To cope with rising commodity prices, manufacturers sometimes resort to price increases. In these times of inflation, the consumer can expect that. For the NGO Foodwatch, it is more problematic when this increase is hidden behind a reduction in the quantity of product. A practice that can be misleading for customers.
Products that you know well, whose quantities are discreetly reduced, but whose price does not drop. This phenomenon has a name : la “shrinkflation”, contraction of the English verb “shrink”, reduce and “inflation”.
If the process is not illegal, it on the other hand, is not very loyal to consumers, who can experience the unpleasant feeling of having been “got”, denounces the NGO Foodwatch in “Complément d’Enquête”, broadcast this Thursday, September 1 on France 2.
In recent months, consumers have seen the amount of their till receipt increase due to inflation. But would distributors take advantage of this to raise their prices at the expense of households and suppliers?#ComplementDenquete
ud83dudcfaThursday evening on @France2tv pic.twitter.com/kDG51502CO— Further investigation (@Cdenquete) August 30, 2022
Bottles of fruit juice that contain only 900 ml of liquid, portions of cheese that weigh only 18 grams instead of 20 or even boxes of 24 chocolates, where you used to find 30 …
Lack of transparency
To prove the practice, which is far from being limited to the examples mentioned by the NGO, Foodwatch therefore looked at 6 products. The decrease in the quantity sold sometimes dates back to the end of 2019, but faced with the rise in prices linked to inflation that we are going through, the fear of seeing this practice become widespread is also increasing.
Thus let us cite the example of the “jar of margarine St Hubert Omega 3 lost 4% of its weight, going from 240 to 230 grams, but its price per kilo has increased by 18% over the past three years and its price per unit by 13%”.
The NGO also cites Lindt, which decreases the number of Pyreneans in boxes of chocolates or Danone, which by increasing the size of Salvetat bottles from 1.25 to 1.15 L causes the price per liter to increase.
There are many manufacturers who resort to lower quantities to save money and justify the practice by the soaring price of raw materials. But it is precisely the lack of transparency vis-à-vis the consumer that Foodwatch denounces, which launched a petition to demand clear communication from brands.
