If you’ve stepped inside of a grocery store recently, you may have noticed that everything but the prices have been shrinking. For the past few years, consumers have been flagging a trend that has quietly affected the most popular brands: shrinkflation, where less product is being sold for the same or higher price.
This trend, which has appeared to have become more widespread over the past few years, may have just entered its final days as President Joe Biden has called out companies for playing the American public as “suckers.”
Hours before the Super Bowl kicked off on Feb. 11, Biden posted a special message on social media platform X to call out “big consumer brands” for shrinking their products “little by little” as opposed to their prices, calling their tactics “a ripoff.”
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“I’ve had enough of what they call shrinkflation, it’s a ripoff,” said Biden in his video message. “Some companies are trying to pull a fast one by shrinking the products little by little and hoping you won’t notice. Give me a break, the American public is tired of being played for suckers. I’m calling on companies to put a stop to this. Let’s make sure businesses do the right thing, now.”
Even though Biden avoided mentioning the brands that currently participate in the trend, such as Goldfish, Gatorade, Oreos, Breyers, etc., they were briefly shown in the video.
While you were Super Bowl shopping, did you notice smaller-than-usual products where the price stays the same?
Folks are calling it Shrinkflation and it means companies are giving you less for every dollar you spend.
I’m calling on the big consumer brands to put a stop to it. pic.twitter.com/wL1NsEh78F
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 11, 2024
Shortly after the Covid pandemic began in 2020, consumers began seeing record-high prices for products as inflation started to skyrocket in 2021 and 2022 when the labor market was facing headwinds. Many consumers started to call out companies on social media for charging inflated prices for their products amid a time when the cost-of-living had increased. Eventually, what appeared to be a response to the backlash, companies started to significantly slow down their price increases but also quietly began shrinking the size of their products.
For example, in 2022, Gatorade started receiving criticism from consumers over its new bottle design for its sports drink which shrunk in size from 32 oz to 28 oz. You would think that the price would decrease as consumers were getting less product, but the price stayed the same, which translated to a 14% price increase. The brand responded to the backlash while speaking to Quartz in March 2022 by saying that the new plastic bottle is “easier to grab” and “aerodynamic,” and that the design made the product “a little bit more expensive.”
Gatorade bottles are seen at the grocery store in Las Vegas, United States on November 17, 2023.
Another example of shrinkflation includes America’s beloved Doritos chips. Frito-Lay, which produces Doritos, confirmed that it decreased the weight of the chip brand’s bags from 9.75 ounces to 9.25 ounces without decreasing the price, citing inflation as the reason.
As companies continue to participate in shrinkflation to give consumers the illusion that prices are not increasing, essentially avoiding backlash, the trend can have unintended consequences overtime. In a survey that was released by YouGov last year, it found that 73% of Americans are concerned about shrinkflation, and that 46% of U.S. adults said they are likely to purchase generic products as a result of it. Also 45% of respondents in the survey said that they will likely switch to a different brand due to shrinkflation.
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