in comparison with the package of the famous 500 g classic gocciole, the ‘special’ product costs 116% more, over 9 euros/kg,
- Barilla ‘Al bronzo’ pasta, 100g less compared to white or whole wheat pasta and increased price. 1.35 euros for a 400g pack, compared to 500g packs at 0.99 euros for white pasta and 1.29 euros for whole wheat pasta,
- Splendid coffee. 250g pack for the Classic version and 225g pack for the ‘Espresso’ version, with a real surcharge of 19.6 percent,
- Galbusera cookies. The 400g in the Turco becomes 330g in the PiùIntegrali. Price increase of +46%. And again, Magretti with barley weighs 350g, those with added chocolate chips drop to 260g. Price +19%.
While waiting for institutional interventions, all that remains is to apply the usual remedy: eyes open and comparisons only on the price per kg.
Cover image by Dee-Ann Durbin. No, you’re not imagining it – package sizes are shrinking. It’s the inflation you’re not supposed to see. ABC News. 8.6.22. Bottle of Gatorade, 32 to 28 oz. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
