can you tell which chocolate bar is the smallest you might think it's number two but actually numbers two and three are the same size both are 25% smaller than number one but it's harder to tell with number three because of how the chocolate has been distributed it's this sort of underhand tactic that makes it hard to see product shrinking which is spreading throughout our Supermarket aisles to everything from toilet roll to tobleron so why are products getting smaller I look through all the cabinets in my house I find a cabur Cream Egg from a couple
years ago and I brought it this is this year's egg yes this is the egg from a couple years ago look at that judge for yourself America actor BJ Novak noticed a classic case of shrink flation and called out CB bre on TV the standard version of the had clearly shrunk yet in the FAQs on the Cadbury's website at the time in answer to why the size had changed it said it hasn't you've just grown up shrinkflation has become a widespread economic tactic between 2012 and 2017 2,529 products shrunk in the UK while staying the
same price and there's a whole Reddit thread dedicated to tracking these changes and I thought 150 Great and then look there is literally not even like a quarter of it filled with chocolate I put it on top of the other can of soup that I have I noticed it was considerably smaller after Dorito's owner Frito L was called out they admitted to reducing the amount of crisps in a bag saying we took just a little bit out of the bag so we can give you the same price and you can keep enjoying your chips there's
another similar tactic called skimp flation that is often used but harder to track where the weight and price of the product stays the same but the quality of the ingredients decreases take Campbell's cream of potato soup potato used to be the first ingredient on the list but now it's water so why did they do it due to inflation the cost of all the ingredients and resources they use goes up then the companies transfer that cost to the consumer but if they put the prices up we might notice and opt for a cheaper brand so instead
they keep the price the same and recoup their costs by taking back some of the product instead a Harvard study proved that people are more sensitive to changes in price than to changes in quantity and this can be fruitful for companies in the'80s American Airlines removed one Olive from each dinner salad served customers and saved around $40,000 a year but shrinkflation isn't just used to keep up with inflation companies are raking in the profit while overall inflation Rose by 21% from July 2020 to July 2024 corporate profits grew by 90% over that same period nearly
4 and 1 half half times as fast as inflation so companies are taking the opportunity to increase profits by as much as possible and when inflation decreases the products have never returned to the original sizes the reason companies get away with this and why we don't notice it sooner is to do with psychology and packaging tricks one of the boldest shrink flation examples is with toilet paper last year Walmart shrunk their Ultra strong toilet rolls by 48 sheets and last year UK supermarket weit tros reduce theirs by a fifth you'd think that that much of
a reduction would be very noticeable but with a careful recipe of shrinking the size of each sheet putting fewer sheets on a roll and increasing the size of the tube the shrink flation has gone broadly unnoticed these sorts of tricks are what make the economic tactics so dishonest companies are relying on the fact that we are too busy and too caught up with our own lives to notice that their new improved packaging actually means less product take Skippy peanut butter for instance the price of these two tubs is the same and you wouldn't immediately tell
unless you look at the weight that you're getting less peanut butter for the same price but if you turn the jar over you'll see the indentation which allows them to give you 8 oz less peanut butter while making you think you're getting the same that's a 177% decrease some governments are cracking down last year France made it compulsory for retailers to notify Shoppers of of shrink flation other countries have followed suit however in a British parliamentary inquiry into fairness in the food supply politicians Justified the practice there are different motivations for that but also there
are supp some health benefits in reducing the size of chocolate bars even US President Joe Biden is fuming about shrinkflation 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 and this year the shrink flation prevention act has been introduced by US senator Robert Casey who called The Practice greed flation so how can you protect yourself from paying more for Less firstly ignore the big product price and instead keep track of the unit price on your favorite products that's the price
per serving per sheet or per ounce it's the best way to tell if you're getting less bang for your buck also don't be afraid to call out shrinkflation on social media people did it with Toblerone when they removed a call of the chocolate by increasing the gaps between the triangles which they were forced to undo shrink flation isn't going away anytime soon but by being aware of it you can take your autonomy back and make choices with the full picture thank you so much for watching if you haven't already don't forget to subscribe and turn
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