According to the UK’s Office of National Statistics, 2,529 products on supermarket shelves decreased in size or weight in the five years between 2012 and 2017.
All around you, all the time, many consumer products are growing lighter, thinner, less substantial – all while maintaining the same price.
The answers lie not only in rising costs of commodities, but also in certain peculiarities of human perception and some unsettling trends in business.
While most people will react to the “shrinkflation” of the products they buy each week with momentary outrage, some go further – they remember.
“One of the earliest examples I saw of downsizing, growing up as a kid, was coffee,” Dworsky recalls.
Would Dworsky prefer it if companies came right out and just raised the price, rather than playing these games? »