Food that shrinks without lowering the price: is it worth boycotting? – 06/06/2023 – Gross Kitchen

An increasingly common phenomenon in supermarkets is the so-called redflation, a mixture of the words “reduction” and “inflation”.

It occurs when a manufacturer, in order not to increase the price of an article –and, consequently, piss off the consumer–, reduces the size of the product without changing the amount charged.

At the end of the day, the price of a kilo, a liter or a meter of that thing goes up. The buyer’s perception, however, is misled. The portion reduction will only be noticed if he is willing to read the small print on the package.

In the United Kingdom, where consumers’ eyes are very sharp, 65% noticed the reduction that is happening there. One in 5 respondents to a Barclays bank survey say they boycott products that have shrunk without commensurate decrease in price.

For the British, the high inflation of these times is something that has not been seen for decades, which is why so much noise with the ruses of the industry to disguise the rise in prices.

Here, unfortunately, we are more used to it. Is it worth boycotting companies that practice redflation?

I am pessimistic on this point. A boycott, in addition to being innocuous, is practically impossible.

All the manufacturers, in a worrying sign of cartelization, simultaneously resorted to the stratagem.

Take the case of chocolates. Four major brands reduced the weight of some bars by 10 grams: Nestlé, Garoto (also from Nestlé), Lacta (from Mondelez) and Hershey’s.

The first three went from 90 g to 80 g (-11.1%). Hershey’s went from 85g to 75g (-11.8%).

Then we remember that this has happened before. The standard weight of chocolate bars used to be 100g.

When they reduced the portion by 10% to 90g, there was a notice printed tinyly on the package. But he only stays there for a few months. Then it disappears, and we forget that it was tricked.

Another very didactic example is from Rap10, that wheat tortilla from Bimbo. They started selling packs of ten (because of the product’s name), then downsized to nine. Competitor Tá Pronto, from Wickbold, followed the movement.

It happens with cookies, with cereal and even with toilet paper. Do you want to boycott? Good luck, but I inform you that you have nowhere to run.

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