When you go shopping in the supermarket, you usually don’t look at the weight of the products, especially if you’ve been buying the same things for a long time. For some time, however, the world has noticed that some of the products we buy are in short supply: we don’t eat more and wash more often, but there are fewer of them for the same price or, in some cases, the cost is only slightly higher than before. This is disguised inflation, which is called shrinkflation.

This usually happens during periods of high inflation.

In the US, the phenomenon of shrinkflation has existed in the economic literature for a long time. That is, the company reduces the quantity of the product, but keeps the price. In this way, consumers are deceived.

*I haven’t seen this phenomenon translated to Romanian in economics textbooks, so we’ll use it in English.

Attention to weight is very important for these companies. You don’t get more, you get less. It’s not like in the market, where the peasant puts tomatoes, grapes, cherries in your bag.

A few months ago, when HotNews.ro noticed this in supermarkets, it tried to get information from some large retailers, but they refused to give us the requested data: some pretended not to understand what shrinkflation is, while others said they had such there is no data.

Is the wrapper smaller or similar?

37-year-old Alina went to a shopping center in Bucharest last week with an old friend to buy sneakers. The old one has deteriorated too much.

After shopping around a bit and finding the perfect pair, he said to eat something because he was hungry. He hadn’t eaten fast food in about a year, but said, “That’s it, I don’t eat that often anyway.”

He received a wrapper. When he saw it on the tray, he thought it was an optical illusion. She sat down at one of the tables and asked her friend who was with her: Is he smaller or similar to him? I don’t remember what the price was before, but it seemed to be a bit more.

After eating it, he realized that it was smaller, because earlier he realized that he was full after consuming it.

Alina suffered from shrinkflation.

This is noticed not only in Romania, recently it has started to be talked about everywhere in Europe.

The phenomenon of less weight for the same price has taken the world by storm

In Greece, people are increasingly disillusioned. Recently, a citizen complained that he was shocked at the weekend when he spent 130 euros in a supermarket for coffee, tuna, onions, salad, 1.2 kg of chicken. “What the hell did 130 euros go to?”

“I, and of course other consumers in Greece, have noticed that the cups of yogurt have shrunk, as have the bags of frozen vegetables, packaged cheese, etc. 100g here, 100ml there, and that’s why we have 1 kilogram less when we shop,” said the Greek.

The phenomenon of shrinkflation also angered consumers in Germany. Citizens sent many complaints to the consumer rights protection authorities, considering it a theft.

A petition has been launched in France condemning the manufacturers and supermarkets, and in the first 10 days it has been signed by 8,000 people, because the technique used misleads shoppers about the sizes and prices of the products.

In Spain, supermarkets were found to have 50 grams less of certain brands of margarine, 5 grams of certain yogurts and 10 grams of chorizo.

Consumer protection organizations drew attention and recommended that citizens check the scales, because “goods that don’t seem to have a higher price actually do.”

In Italy, the authorities monitor the phenomenon of hidden price increases in the sense of transparency for consumers.

Business Insider covers everything from toilet paper and fast food to beverages and pet food. All show a phenomenon.

The situation may worsen if we look at the fact that energy prices in Europe are very high.

Sources:

keeptalkinggreece.com

Foodwatch.org

Spanishnewstoday.com

Bloomberg

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greatitalianfoodtrade.it