There is a particular moment when you buy the same thing as usual but suddenly get the feeling that something is not quite right. Not necessarily that the product has become worse, just… smaller. The bag feels lighter in the hand, the carton runs out sooner than it usually does, and suddenly you are standing there wondering if you are remembering wrong.
The Office for National Statistics describes shrinkflation as the size of a product decreasing while the price remains the same. That means, in practice, that the price has risen, because you pay the same amount for a smaller quantity.
It is a form of price increase that often flies under the radar. Usually the packaging still looks the same. It can be the same colours, the same font, and the same confident promise that this is your regular everyday product. The difference is in the numbers. The ones that usually appear at the bottom corner: grams, millilitres, and number of units. Shrinkflation thrives on the fact that we shop more by eye and routine than by calculator.
Smaller without looking smaller
One thing that makes shrinkflation quite annoying for customers is that it is often designed to go unnoticed. Packages can be given a slightly different shape, a slightly thicker bottom, more air, a redistribution of the contents so that the feel of the product remains the same. A multipack that contains fewer pieces, a tube that looks identical but contains less or a family pack that is narrowed without a change in height.
This is also the reason why shrinkflation can feel like a small breach of trust rather than a pure price issue. A price increase is visible, but shrinkflation requires you to pay attention to detail as you stand there in the shop lights, perhaps stressed, perhaps hungry, perhaps on your way home from work.
So why do companies do this? The explanation lies in the fact that when raw materials, energy, packaging or transportation become more expensive, there are roughly two ways to respond: to raise the price, or adjust the content. Reducing the weight can feel gentler to the customers, especially if the packaging retains its shape and feel. So in practice, shrinkflation becomes a kind of balancing act. The manufacturer does not want to scare away customers with a price increase in clear figures, and the retailer wants to keep comparison prices competitive.
The phenomenon is not limited to food. In British consumer surveys, shrinkflation is seen in everything from chocolate and coffee to toothpaste and other everyday products. But not everything shrinks in our day-to-day lives. If we glance at entertainment, for instance, we discover that the online casino world is ever-expanding. Unlike physical goods, online casinos can keep expanding their game catalogue with far fewer material constraints.
The unit price is your best friend
The most practical way to see shrinkflation in real time is to start looking at the unit prices, which are those little numbers often written in pence per 100 grams or per litre. Unit pricing is actually one of the better tools consumers have for comparing value, precisely because our spontaneous assumptions about what is the cheapest often turn out to be wrong when sizes and offers are mixed up.
And the rules have been tightened. The Price Marking Amendment Order, that came in force in October this year, has updated definitions and requirements linked to, among other things, selling price and unit price, with the ambition to make price information more comparable even when different prices are offered for the same item.
Perhaps the most interesting effect of shrinkflation is that it makes us more aware of something that has always existed: that price is a relationship, not a number.
