In the United
States, India, Britain and Japan, people are starting to see smaller containers
and higher prices for food.
The cost
increases are affecting snack food, cheese, drinks, soaps and
more.
Economic
experts say the changes in package sizes are a result of
inflation. They call it “shrinkflation.”
In the U.S.,
a popular kind of facial paper once had 65 sheets in each box,
now it has 60. A container of yogurt that once had 150 grams now has about 125
grams. In Britain, a kind of coffee once had 100 grams in each package. It now
has 90 grams. In India, a kind of soap is smaller by 20 grams.
In some
cases, people who buy these products are getting less for the same price. Some
are seeing higher prices for smaller packages. Experts say the move by food
companies is not new, but it is common in times of inflation.
Around the
world, people paid on average seven percent more for goods in May than they did
the year before. A company that researches prices, S&P Global, said people
should expect the inflation rate to stay the same at least until September.
Edgar Dworsky is a former lawyer for the American state of Massachusetts. He runs a website called Consumer World. Dworsky said he started seeing smaller food containers last fall. He notes coffee containers have less coffee and bathroom paper has fewer sheets.
Many
companies that make these goods create smaller packages but also change the
words on them to make them seem new or better, Dworsky said.
One kind of
corn snack made by PepsiCo is called Fritos. They recently had a “party size”
bag that contained about 510 grams. New packages are still called “party size,”
but now they only have 439 grams. PepsiCo did not answer questions about the
new size when asked by the Associated Press. But the company did say the
bottles for a drink called Gatorade were made smaller so people could hold them
more easily, not because of inflation.
People around
the world have been noticing “shrinkflation.” They have taken photos and shown
examples of it on social media.
From VOA (edited) where you can also listen to a longer version of the article above
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Matt Rourke - Gene J. Puskar - Dee-Ann Durbin
REUTERS/Akira Tomoshige
