Reduction: understand why packages are smaller – 03/27/2023 – Panel SA

Food retailers should face, in the coming months, a repetition of the trend of reducing the number of items in consumers’ carts and shrinking packaging sizes, which gained momentum last year.

Known as reduflation, the practice of reducing the size of packages is a typical move in inflationary periods and serves to adapt the product to the pocket of customers with eroded purchasing power.

It is common in categories such as washing powder, cookies and chocolate, but according to Robson Munhoz, director of the supply software company Neogrid, the trend has accelerated and also reaches products such as coffee and toilet paper.

For Luiza Zacharia, director of market intelligence company Horus, the economic scenario continues to impact retail spending. More recent data from Horus indicate that the average ticket has gone up, but the number of products in the cart has not followed. “This is a reflection of inflation. And after reaching a certain point, even if there is deflation or a slowdown, it is difficult to return to normal levels. The consumer gets used to it, and the final price ends up being a little higher. Look at milk, which doubled in price and started to go down, but it doesn’t go back to the previous level”, says Zacharia.

At the end of last year, the average ticket was more than 13% higher than the amount spent at the beginning of the year, but the average number of items purchased grew by only 1.5%.

Nestlé claims that the adoption of reduced packaging seeks to maintain the competitiveness of the product and follows the rules that require information about the change in weight on the label. PepsiCo also says that it communicates the changes as required by law and seeks to keep its products accessible to the population even in scenarios of inflationary pressure.

Joana Cunha with Paulo Ricardo Martins It is Diego Felix

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