Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/22/france-takes-a-stand-against-shrinkflation.html
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It’s really sad that the United States won’t do anything about practices like shrinkflation. It’s not just deceptive, it makes the economic conditions worse. Think about how corporations used shrinkflation tactics to put less toilet paper on each roll. People are still going to use the same amount of toilet paper in a month, but they will have to buy more rolls of TP to get the same amount of paper. That increases the amount of plastic packaging per sheet, it makes shipping and transportation less efficient (both from the factory to the store and from the store to the consumer) due to less product taking up the same amount of space, which in turn exacerbates fuel prices that are a primary driver of inflation in the first place. It’s a vicious circle where everyone loses, except for the shareholders and corporate brass.
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Was making spaghetti for the family a few days ago and noticed the jar of sauce is slightly less volume than usual. Was expecting a 24 oz jar, but jar said 22.5 (or some such) and was “dagnabit”.
Then when I went to put the pound of pasta in the boiling water noticed the package amount said 14.5 oz.
We still had some leftovers for my work lunch though.
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Example: I’ve been using the same casserole pan to make lasagna for 20+ years. The past few years, I’ve found that most lasagna isn’t long enough to stretch from one end of the pan to the other, when it used to be sufficient. I believe the lasagna noodles are getting shorter.
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Sad but not entirely unexpected. After 40 years of Reaganism, corporations take precedence over mere humans in consumer price protections.
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Good for France, but I wonder if their country is already too far gone at this point, what with their tiny coffees and all…
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I think your pan is getting shorter.
Perhaps you should pray to the FSM for longer lasagna noodles.
Ramen!
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It messes up using a toilet paper roll to check for choking hazards too. Now that the tube is larger, stuff that isn’t a choking hazard fits though it. At least it’s an overreaction to stuff that’s large enough and not an underreaction to stuff that is a hazard being missed.
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They make SUPER MEGA rolls. Just stop being poor. /s
Realistically what needs to be tracked is the cost per specific amount, be it weight, volume, or count. I feel like you’d need a large seller to track this, someone like Wal-Mart or Amazon. Turning all of it into something like an Amazon price tracker and have it real time on their site. I’m not sure what you are better comparing the price change to, average income change or market inflation.
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On the subject of toilet paper my local supermarket (Sainsbury’s) started reducing the diameter of their cores and increasing the sheets, reducing their transport costs. Obviously this is not altruistic (and was used to greenwash), the price per roll went up but the price per sheet remained equivalent. They have recently changed the packaging to recyclable paper.
Shrinkflation alerts instore are to be applauded, well done France.
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