SHRINKFLATION eats into every corner of the weekly shop, from the breadbin to the bathroom — and even the cat's Whiskas

  • Food manufacturers are reducing pack sizes while keeping prices the same 
  • 'Shrinkflation' means the official food inflation rate of 19.1% could be higher

Every element of the weekly shop, from the breadbin to the bathroom, is being hit by ‘shrinkflation’, while even the family cat is missing out with a secret shift to smaller portions.

Manufacturers and supermarkets are stepping up efforts to protect their profits by reducing pack sizes while keeping prices the same – or even putting them up.

Among the many big brands in the dock are Fairy Liquid, Pringles, Lurpak, Cadbury, Whiskas, Andrex, Hellmann’s, McVitie’s, Warburtons, Walkers, Head & Shoulders and Magnum.

In some cases, firms will change the design to hide a switch. Bottles of Fairy Liquid, for example, are down from 870ml to 820ml. The new smaller bottle is taller, while the price has risen from £2.39 to £3.

Others are slipping in price hikes under the guise of a tweak to recipes. Sainsbury’s is axeing its 307g jars of Caramelised Onion Chutney, which cost £2, in favour of a 210g jar of Beer Braised Caramelised Onion Chutney, which is £1.75 – a price rise per gram of 28 per cent.

Among the many big brands in the dock are Fairy Liquid, Pringles, Lurpak, Cadbury, Whiskas, Andrex, Hellmann¿s, McVitie¿s, Warburtons, Walkers, Head & Shoulders and Magnum

Among the many big brands in the dock are Fairy Liquid, Pringles, Lurpak, Cadbury, Whiskas, Andrex, Hellmann’s, McVitie’s, Warburtons, Walkers, Head & Shoulders and Magnum

Pringles is cutting the size of its tubes from 200g to 185g, but the price has remained the same at £2.25, while the number of sheets on a roll of luxury Andrex Super Quilts toilet tissue is down from 160 to 155.

Whiskas, made by Mars, has reduced the size of its cat food pouches in multipacks from 100g to 85g. It has claimed the aim was to avoid pets getting fat.

The official food inflation rate is put at 19.1 per cent by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – but the true figure will be even higher due to the impact of shrinkflation.

Consumer champion Which? says the tactic means shoppers are now being fooled into paying more for less – and they have called for moves to force stores to change the way prices are displayed to help people find the best- value products.

Its head of food policy, Sue Davies, said: ‘Our research has shown that while some popular products have shrunk, the same can’t always be said for their prices – which means people are inadvertently paying more for less.

‘Consumers are facing enough financial stress during the cost-of-living crisis without having to check for changing packet sizes when they’re doing the weekly shop.’

Which? wants a change in the law to require stores to introduce a standard form of ‘unit pricing’ for all products on their shelves, where they state a price per 100g, per kilo or per millilitre. This would help shoppers to see which product is cheapest in terms of price per weight, regardless of the pack size.

Ms Davies added: ‘Supermarkets and manufacturers must be more upfront about the costs of their products and ensure unit pricing is prominent, legible and consistent in-store and online so shoppers can easily compare prices across different brands and sizes of packaging.’

Consumer champion Which? says the tactic means shoppers are now being fooled into paying more for less

Consumer champion Which? says the tactic means shoppers are now being fooled into paying more for less

The Competition and Markets Authority is understood to be sympathetic to the idea.

The ONS produced a study in 2017 which identified more than 2,500 products that had been shrunk in the previous five years. But the problem has escalated in the past 12 months.

The big supermarkets have slimmed down their own-label foods. Tesco, for example, followed rivals in cutting the standard size of its ready meals, from cottage pies to a Thai curry, by 50g to 400g.

Historically, a large loaf was always 800g, but brands including Hovis and M&S now offer versions that are a smaller 750g.

It emerged this week that standard blocks of Lurpak have been cut from 250g to 200g. In this case, the price has come down from £2.25 to £1.90, but that hides a rise in the price per gram by 5.5 per cent.

Among the many other examples, Ben’s Original Long Grain Microwave Rice packs were cut from 250g to 220g yet the price remained the same at £1.

Tesco removed 800g jars of Hellmann’s mayonnaise, which cost £3.60 from sale, but it retained the smaller 600g products, at a more expensive £3.75.

And Walkers cut the number of packs of crisps in its Classic Variety multipack from 22 to 20, while the price went up from £4.50 to £4.85 in some stores.

The number of Magnums in a multipack was cut from four to three yet the price remained the same at £3. At the same time, the number of Penguin and Club biscuits in multipacks was cut from eight to seven. A pack of McVitie’s Digestives was cut from 400g to 360g – equivalent to the loss of three biscuits – while the price remained the same at £1.60. A £2 pack of Cadbury Dairy Milk Giant Buttons came down from 240g to 184.8g.

