This is causing more package waste.
Which is interesting to think about the margins eaten up by packaging vs the product itself. Packaging must be a very small fraction the cost of the product I’m guessing.
Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands
441–450 of 535 posts
Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands
#442Of course the supermarket also does shrinkflation but I bet they never put the stickers there.
> Consumer groups say “shrinkflation” is a widespread practice, which supermarkets like Carrefour are also guilty of in their private label products.
Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands
#443While the trend they're highlighting is absolutely real, it looks like the math in their first example isn't quite right:
> For example, Carrefour said a bottle of sugar-free peach-flavored Lipton Ice Tea, produced by PepsiCo, shrank to 1.25 liters (0.33 gallons) from 1.5 liters (0.3 gallons), resulting in a 40% effective increase in the price per liter.
Assuming the price per unit stayed the same (which is the implication), this is a 20% effective increase, not 40%.
Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands
#444Earlier quoted context omitted.
no-one commits the price for litre/kg to memory
This is a super privileged opinion and wildly out of touch with the less fortunate classes of society. Also, if you don’t commit to price comparison, how can "shrinkflation" be a problem? If you can buy whatever groceries you want anyway, just buy the ones that make you feel comfortable regarding their price policy...?
> This is a super privileged opinion and wildly out of touch with the less fortunate classes of society.
I roughly remember the sku price, I will notice if the milk goes up 15c
but I am not going to remember that last week it was 490g if they silently reduce it to 480g
this is why they do it... because it works
> Also, if you don’t commit to price comparison
I do price comparison at the point of purchase
but I don't remember the price/ml week to week
Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands
#445If 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.
Consider the burden of tracking unit prices a tax itself that is being shifted to the buyer in this case. So even then… inflation.
Seriously. Here is a thread of a person tracking the changes of supermarket prices in Austria: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@badlogic/111071396799790275
Building a food price database is not something that one could easily do from the looks of it.
Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands
#446While the trend they're highlighting is absolutely real, it looks like the math in their first example isn't quite right: > For example, Carrefour said a bottle of sugar-free peach-flavored Lipton Ice Tea, produced by PepsiCo, shrank to 1.25 liters (0.33 gallons) from 1.5 liters (0.3 gallons), resulting in a 40% effective increase in the price per liter. Assuming the price per unit stayed the same (which is the impli…
I peer-reviewed your nitpick and it is indeed a 20% increase.
Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands
#447People here are complaining about Carrefour selling the products it's stickering. At least they're taking some steps. The supermarket in my neighborhood is much, much worse. They use dark patterns to further obscure the real price of things to the consumer. They are mandated to provide a per unit price, and they comply with the letter of the law. But what they'll do is use totally different units. The 48 ounce size of a product, going for $2.99, will be priced in ounces at 6.2 cents an ounce. But the 36 ounce size, which costs $2.10, will have a unit price of $1.87 a quart. So now you need a calculator (or at least, an aptitude for division in your head) to figure out which one is more economical. And maybe around 10% of the time, the unit price is just flat out wrong.
Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands
#448While the trend they're highlighting is absolutely real, it looks like the math in their first example isn't quite right: > For example, Carrefour said a bottle of sugar-free peach-flavored Lipton Ice Tea, produced by PepsiCo, shrank to 1.25 liters (0.33 gallons) from 1.5 liters (0.3 gallons), resulting in a 40% effective increase in the price per liter. Assuming the price per unit stayed the same (which is the impli…
They also made this mistake in the guardian article, I emailed them to correct it!
Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands
#449Earlier quoted context omitted.
no-one commits the price for litre/kg to memory
If you shop often enough, you do start to remember it. I buy a lot of groceries every week and would absolutely notice if things got smaller or the unit price got larger.
they never reduce it enough for you to notice
(unless you're explicitly checking the weight each time)
Re: Carrefour puts ‘shrinkflation’ price warnings on food to shame brands
#450Why does shrinkflation exist? Are people really fooled by smaller sodas? I think that anyone who believes that doesn't actually drink soda. Anyway, that leads me to believe that there must be some other factor, like maybe some law or contract prevents them from raising prices. Or maybe supermarket shelf space cost is tied to price somehow. Makes you think.
I’m not sure about pop, but I think you could see this play out easily with a bag of chips. The bag size stays the same, yet there is less in it.