I Am Tired of Shrinkflation, When Will It Ever Become Reasonable?

Yes I know it's been happening for decades, it's a common practice and obviously it's working cause people still buy it but for the minority like myself, I try to minimise or not even buy it at all.

Aldi is no stranger, I purchased their Dairy Fine milk chocolate block today, same packaging as always and I bit into the chocolate and it was obviously airy, I was combobulated and the chocolate was not as dense. I get this chocolate nearly every month. I looked at the packaging, nothing has changed except it went from 200g to 180g and that confirmed that I didn't get a airy batch but they purposely made the chocolate airy to save on costs but still charge the same.

TimTams, pringles, cereal, sauce, fun size chocolate which are the size of a pebble now, fast food, it's everywhere…. yes they are all guilty but we don't really realise it if we are a casual buyer, if you're a regular buyer then you'll notice straight away.

Pringles was so obvious that they didn't try to hide it.

Is shrinkflation really hurting consumers or do you think it's ok?

Poll Options

  • 22
    I don't mind shrinkflation
  • 88
    I prefer have the same quality/quantity and pay a bit more
  • 190
    I don't buy the products that have decreased in size
  • 122
    Eff capitalism and corporate greed

Comments

  • +24

    At this rate I’m going to be basing my caloric intake on what’s on special/clearnce in the short dated Amazon pantry listings

    • Where would I find this list?

      • +3

        here

        Or follow this thread where hot (but super limited) savings can be had on random goods

        • +8

          C’mon bro. First rule of Amazon Warehouse Club…
          This is why it’s taking so long for you to get an invite to the goat sacrificing.

        • Thank you for the link. Already bagged a HDMI cable!

    • That is how I have been buying for years

    • +19

      So shrinklflation started two years ago?
      Because I remember buying 200g chocolate bar in the 1990s, then 190g, then 170g, and 150g, 130g… Then when the difference was obvious the 200g bars came back at double the price…

      It's just very narrow minded to correlate shrinklflation with the current government, unless you were born in 2018 and have no understanding of what happened before.

      When you actually wake up you will see that the two main Australian parties are pretty much the same with the tiny differences also shrinking in the last decades.

      • +1

        Shrinkflation started ages ago but as far as I can remember it was not talked about this often until probably late last year? You can probably search this forum for this topic and you should notice it too.

        I know people dont want to admit it but think about it.

        Has it ever happened until recently that you are paying more but getting less of the same thing (which is even worse than shrinkflation which attempts to charge you the same but lower quantity or level of service).

        Think of for example like Telstra. It is only recently now they say to you that not only price is inflation linked, your 5G speed is now capped on mobile (you paid for 5G)

        Did you also notice McDonalds now has been raising prices like at least 3x a year but their offering has been deprecated? It only happened recently but McDonalds now no longer give you Orange Juice in a set meal. It has been deprecated to cordial.

        I noticed recently TimTam packs are now smaller for slightly higher price. I think this came about early this year?

        People need to be honest themselves and realize that their vote does influence outcomes. I have never felt cost of living became such an issue this much since Paul Keating was last Prime Minister.

        • +2

          hyper-shrinkflation has arrived

        • +1

          Yes, inflation is biting, people spend 50% or more of their income paying rent (which has also been been adjusted).

          What the current or previous governments have done to address basic and huge issues such as house affordability?

          What's happening today is result of decades of shitty governments. My point is that the two main parties are pretty much the same.

        • +6

          The only 'vote' that matters is voting with your wallet! Chocolates, Pringles , Macca's, Tim Tams.. who needs 'em. These are all discretionary purchases. Buy fresh fruits, veg and meat by the kg and no GST either!

        • +1

          People need to be honest themselves and realize that their vote does influence outcomes.

          They both suck off bankers and corporations around the clock. I still don't know how they can speak or stand. I don't know how you think it's not a game at this point. There's absolutely nothing recently to suggest that it isn't.

        • I mentioned stagflation about 5-6 years ago. Wasn't popular, but little from the 70s is.