Other products to adopt the tactic include laundry brands such as Daz and Lenor, as well as personal care and bathroom products from Head & Shoulders and Pantene shampoo to Colgate toothpaste.

People switching away from a red meat diet are also being hit, with Richmond cutting the size of its meat-free bacon packs from 150g to 120g while keeping the price the same at £2.70. The Food and Drink Federation, which speaks for manufacturers, suggested some cuts in products might be for health reasons and tackling obesity.

A spokesman said: ‘Food and drink manufacturers are very concerned about stubbornly high food price inflation and its impact on households, particularly those on low incomes.

‘Food price inflation has been driven by massive rises in what it costs to make food and drink over the past three years.

‘Manufacturers continue to do all they can to limit price rises to consumers, which are always a last resort.

‘However, with the cost of ingredients, energy, labour, packaging and logistics rising to the extent they have, to remain viable and protect jobs producers must either seek to share a price increase with retailers or reduce portion sizes.

‘The decision on which option to pursue is informed by UK supermarkets, who ultimately set the prices faced by consumers and have buyer power over which products are placed on their shelves.’

Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, which speaks for supermarkets, denied deception.

He said: ‘Given the challenges facing households from the cost of living squeeze, retailers are solely focused to find ways to limit rising prices for customers against the rising cost of production, while maintaining the excellent quality of products.

‘Prices and sizes of all products are clearly labelled so that customers can make informed decisions about their purchases.’

 

The word is too benign. What we’re witnessing is nothing less than an insidious form of theft

By Ruth Sunderland, Group Business Editor 

Most of us are now frustratingly familiar with ‘shrinkflation’, with food and toiletry manufacturers reducing the size of products but keeping the price the same – or even putting it up.

Of course, retailers and consumer goods makers have faced higher costs due to Covid and the war in Ukraine – driving up the price of ingredients, energy and labour – but too often they have been quick to exploit this as an opportunity to cash in and use the cover of inflation to slip through unjustifiable price increases.

The word ‘shrinkflation’ – first coined by an American economist in 2015 – is far too benign. What is actually happening is a sneaky and insidious form of theft perpetrated on shoppers.

As a result, a trip to the supermarket now involves a forensic exercise in checking prices, weights and volumes.

The word ¿shrinkflation¿ ¿ first coined by an American economist in 2015 ¿ is far too benign. What is actually happening is a sneaky and insidious form of theft perpetrated on shoppers

The word ‘shrinkflation’ – first coined by an American economist in 2015 – is far too benign. What is actually happening is a sneaky and insidious form of theft perpetrated on shoppers

In many cases, the reduction in size is subtle and goes unnoticed. Sometimes packaging is in fact redesigned to obscure the change.

We are increasingly faced with a bewildering range of offers for goods such as dishwasher tablets and cleaning wipes, and the only way of getting the best value is to scrutinise labels showing the price per individual item, weight or volume.

Shoppers deserve clear and fair prices, not this shameful exercise in corporate gaslighting.

Other sly practices are afoot. The director of product development at one leading food retailer told me that products are being tweaked without telling consumers – with expensive ingredients removed or replaced by cheaper substitutes. The food obviously will not taste as nice but the price is the same, or more.

My suspicion, too, is that some produce, including lettuce, is being left slightly longer on shelves so it is not so fresh and crisp. Again, we are paying the same, but receiving inferior goods.

Refusing to engage in the subterfuge of shrinkflation may mean smaller profits in the short-term, but in the long run shoppers are put off, trust is eroded and companies’ reputations damaged.

Shrinkflation is not only a fraud on shoppers – it also risks creating a deception about the whole economy due to the illusion that prices are not going up when, actually, they are.

The Office for National Statistics is wise to this and has made efforts not to be taken in, but it makes its job all the more difficult. Portmanteau words ending in ‘-flation’ have entered the lexicon. We are now cursed with ‘greedflation’ – companies raising prices exorbitantly, by far more than they need to cover any legitimate increase in their own costs – and ‘sneakflation’, when supplementary charges are surreptitiously added to the advertised price.

Key to all this is the original demon, plain old inflation, which has been running way above the Bank of England’s two per cent target for 18 months.

Its governor Andrew Bailey, who for months said price rises were a transitory phenomenon that would sort itself out, must bear some of the blame for the hefty cost of our weekly shop.

To their credit, some retailers are taking a stand. Stuart Machin, the chief executive of Marks & Spencer, told me: ‘I am obsessed with shrinkflation. I measure everything and challenge and question if I think something might have got smaller. I don’t like it and we don’t do it.’

Others should take a leaf from his book. As for shoppers, when we see shrinkflation, we should vote with our wallets.

The comments below have not been moderated.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.