Anyone notice that these days we’re paying more and getting less? What the heck? While this happened sneakily before the pandemic, it’s been out of control since the supply chain disruptions that occurred when the pandemic began. The big corporations decided to use that excuse to not only raise prices, but keep them high once everything settled down. And to add insult to injury, they continue to reduce the amount of product in whatever container they’re in and charge us more for less! This is what President Biden was talking about in his State of the Union speech, calling out Big Business about shrinkflation. It doesn’t matter which side of the aisle you’re on politically, this is basically highway robbery by these greedy corporations where too much is never enough. And we’re all paying the price.
The 20-pound bag of dog food that my pups love used to cost approximately $20. There is no longer a 20-pound bag, the closest size is 16.5 pounds. And even then, guess what? While it’s 3 1/2 fewer pounds, it now costs approximately $30! Imagine the profits – I’m sure the CEOs are rubbing their hands together in glee.
A 64-ounce bottle of the vegetable juice I have bought for years used to cost around $3.50. While the size has remained the same, for the past few years the price has risen to approximately $4.50 with no sign of going back down.
Take a look at some of your favorite foods. The sneaky way they get you if they haven’t raised the price is shrinking the size of the box, bag, or can that your food comes in. It may look the same, but there’s a sneaky trick that keeps you from noticing unless you check the total amount in the package and compare it to what it used to be. Check your chips, cereal, cookies, and crackers. You might have noticed the food disappears more quickly and think you must be eating more. But very possibly, it’s that there is actually less food in that container.
My rant right now is based on a can of string beans. While this isn’t exactly shrinkflation unless it was done purposely, and I have no idea if it was, it’s still an example of what can happen if we don’t pay attention to disappearing products. My vet suggested that since my dog Jax is not as fit and trim as he was a year ago and needs to return to his boyish figure, that I cut down on his actual dog food and add some veggies to the mix. My pups have already been getting pumpkin mixed in with their food, so I decided to also add string beans to their meals. Jax and Lacey have been thrilled with the new addition and gobble down their food with gusto. Not that they didn’t have gusto before, but I can see their enthusiasm for their meals has ramped up even more. I recently bought several cans of string beans, went to open a new can and drain the liquid out. I pressed the top down onto what I thought would be the veggies, but as I pushed lower into the can, all I was feeling was liquid. I looked into the can and saw that the string beans were barely reaching the halfway mark in the can and it was pure liquid above the measly few string beans near the bottom. I opened another can to make sure this was an aberration, and was relieved to find that the other can had a bountiful supply of string beans almost to the top. Imagine if I had only bought one can. Or someone else had bought that can and thought that’s all they were going to get. I will be contacting the manufacturer and the store where I bought them for a refund. But I began to wonder, how often does this happen? And are there people who will think this is just another sign of shrinkflation?
I think it’s time we speak up about this. Corporate greed is running rampant and I think it’s time the manufacturers know that we’re fed up with paying more and getting less. Let them know that we’ve had enough and we’re not going to take it anymore. And say it with gusto!
Copyright Nancy Machlis Rechtman, all rights reserved
Nancy Rechtman's Inanities 