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Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands

theguardian.com

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Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands

#31

Post by jjgreen »

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #10

It seems somewhat out of linguistic character for them to use the English-"shrink"-based portmanteau, but hopefully there's a universal commonality (especially coupled with the hashtag format) that makes this move more effective.

Not at all, contemporary French is stuffed with Englishisms, the regular -er verb liker (to like on Facebook) being one of my favourites.

Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands

#32

Post by no_time »

ptspts wrote: post #15
thefurdrake wrote: post #7

I think we should place a QR on every product label, and scanning that QR takes me to data about the product such as its historical mass/volume, cost, and unit price, as well as its brand owner right on up the chain. I see you, Nestle. Of course, giving customers information to make an informed decision is Bad For Business.

To combat this, manufacturers can just rename the product.

They are putting billions into ads just so they can stay recognizable. I can't imagine pepsico or mcds renaming a single product, ever.

Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands

#33

Post by some_random »

EduardoBautista wrote: post #22
anononaut wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of alternatives to PepsiCo, Unilever, and Nestle.

Well, you just mentioned the companies that own about 90% of what is in Walmart. So, I wouldn't say, "lots".

The good news is that the remaining 10% is pretty well distributed across the things you actually need. If you're completely addicted to Pepsi co brand empty calories you're out of luck but if you're willing to eat actual food there are still plenty of options.

Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands

#34

Post by gambiting »

EduardoBautista wrote: post #22
anononaut wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of alternatives to PepsiCo, Unilever, and Nestle.

Well, you just mentioned the companies that own about 90% of what is in Walmart. So, I wouldn't say, "lots".

Walmart doesn't even exist in France, so I'm not sure how that's relevant.

Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands

#35

Post by transcriptase »

It’s incredible to me that MBAs are still able to pitch “what if we made the product deceptively smaller but charged the same price?”, and don’t get thrown out a window. As if that’s a novel sustainable long-term strategy in CPG.

Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands

#36

Post by monooso »

krisoft wrote: post #12
charles_f wrote: post #8

This is great, shrinkflation is one of these disgusting practices that play on the human psyche to trick people. But also carrefour (and large retailers like them) are notorious for abusing their power when buying, and are a large part of the systemic problem. I don't know how much this is negotiating technique.

> I don't know how much this is negotiating technique. 100%. What else would it be?

It could be a marketing tactic.

Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands

#37

Post by badcppdev »

This is such a good idea. I know that everyone in the Western World is told that they eat too much but people need to be able to buy food and eat it. And if the same packaging this week has 90% of what it had last week then then consumers are going to suffer.

In the UK many people rely on Food banks and parents skip meals to feed their children. Cutting the amount of food in a package in a manner that is not even visible without carefully examination is a morally dubious practice.

Corporate profits are high. This is one of the reasons why.

Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands

#38

Post by weswilson »

IMRC21 wrote: post #3
dclowd9901 wrote: post #2

> Guigoz infant formula produced by Nestlé went from 900 grams (31.75 oz) to 830 grams, while Unilever’s Viennetta ice-cream cake shrank to 320 grams from 350 grams. Wish I could be surprised at Nestle doing the most evil thing possible, but here we are.

Every brand is doing this

On Reddit, someone said that even Carrefour is doing this with their own labeled products.

Seems like just a negotiation tactic against their suppliers versus doing something pro-consumer.

Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands

#39

Post by scarmig »

robertlagrant wrote: post #11
thefurdrake wrote: post #7

I think we should place a QR on every product label, and scanning that QR takes me to data about the product such as its historical mass/volume, cost, and unit price, as well as its brand owner right on up the chain. I see you, Nestle. Of course, giving customers information to make an informed decision is Bad For Business.

Mostly bad for business because of the massive data and engineering effort required.

A job guarantee for software engineers.
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