“Honey I’ve shrunk the…packs but left the prices the same”

It’s a trend that’s spreading internationally as commodity prices climb.

It is related to shrinking the size of the product package, but not the price, and is described by the term shrinkflation, from the combination of the English words shrink which means to shrink and inflation which means inflation.

Popular brands all over the world but also in Greece in an attempt to “control” the increased costs proceed to reduce the size of the packaging and its contents, while at the same time maintaining the same price and in some cases increasing it.

Snacks, detergents, pasta, coffee, dairy products, chocolates, soft drinks are just some of the items in which the packages have either shrunk or now companies have created new smaller ones that they didn’t have in the past.

The shrinkflation phenomenon has taken on dimensions, worsening the position of consumers, who are faced with soaring prices.

This tactic is of course not done in secret, however for consumers it is often difficult to compare or even perceive any differences.

Given that consumers internationally as well as in Greece are anyway faced with continuous price increases in products on the shelf, they often feel cheated, when they finally see the quantity of the product they buy is smaller, but the price correspondingly does not decrease.

The issue also concerns governments. In fact, on April 19, 2024, the French government announced that by July 1, 2024, every retailer must place a label in front of all products (food and non-food) that have shrunk in size, with reference to quantity and price, in a attempt to counter the phenomenon of shrinkflation.

The beginning was made in France by the reaction of the Carrefour chain when it put the same label on multinational products whose packaging and content were reduced without a corresponding reduction in their price.

Greece was one of the first countries to intervene in this phenomenon, from the middle of 2022, when more “thin” packaging in terms of content appeared on the shelves.

The then leadership of the Ministry of Development had taken measures for more legible indications regarding prices and quantities.

This was followed by interventions to control the profit margin and recently arrangements for greater transparency in final price formation, bidding policy as well as encouraging consumers to report through an online platform cases they feel need investigation.

However, the phenomenon has taken on large dimensions at a pan-European level, with almost one in two consumers considering it to be an unacceptable practice. But although the phenomenon is pan-European, there is no common European framework, with each country choosing autonomously how to manage it.

According to an Ipsos Global Inflation Monitor survey last November in 33 countries around the world, 46% of consumers have found that product sizes are getting smaller, contrary to their prices.

The five countries where people notice the phenomenon most strongly are Britain (64%), France (63%), Germany (62%), Canada (60%) and the Netherlands (59%).

Only a quarter (22% worldwide) say they consider it acceptable to reduce quantity without reducing price.

However, the largest percentage (48% on average worldwide) finds the practice of shrinking packaging unacceptable, not prices.