      • -2

        Yes, the ALP are 1 micron to the left of the Liberals on economic policy. On Communist subreddits they are constantly bashing Liberals (in the America sense of Democrat) for betraying socialism and embracing neo-liberalism. The Greens, if anything, are even worse. Under the Greens there would be no limits on immigration; anyone could jump on a plane, arrive here and collect welfare for the rest of their life. The Greens claim to believe in "saving the planet" yet they support endless growth on a finite planet. ALP, Liberal, Green, the proferred solution is always the same: more people.

      • +2

        The biggest inflation event in living memory happened "due to covid". Arguably the biggest inflation event ever, due to how global and uniform the money printing was. Sure, steady inflation has existed for 100 years, but we're currently feeling it worse than prior decades.

    • +6

      It is hurting but I've always thought this is the consequences of the Government we all voted for.

      If you mean the libs, spot on…. They started this massive inflation shitshow and then bailed.

      shrinklflation has been around for decades, mars bars have been getting smaller and smaller every year for decades.

      Companies have two choices, raise the price or make it smaller. Customers generally don't like the price increasing, so they make it smaller.

      • +3

        The sad thing is that everyone is blaming Labor for it, this is the consequences of the last decade coming to bite us in the ass, especially the last few years plus.

        • +5

          The sad thing is that everyone is blaming Labor for it, this is the consequences of the last decade coming to bite us

          Labour just continued where the libs left off mate. It's business as usual. I would love for it to not be true. I don't have any love for either of them but it's just getting ridiculous now.

    • +6

      -adds shrinkflation to the list of things that are Dans fault.

    • +1

      Capitalism: capitalisms capitalismly
      @burningrage: the government did this

  • +15

    It's better for your health - eat less sugar.

    • +6

      Unless you buy two of them and end up eating 360g instead of 200g… 😂

      • Why only 2 :)

        P.S. I am 110kg

        • +11

          Goal weight 127.001 ?

        • +2

          “Someone as dangerously underweight as you Mr Simpson”.

    • It's better for your health - eat less sugar.

      They've shrunk my broccoli !!!

      • As someone who's been buying Pringles and Sponges for years, yes we have noticed the shrinkage…..

  • +7

    It is mostly only junk food that is affected. Buy real food, and you want have that problem. Or obesity, diabetes, …

    • +4

      only junk food that is affected

      Jeez idk about that - the quality of fruit and vege at Colesworths has been bloody terrible lately. Especially strawberries. Even the $5 ‘premium’ boxes.

      • +2

        "shrinkflation" refers to packaged foods being sold in smaller amounts for the same price.
        Are the punnets shrinking? Strawberries and blueberries are great in Perth now.

      • +1

        The strawberries at my local coles have been excellent the past few weeks.

        • Have been experimenting going to different Colesworths during different times of the day during the week and usually disappointed as half the box is usually mushy/overripe/starting to mould.

          I can only gauge what’s the quality by looking at top bottom and sides of box. Dont wanna upset anyone by opening punnet and poking around.

          The local fruit vege shop had 500g premium punnets at $12, but damnnn they were the hugest strawberries I ever did see and super sweet and firm. Unfortunately they had no stock of these punnets this week.

          • +2

            @Jimothy Wongingtons: The strawberries at my local coles are all firm, dark and sweet, none of them are soft or sour. They are small though, but that’s how I like strawberries, not a fan of the big ones. You’ve reminded me I should buy some more this week.

      • +2

        Hope to see Harris Farm do their tray sale on berries soon. That's when I stock up and freeze enough to last me 12 months. I saw strawberries in Woolworths today, rip off at $2.90 a punnet and looked very average.

        • +1

          Iirc it’s $2.50 last week at Woolies and yeah these ones at Colesworths are usually sad af. Some still with white tops, small size, usually super sour. I don’t even bother anymore.

      • Commercial strawberries are always terrible. Picked way before they're ripe. If you want good ones you have to grow your own.

    • Yep, meat direct from the farmers has dropped > 25% !

    • This answer should be at the top. I know it's not realistic and we all love a snacky snack, but it makes me buy those items less and substitute them with something else. Also, junk food is quite often on promotion, if you aren't too picky with the brand.

  • +10

    It will continue until post WW3, around 2030, where The Great Reset (aka agenda 2030) kicks in and you will own nothing and be happy (because you survived) ;)

    • +3

      live in the pod, eat ze bugs, stay in your 15 minute city

    • +1

      But WW3 will be over sooner. Due to shrinkflation and skyrocketing defence budgets, the bombs and bullets will be much smaller, hand grenades will be the size of small marbles, and tanks and fighter jets will only be big enough for one person. And, because our ship building capacity has gone to hell in a handbasket, there will be no troop ships. May have to repurpose some floating gin palaces from the likes of Packer, Murdoch et al.

