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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

#91

Post by stilley2 »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #67
badcppdev wrote: post #37

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 vis…

Well, you can (and should!) check the (mandatory) price/mass or price/volume, but of course there are very smart people being paid a lot to design the packaging so that it's sufficiently compelling for you to still put a higher value on the product...

But as a consumer I don't want to have to check the price/mass in every product everything I shop, especially if I'm buying the same brand every week.

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

#92

Post by bjourne »

We have the same problem in Sweden with retailers blaming supermarket chains and supermarket chains blaming retailers. In reality they are probably both screwing the consumers. Then they have the gall to say "if you don't like it shop in a different store" when the prices are going up in every store because of (easily obfuscated) price collusion between supermarket chains. Consumers doesn't read the papers in which the chains brag about their "record profits" to their shareholders and even when they do most are unable to connect the dots.

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

#93

Post by tech-historian »

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.

This phenomenon generally cracks me up, where you see random (to me) english phrases sprinkled throughout foreign languages. SNL leaned into this, in a skit with Pedro Pascal speaking spanish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkmlfHi9Ll4

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

#94

Post by hedora »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #67
badcppdev wrote: post #37

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 vis…

Well, you can (and should!) check the (mandatory) price/mass or price/volume, but of course there are very smart people being paid a lot to design the packaging so that it's sufficiently compelling for you to still put a higher value on the product...

Expecting people to memorize the per-unit price of everything they buy and compare week to week is unrealistic.

Also, at least in the US, the price/weight for the same type of item is often in different units. ($/oz for brand A; $/lb for brand B, etc)

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

#96

Post by hotsauceror »

the_other wrote: post #75
mrguyorama wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about though, it absolutely is "sustainable", and businesses have been doing it at least a couple decades, so why would they stop? It makes the profit line go up, which is all that matters.

> It makes the profit line go up, which is all that matters. I think "all that matters" needs qualifying to "all that matters to some people".

It is "all that matters" to the people who are "all who matter".

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

#97

Post by thfuran »

rhaway84773 wrote: post #89
BlueTemplar wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you can (and should!) check the (mandatory) price/mass or price/volume, but of course there are very smart people being paid a lot to design the packaging so that it's sufficiently compelling for you to still put a higher value on the product...

The price per unit in US groceries is ridiculous. You will literally have 3 packages of soda all of the same size listing the price per unit in completely different units. Some in ml, some in oz, some in pts.

We don't even have standardization on the nutrition labels. The serving size is different for everything.

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

#98

Post by robjan »

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.

There's a general push in supermarkets to move consumers towards own-brand goods as the profit margin is higher. It wouldn't surprise me if this was a marketing tactic to push people in this direction.

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

#99

Post by dwighttk »

FireBeyond wrote: post #49
coldtea wrote: post #13

We need laws to require special labelling with the price per net pound or price per net kiloggram clearly shown, and the previous price. Something like: $2.99/Kg (since 18/09/2023) $2.79/Kg (previous price)

Safeway is somewhat insidious with things like this. They'll have a relative price (per pound/oz) for one size of an item, and then for the same item, different size, they'll use a different metric (per packet/slice, etc.) to make them not (easily) directly comparable.

Kroger/HarrisTeeter too…

It is definitely malice because they use every unit imaginable to avoid allowing you to compare within an item type (kg, lbs, oz, g, fl oz, “unit” (where unit = package))

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

#100

Post by mytailorisrich »

badcppdev wrote: post #37

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 vis…

This is a cynical move because, as the article mentions right at the top, this is just to apply pressure on suppliers before contracts renegotiations. Tesco in the Uk does not sort of stunt as well and for the same reasons.

> In the UK many people rely on Food banks and parents skip meals to feed their children.

A small minority, not 'many'...

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