Have you ever gone to the supermarket and grabbed a pack of your favourite comfort-food snack, say, chips, which suddenly seemed to you not as full as it used to be? You look at it and it dawns on you that it’s maybe only a little over two-thirds full? Are your eyes deceiving you or did the same snack seem to contain less than it did a year or two ago?

Stop gas lighting yourself. Chances are the pack in fact contains fewer chips than what you were accustomed to, even though the size of the bag itself remains the same.

This is due to a concept that, while not necessarily new, is becoming more spoken about these days: Shrinkflation. It sounds like a gimmicky, New Age-y buzz word spawned from poseurs of the TikTok generation, but it is perfectly legitimate, having recently been officially added to the Cambridge dictionary.

What is shrinkflation?

Shrinkflation, a portmanteau of the words ‘shrink’ and ‘inflation’, is a pricing strategy used by manufacturers wherein the size of a product gets smaller though its price remains the same. The coining of the term (known in some jurisdictions as “down-switching”) has been credited to a British economist called Pippa Malmgren, who pointed out in a tweet that both Pepsi and Coke had been shrinking their soda can sizes while charging more per ounce.

Shrinkflation is really, then, a stealthy (some might say “devious”) way of raising product price without obviously, well, raising product price.

Fact: Market research has consistently shown that consumers react negatively to price increases, especially when they are constantly occurring in a precarious environment such as the one provided by the novel coronavirus and its financial aftershocks. So, rather than constantly adjusting prices, what manufacturers do is make the product smaller, or shrink it, so they can boost or at least maintain profit margins.

Shrinkflation and its effects

If you’ve wondered why it is that, although you’re being careful with your spending, it’s not making that much of a dent in your pocketbook, shrinkflation could perhaps provide an answer. If you’re getting, say, 20 per cent less of what you’re supposed to getting when you go shopping, then it stands to reason you’re going to need to spend more. If you’re accustomed, for example, to shopping once a week for grocery supplies, then you just might find that you’re popping by the store another time during the week for a top-up. This definitely means more spending. And if the additional pop-in is not part of your planned grocery budget, you might find yourself turning more and more to your credit card to underwrite those purchases and then, before you know it, you’re swimming in credit card debt that will not seem to go away.

Five ways to protect your bottom line

While down-switching by manufacturers can be thought of by consumers as sly, it is oftentimes not illegal. Manufacturers, like all businesspeople, are in business to make money. The cost of doing business has gone up. That said, however, there can be cases of profiteering when a company uses inflation constraints as an excuse to simply make more money. Consumer, beware.

Around the world package sizes are getting smaller or contents within packages are becoming fewer even though consumers may not immediately notice. However, it is your prerogative to protect yourself. Here are some suggestions:

1. Don’t let vanity blind you. If you need reading glasses for small print, put them on. There are also some people who think they look cheap if they inspect packages. Don’t simply reach for a product and toss it into your shopping cart because the package appears to be the same size. You should be checking the nutritional content anyway, as what appears to be healthy is often not so healthy.

2. Keep track of net weights and start reading labels. The reduced package size and the content amounts are usually right there for you to compare and contrast. Case in point: In the US, a discovery was recently made that a small box of Kleenex tissues that earlier this year held 65, now holds 60. This is at the same net weight.

3. Change your shopping habits: You should consider buying in bulk. This makes many products you shop for a lot cheaper. If you are single consider bulk buying with other single people and split the items, such as cleaning supplies.

4. Be wary of “redesigned” packages. A new “ergonomic shape” oftentimes means the container is slimmer even while it might have the same height. Do you really need, for argument’s sake, a fabric softener container that’s been nipped and tucked at the waist to prevent your fingers from, what, getting muscle contractions?

5. Finally, if something doesn’t seem fair, where you can, do something about it. It could be the size of your boxed lunches at your favourite lunch hot spot. If they refuse to sell the smaller size and are forcing you to buy the large, which, frankly, may not hold that much more but costs more, find another spot that does. Or pack your own lunch. Remember, with your finances, the freedom to choose is always yours.