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

theguardian.com

411–420 of 535 posts

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

#411

If you as a shopper can track the unit price of what you want to buy, does shrinkflation really matter? For example, if I want to buy a liter of soda, I'll buy a liter's worth regardless of whether the packaging is now smaller.

They don't let you buy 1/3rd of a bottle :(

A small bottle or can are usually 330mL (though I think 250 also exists?) so technically they do. It’s usually going to be more expensive per unit tho.

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

#412

If you as a shopper can track the unit price of what you want to buy, does shrinkflation really matter? For example, if I want to buy a liter of soda, I'll buy a liter's worth regardless of whether the packaging is now smaller.

Try buying a half gallon of ice cream or a proper sized roll of toilet paper. Corporate greed, especially that is intended to cheat the consumer invisibly, always deserves to be called out.

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

#413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rules and regulations should make it easier and always blaming the user is how you get into this type of mess.

No, the client being to lazy to make uninformed decisions him- or herself is the mess here. Most countries require a price per liter/per kilo anyway, so you always can compare. And if you can’t, more regulation won’t make that happen, either, see the failed "Nutri Score".

In this country, equivalent products on the shelf alternate between listing a price per oz, and a price per lb, to make it more difficult to compare the two.

Its also in tiny 8 point font.

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

#414

I wish UK supermarkets would do the same, but they are too cosy with the suppliers and the kickbacks

It would be in customers interest for organize products by category, but large AAA brands (Unilever, PepsiCo, Proctor Gamble) often bully shops into brand-designated floor space.

Large supermarkets (Carefour, Intermarche, Ahold Delhaize) bully back by designing their house brand products to look exactly like AAA brands. In France this had led to cat and mouse game changes to colour scheme and shape rebranding.

Shrinkflation stickers are yet another (pretty brilliant) move in the chess game. AAA brands spend fortunes in commercials to guide customers to their product in the supermarket only to have them change their mind last moment in favour of the lower priced freeloader copy-cat.

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

#416

If you as a shopper can track the unit price of what you want to buy, does shrinkflation really matter? For example, if I want to buy a liter of soda, I'll buy a liter's worth regardless of whether the packaging is now smaller.

Yes it matters.

Box of crackers. Was 450g weight. Now same size box has 400g. Price is same.

People buy by the package, not the quantity in the package.

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

#417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those brands are too popular that if you take them off the shelf, you are driving customers away from your store too.

Also, French supermarkets have a long history of bullying AAA labels, nudging customers to buy their "home label" copy cat alternatives instead.

That's all supermarkets. That's kind of the whole point, as margins are better and allows you to negotiate better rates from labelled brands. This is a big reason why Costco is able to outperform it peers.

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

#418

If you as a shopper can track the unit price of what you want to buy, does shrinkflation really matter? For example, if I want to buy a liter of soda, I'll buy a liter's worth regardless of whether the packaging is now smaller.

Usually shrinkflation is more subtle, eg the same size bottle has a spacer on the bottom so it's the same size as the 1l bottle but only holds 900ml. No way to buy 1l at that point, and most people don't memorize the unit prices

I don't think that's how liquids are legally able to be marketed, at least in any country I'm aware of. A volume measurement on a bottle/can/etc of liquid — whether a drink, a medicine, windshield-wiper fluid, etc — should always be the volume of liquid you get by pouring the container's contents out into a measuring vessel. No real possibility of / benefit to using slack-fill. If they change the shape of a liquid container, it's for logistics reasons (better packing, less likely to puncture/explode, etc.)

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

#419

If you as a shopper can track the unit price of what you want to buy, does shrinkflation really matter? For example, if I want to buy a liter of soda, I'll buy a liter's worth regardless of whether the packaging is now smaller.

Usually shrinkflation is more subtle, eg the same size bottle has a spacer on the bottom so it's the same size as the 1l bottle but only holds 900ml. No way to buy 1l at that point, and most people don't memorize the unit prices

This. I witnessed it today. I was running out of washing powder, still keeping the old box (6.5 kg, promotional price 25.95 chf sticker). Went to COOP (CH retailer), again "promotion" of Ariel, same price, but the box is now 4.8 kg.

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

#420

Shrinkflation in regards to sugar drinks is oddly in the best interests of the state due to the incredible obesity crisis.

That's what I thought: governments should actually double tax these products to reduce their consumption. People keep buying despite dark patterns because they're addicted. This is akin to cigars and society later bears the burden of the health issues they cause.
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