  • +11

    Don't buy them. The world has gone mad, everything costs too much, packages keep shrinking and too many corners being cut. Don't really need all this crap anyway. Through shopping 90% off clearance items at ColesWorths, growing some herbs and veges at home and going to local Asian grocers and greengrocers, I can eat well for surprisingly little. I hardly eat takeaway at all anymore, stopped buying chips, and only buy chocolate occasionally. Couldn't believe Toblerone 360g has gone up to $8 on half price, shocking, and it doesn't taste like it used to either. Started making my own bread (https://www.recipetineats.com/easy-yeast-bread-recipe-no-kne…) and the Rambo wok burner is getting a workout with plenty of yummy Asian meals. I don't miss the takeaway/restaurant experience at all, I can cook better quality at home now for a fraction of the cost.

    • -1

      "The world has gone mad" is a phrase I've heard angrily muttered for decades now, and I suspect is far older than that.

  • +2

    I'm thinking of trying my hand at making some apple chips and chocolate-coated orange rinds. It's definitely a good economy to lose weight or make healthier choices.

    • +1

      Italian friend of mine does the nicest dark chocolate dipped dehydrated orange slices. Better than any of the commercial ones I tried

  • +7

    Just wean yourself off buying that stuff. It's just rubbish but because they spend so much on advertising, packaging, shipping and transport, margins at Colesworth, endless promotions etc its expensive to produce. Its not even food… you only think you want it.

  • +13

    When I get out of the pool there’s shrinkflation

    • Tell the wife that summer is coming!

  • -1

    Everyone wants to earn 150k plus pa no one wants to pay for it…..

    you can't expect to have such high wages for people with next to no skills and expect stuff to be cheap….

    not to mention the crazy amounts of taxes and red tape fees we have in Australia

    • +8

      What 'everyone' with 'next to no skills' is earning 150k/yr?

      • +14

        Politicians?

      • Labours in Melbourne working on Union sites making $70+ an hour plus OT

        • +2

          Labours in Melbourne working on Union sites making $70+ an hour plus OT

          Standard CMFEU rates sheet shows
          CW 1 - 92.4%
          Grade 3 - Trades Labourer
          $48.93/hour for standard 36 hour rate
          Additional on site or project specific allowances may apply. Overtime is additional.
          Doesn't add up to "$70+" for unskilled labourer roles though.

          Do you have info that differs to that listed directly by the CMFEU rates found via google?

          https://vic.cfmeu.org/sites/vic.cfmeu.org/files/CFMEU_2023%2…

          • @SBOB: https://amp.theage.com.au/national/victoria/west-gate-tunnel…

            Closer to around $117 an hour for some projects

            And that article is from 2 years ago. Pays have gone up since than

            • @Danstar: That's not unskilled labourers.

              I linked to a valid current 2023 union award, which is what the rates relate to. The rates aren't hidden, along with the rather crazy per job allowances they get for jobs like the tunnel jobs.

              Selectively picking higher grade trade jobs, on a selected single project which has additional travel and project specific allowances applied…. Sure, that's a valid comparison for every man and their dog is getting $70+ for unskilled labourer jobs.

              (I don't agree with the salaries many of them get, but it's also not 'everyone' with 'next to no skill' so your reference is not valid with respect to their initial 'point')

              • @SBOB: Ahh yeah it is. This is the base pay for all tunnel workers, the rate only goes up based on what you're role is. I got 2 friends working in there. 1 "unskilled", 1 "skilled". They're both on huge pay packets for what they do. Which is very little.

    • I have 2 degrees and I earn no where near 150k.

      Can you please direct me to these 150k a year jobs.

      Thank you.

      • +4

        358 more to make a full circle!

    • +1

      Working and middle class wages have almost nothing to do with causing inflation. In fact, below average earners that bought a house for $50k 40 years ago and sell it for $1million today are causing a good portion of that sale price to be minted as new money. Perhaps $400k of that is new cash entering circulation, they can then blow that on living expenses like plumbers and high priced veggies.
      Someone on a middle class income today will never accumulate the wealth that somebody on a working class income did 30 or 40 years ago.

