Shrinkflation: How The Grocery Store Gaslights You Without You Even Knowing It
You’re not imagining it. From toilet paper to toothpaste, coffee to cookies, and Safeguard to Sun Maid, you’re paying more for less. The size of a number of products around the world is decreasing while the price remains the same, or even increases. It’s hard to notice at first, but once you’re aware of it, you’ll notice shrinkflation happening everywhere.
You may be surprised when you first notice that your Arm & Hammer laundry detergent ran out that much more quickly. Maybe you just brush it off or blame yourself for using bigger portions, but shrinkflation is a marketing strategy that seems to veer dangerously close to downright gaslighting consumers. The term was first coined as a term in 2009, and shrinkflation, a compound word referring to the practice of shrinking the size of a good while inflating the unit price, has continued to become more and more of a common practice since then.