What Is Shrinkflation and the Best Ways for You to Tackle It

Have you noticed the size of your cookies are a little smaller?  Cookie Monster has! He even tweeted that he hates shrinkflation… So, if you are wondering what the Cookie Monster (and me!) are even talking about, you are in the right place.  

Together we are going to dive into what shrinkflation is, some food items that you might have noticed are affected by it and ways you can address it.  

What is shrinkflation?

Shrinkflation is a tactic that companies are using to make up for higher costs.  Pretty much they are shrinking the size of the product or the total package size (weight) but keeping the cost the same.  This tactic is making sure companies are making up the financial differences of inflation while trying not to deter customers from buying their product.  

Where have you noticed shrinkflation?

Shrinkflation might be something you are noticing or unfortunately, it might be going unnoticed. It really can be tricky because the appearance of the package might look exactly the same.  

Here are some food items that shrinkflation is affecting, but can also be affecting chips, nuts, cereal, pasta, and rice, to name a few.  

This is a 6% decrease in weight of Oreos (family size) and a 12% decrease in weight for Wheat Thins (family size) in a 4-year period.  

It has even been noticed to affect cleaning and household products as well, but I’ll leave that up to another blogger to dive into.  

Who is shrinkflation affecting? 

As you are probably grasping, shrinkflation is affecting most of us!  And if you are thinking it is only affecting those in the United States, think again.  It is happening all over the world.  

How can you address shrinkflation? 

I think this is the big question, right? We can’t make Nabisco add more Oreo cookies to the container, but we can shop smarter and be aware!  So here are three shopping tips to help you out: 

• Compare the unit price
  • What is this? It’s the price of the product per unit (i.e. gallon, ounce, pound).  This number is written in the left-hand corner of the price tag of a product and is helpful when comparing items.  Here’s a great example from the University of Maryland Extension.  As you can see by comparing the unit price the 28 oz can for $1.35 is the better buy comparing each unit or per ounce in this case.  

• Consider store brand 
  • You might be attracted to the name brands because that is what is marketed to us in ads and commercials, but store brands might be the better buy in this situation.  Most of the time the products are very similar and might not be hit by shrinkflation.  
• Rethink your premade snacks 
  • It seems that snack items tend to be affected by shrinkflation so this might be a great opportunity to rethink your snack.  Maybe try a different cracker, make your own trail mix or skip the bag of chips this week while grocery shopping.  It’s just an idea!  

Unfortunately, we can’t make shrinkflation disappear, but we can be more aware!  Let us know if this blog was helpful by commenting or reaching out.  

Cheers, 

Reference: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJeUgCMvMBA

https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/spending/articles/how-to-beat-shrinkflation

https://extension.umd.edu/programs/family-consumer-sciences/snap-ed/eat-smart/eat-smart-blog/compare-unit-prices-and-labels-save-money/