      • Based on your comment 40 years on 50k would probably be 1m in todays money….

        Thats what inflation does….

  • +2

    Did you mean discombobulated?

    • +9

      The shrinkflation is even hitting words now!

  • +1

    i never use to eat junk food then pre-covid i got into the habit of starting to buy chocolate cos it was so cheap. hard to resist a pack of timtams for 1.80. the random purchases half price junk purchases became more common

    now it's all so freaking expensive, I've cut most of it out. only thing I'm still hooked on is the ice cream haha

  • +1

    Sometimes I notice it. Sometimes I don't. If I do notice it, I don't get mad about it. I decide whether it's still worth it or not and move on. I have bigger issue than bothering to boycott shrunken products.

  • have you not seen the chips in coleworths etc. ??
    they are like mini sizes man

  • +2

    A good example of this is Zambrero's Burrito.

    $13.90 for the size of my thumb. They have the balls to call it regular size.

    • +2

      I got a Maccas Cheeseburger today. Bloody hell that thing was small.

      • +1

        McD's "Big Mac" is a shadow of its former self. It looks to be 50% smaller than in the 1990s. At least the Whopper is still reasonably sized.

        • +1

          What about the quarter pounder ?

          What was the quarter pound of 20 years ago and what is the quarter pound of today ?

          • +1

            @CowFrogHorse: The meat is still the same size, however the bun has shrunk.

      • +1

        Maccas has gone all corporate america. Today they have triple the staff all playing pass the parcel and actually taking triple the time. Nobody just gives you a burger, they print out a little paper, then someone else grabs the bag and places it over there, and then someone else picks up that bag and brings it to the counter.

        All a big wank.

  • +3

    Shrinkflation will never stop. A standard chocolate bar was 250g, then 225g, then 200g. Now it's hovering around 180g. In a decade you'll be paying $5 on special for Cadbury 100g bars. It's just the way it is. Mr Beast bars are $4 for 60g and people are buying them like mad.

    Invest money to stay ahead of the inflation/shrinkflation game. Or give up junk food.

    • +3

      Soon you'll pay simply to look at some chocolate.

  • +1

    inflation
    shrinkflation
    and now also….
    skimpflation!!

    its a brave new world!!
    and when i say brave i mean (profanity)!

    • +1

      Don't forget stagflation. :)

  • +1

    Pringles changing to Malaysian produced was insane. Not just size but quality as well. Never bought them again. The big Asian IGA in Haymarket sells US imported Pringles, occasionally buy those.

    • But how much is the US Pringles vs Malaysian Pringles?

  • +8

    Simply use the displayed unit pricing. If the product unit price rises beyond what you are prepared to pay, just substitute another cheaper product or cease to buy the product.
    If it's a necessity, you'll have to buy, and that is supply and demand, which no amount of whining will change.
    For things like Pepsi Max, I have ceased buying, as the price of a product that is mostly water strangely increased 50% allegedly due to a pandemic that has now passed.
    For essentials like bread, make your own, because the price of flour didn't increase 50% on the shelves over the same period bread prices did.
    If volume/demand goes down, suppliers will soon respond with lower prices.
    We need a buyer's union, same as retailers have a duopoly enabling price gouging.

    • We need a buyer's union

      Time and money to achieve what, exactly? Occasionally get your noggin on the news to have a whinge?
      Choice already do that, their subscription model covers them.

      Harness the union idea and support the inevitable — at least one grocery co-operative. We can duplicate proven measures that have worked overseas for decades.

  • +1

    For reference, I quote, word-for-word, a letter from Henry Parkes upon arrival in Australia in the 19th century looking for a better life:

    "We came to anchor in Sydney harbour on the morning of the 25th July, 1829, my dear wife having become the mother of a little girl on the 23rd, when we were a few hours' sailing clear of Bass's Strait. Our little blue-eyed ocean child gets on very well, and is now, of course, more than nine months old. I thank God for this blessing.

