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Shrinkflation is a particular type of inflation where the quantity or size of products is subtly reduced while maintaining the same price. This gives consumers less for their money without an obvious price hike.
Food companies have been shrinking products for decades as a way of maintaining sales figures when economic factors leave consumers with less money to spend.
Reducing the volume or weight of a product, or the number of items in a package, helps to keep prices steady by reducing the cost to produce them. But for those on tight budgets, shrinkflation makes it harder to stretch a food shop to feed the family. Research in 2023 by Barclays found that 83% of shoppers were worried about how shrinkflation would impact their finances.
What’s driving shrinkflation?
Shoppers tend to notice price increases more than they notice a decrease in size, especially if the reduction happens incrementally over time. But when consumers realise products have shrunk, they may feel swindled. Despite this, food manufacturers and retailers say they are not setting out to mislead us.
“[Retailers] know that if they go over certain price thresholds, they’ll lose a lot of sales,” says Jeremy Garlick, whose company, Insight Traction, advises FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) firms on strategy. “It’s just a business decision, they’re not trying to trick people [ …] they feel they have to do it in order to stay competitive,” he adds.
Garlick told NerdWallet that shrinkflation is largely driven by manufacturers and that the need to reduce product size to maintain a price point buyers are comfortable with applies to both big-name brands as well as supermarkets’ own-brand versions.
“[Manufacturers are asking] ‘to get the right promotion in Tesco or Sainsbury’s, we need to hit a £1.25 price point. What would we need to do in order to make a sustainable amount of money?’” Garlick explains. Sometimes, the answer is to shrink the size, either of an individual item or of a multipack.
Where shrinkflation hurts the most
Shrinkflation affects all of us, with shoppers increasingly feeling like their weekly budget buys less food each time they fill their trolley. But for those on very limited incomes, rising food bills can lead to missing meals, eating less, or going into debt.
“Things are worse than they have been for a long time. We are still very much in the middle of the cost-of-living crisis,” said Ruth Wilkinson, who works at Glasgow South East Food Bank. Her team collects food donations from the community and supplies local people with mostly tinned, dried and long-life food products – many of which have shrunk.
Though smaller packets may be preferable than higher food bills, shrinkflation causes another struggle for people living below the poverty line. Wilkinson explained that a single parent, seeing how far they can make things stretch, might have previously relied on a tin of beans to feed their three kids. But now it doesn’t, and they’re having to make do with that little bit less.
Heinz beans are an example of ‘skimpflation’ where the ingredients are adjusted to make goods cheaper to produce. In this case, the number of beans per tin has been reduced by four grams, despite supermarkets hiking the price of a single tin to £1.40. In 2022 a tin of beans cost just £1.
What to watch out for on your food shop
Over the last few years, inflation has driven manufacturers and retailers to change the size and price of many household essentials. As well as food, you could now be paying more for less on products such as toilet rolls and washing up liquid, which have shrunk since 2022. Here are some examples of how shrinkflation is eating into your weekly shop, and what to look for to get the most for your money:
- Smaller snacks
Some of the most noticeable examples of shrinkflation are chocolate bars and crisps. A tube of Pringles is 35g smaller than it was in January 2022 and a bar of Galaxy chocolate has shrunk by 10%. Use www.trolley.co.uk to compare the weight of items, not just the price.
- Multipacks contain less
Family favourite biscuits bars Penguin and Club had eight bars in a multipack, but since February 2023 they only have seven. Check how many items are in a multipack before heading to the checkout.
- Same box, fewer items
Shrinkflation is almost impossible to spot when the packaging-to-product ratio has increased. Several supermarkets reduced the number of PG Tips teabags in a box from 180 to 140 between 2021 and 2022. If the label on the shelf says ‘price per unit,’ use this to compare different brands.
- Smaller packets
If you’re running out of regular items faster, check how many grams are in a pack. Consumer champion Which? found that, in 2023, Chocolate Digestives went down from 433g to 400g at Morrisons and Tesco, the equivalent of losing three biscuits per pack.
- Skimpflation, or reduction in key ingredients
Look out for manufacturers reducing the quantity of expensive ingredients or replacing them with cheaper ones. For example, several supermarket lasagnes now contain less beef. In August 2024, an investigative news team at BBC Panorama found that Tesco food products that were ‘price matched’ against Aldi’s version contained less of a key ingredient, such as chicken nuggets and cottage pie. Comparing the percentage of meat in a dish can help you see exactly what you’re paying for.
Where to get help with rising costs
The cost-of-living has driven up the number of people reliant on food banks, including those who are working but are not earning enough to make ends meet, particularly if they live alone.
For those caught in the impossible situation of having to choose to spend less money or eat less food when they don’t have enough of either, help is out there.
“Whenever our food bank is open, we have at least one advisor there, either from Citizens Advice or from the local law and money advice centre,” says Wilkinson. “Everybody who comes and gets a food parcel from us, we will check with them: ‘Would you like to speak to somebody from Citizens Advice? Are you sure that you’re claiming everything you’re entitled to, that you’re getting everything you need?’”
To find your nearest food bank, head to the Trussell Trust website for information about getting emergency food, or contact Citizens Advice.
Image source: Getty Images
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