The topic of discussion today is about Shrinkflation and how it goes about affecting you standard of living without you realising how it is done.
Yesterday, there was a study released by the ONS (Office for National Statistics) in Britian. The study was attempting to get to the bottom of "How many products over the last 5 years have shrunk in size" but kept the same price..... A record 2500~ products mostly food products such as chocolates, sweets and non food products like loo rolls etc.
It isn't just the UK government but many other governments around the world that have significantly undercut their inflation statistics by not including it or stating that it is virtually no existent in their measurements as stated by the article " While weight changes have happened most frequently in food products, non-food items are also being sold in smaller packet sizes, the ONS found. However, these size reductions have not added significantly to inflation, it concluded. "
But it's not just food manufacturers that are shrinking portions while maintaining price as many consumers goods items from chocolate to coffee to toilet paper are all experiencing the same trends. Known in grocery circles as 'liar packs', shrinking portion sizes became an attractive alternative to simply raising prices back during the great recession when consumers became particularly sensitive to price. Of course, the net effect is exactly the same but it's much more difficult to notice that fine print on the bottom corner of the packaging than it is the price tag at check out. Per The Telegraph:
Mark Jones, a food and drink solicitor at Gordons law firm, said: “Shrinkflation was borne out of the recession and has gathered staggering pace since 2009.
The ONS’s report confirms this. Against the back drop of a weak economy, commodity prices have been rising over the last five years. "The recession made people very price sensitive and you can see the evidence of that by looking at the impressive growth of discount retailers in the last five years, no retail sector has grown faster.
“Suppliers and retailers do not want to raise the ‘on the shelf’ price, but both have had to adapt to increasing commodity prices. "Shrinking the size of the products being sold, whether that is toilet paper, chocolate or cleaning products, is just another way of pushing through a price increase, but in a more subtle way. How many of us noticed Andrex reduce the number of sheets on a toilet roll from 240 to 221?”
Please do take heed. Shrinkflation is still a hidden tax IE inflation and you must do everything you can to protect what purchasing power is left in your currency..... Otherwise after a number of years and even decades you'll experience a dramatic decline in your purchasing power and become another statistic in the decline of the US middle class, which is no longer the largest class.
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