    'He moves in a mysterious way
    His wonders to perform,'

    or this sweet one of ours could never have out-lived the many ills which every day of its short life hath brought. I had but two or three shillings when we got to Sydney, and the first news that came on board was that the 4lb. loaf was selling at half-a crown! and everything proportionately dear. There was no place for the emigrants to go to till such time as they could engage with masters, or otherwise provide for themselves. When they left the ship they had to do as best they could.

    Poor Clarinda in her weak state had no one to do the least thing for her, not even dress her baby, or make her bed; and in a few days she was obliged to go on shore, with her new-born infant in her arms, and to walk a mile across the town of Sydney to the miserable place I had been able to provide for her as a home, which was a little low, dirty, unfurnished room, without a fire place, at five shillings per week rent.

    When she sat down, within these wretched walls, overwhelmed with fatigue, on a box which I had brought with us from the ship I had but threepence in the world, and no employment. For more than two weeks I kept beating about Sydney for work, during which time I sold one thing and another from our little stock for support. At length, being completely starved out, I engaged as a common labourer with Sir John Jamison, Kt., M.C., to go about thirty-six miles up the country. Sir John agreed to give me £25 for the year, with a ration and half of food. This amounted to weekly:

    10½ lbs. beef - sometimes unfit to eat.
    10½ lbs. rice - of the worst imaginable quality.
    6¾ Ibs. flour - half made up of ground rice.
    2 Ibs. sugar - good-tasted brown.
    ¼ lb. tea - inferior
    ¼ lb. soap - not enough to wash our hands.
    2 figs of tobacco - useless to me.

    This was what we had to live upon, and not a leaf of a vegetable or a drop of milk beyond this. For the first four months we had no other bed than a sheet of bark off a box tree, and an old door, laid on two cross pieces of wood, covered over with a few articles of clothing. The hut appointed for us to live in was a very poor one.
    The morning sunshine, the noon-tide shower, and the white moonlight of midnight, gushed in upon us alike.

    You will, perhaps, think had you been with us, you would have had a few vegetables at any rate, for you would have made a bit of garden, and cultivated them for yourselves; but you would have done no such thing! The slave-masters of New South Wales require their servants to work for them from sunrise till sunset, and will not allow them to have gardens, lest they should steal a half-hour's time to work in them.
    I should mention that our boxes, coming up from Sydney on Sir John's dray, were broken open, and almost everything worth carrying away was stolen."

    • +1

      a letter from Henry Parkes

      Sounds like a pom, whinging about everything ;)

      • Explains half of OzBargain's posts…

    • This does put things in perspective, far out.

  • +4

    There is a point where the size becomes too small, and they have to bring out a giant-size product. Double-tray tim-tams, party size chips.

    I work on price/ weight, so don't care about the size, but will tend towards larger if it's better value.
    I usually aim for $10/kg. So when chips were $2/200g I was good. I haven't bought in a while, with them trying to say $2.50/170g is half-price now.
    It seems that I'll soon only be snacking on fruit and vegies - they are a bargain compared to processed food.

  • +2

    I was really shocked the other day when I saw Marathon spring rolls had gotten bigger, not smaller (pack of 4 is now 660g instead of 640g). I’ll keep buying them forever now.

    • +1

      Less meat more cabbage? Perhaps cooked in a lower grade industrial vegetable oil that is absorbed more?

      Seriously though, do they taste the same?

      • The "per 100g" nutritional info stayed exactly the same (and still 47% cabbage and onion), so it looks like they're just ever so slightly bigger.

        Taste the same, so it's probably a price increase with a minimal size increase (I paid $6.50 back in May according to my delivery invoice, woolworths now lists them as $6.70, so that's not too bad all things considered).

        • TIL (okay recently) the nutrition panel on food items doesn't have to be accurate, and often isn't.

          Source: either Question Everything or WTFAQ, can't recall precisely. Tried to block it out, tbh.

  • +2

    I don't buy the products that have decreased in size

    Nobody would buy anything in this case….

  • I don't mind really, junk food serving sizes are already too big imo. Too easy to eat a whole block by yourself in a single evening just because it is "better value" per gram.

    • +2

      So because you have no self control, I have to buy tiny blocks of chocolates or small bags of chips?

  • Pizza Shapes what happened - smaller sizing or are my chunky fingers getting bigger?!

    • Your chunky fingers are definitely fattening up.

      • Both could be true right? Right?

Login or Join to leave a comment