Consumers who buy a particular brand of margarine, perhaps the most famous on the Greek market, have been facing an unpleasant surprise for several weeks now. When they open the package, which is almost the same on the outside as the one they bought earlier in the supermarket, they see that there is significantly less product inside. Few believed that a mistake was made in the production of the product, and many were quick to complain to the managers of the stores where they bought this margarine, fearing that a smaller amount was due to insufficient margarine content. product.

No, someone… the mouse didn’t eat the missing margarine. In addition, the packages were sealed. If they paid a little more attention to what is written on the packages, they would see that now they write 200 g instead of 250 and 400 gr. instead of 500. Packet size has not changed. In addition, it would cost the manufacturing company, and it would be easier to change two numbers on the stamps of the information written on the packages.

The problem is not that you get less product, unless, of course, the recipe for the dough you intended to make says that you need 250 g of margarine, and not 200 g. The problem is that consumers pay much more money for less product. On March 1, 2022, a few days after the start of the war in Ukraine, the average price of the margarine in question (250 g pack) was 1.41 euros. Today the package is 200 gr. sold for 1.62 euros. That is, the consumer pays 21 cents more or 15% more for a package containing 50 grams less product. As for the price per kilogram, it has increased from 5.64 euros to 8.1 euros, i.е. by 43.61%!

At least the phenomenon of the famous “shrink inflation” came to Greece, which, as “K” wrote, was just around the corner, and several industries have already begun to plan accordingly. The word comes from the English words compress, meaning to shrink, and inflation, meaning inflation. In fact, this is a practice followed by food businesses mainly during periods of large increases in production costs in order to actually maintain or even increase profit margins by reducing sales and selling them to themselves or, worse for the consumer, higher prices.

The phenomenon of “shrinkage” also came to Greece, where consumers paid more money for less goods.

Clarification needed: The above practice, at least as far as consumer information is concerned, cannot be considered misleading. And that’s because the package says the correct weight. Isn’t it, of course, a question of violating the rate of return provision (i.e. the rate of gross margin per unit from the sale of products or services cannot exceed the corresponding rate of gross margin per unit that was in force before September 1, 2021) is something that should investigate the services of the General Secretariat for Trade and Consumer Protection. The packaging change, essentially a code change, could be a “window” for these products not to be subject to margin cap provisions as they were placed on the market as new codes after September 1, 2021, according to market insiders.

The case with the popular margarine, unfortunately, is not the only one. The leading food company now offers some of its frozen vegetables in 900g packs, while previously the packs were 1000g or one kilogram. Also some packages of 450 gr. were initially reduced to 400g and then increased to 420g. Pack of frozen peas 450g. until recently it was sold at 1.95 euros or 4.33 euros/kg, and is now also sold in a 420 g pack by the same leading supermarket chain at a price of 2.88 or 6.86 euros/kg. That is, an increase in the price per kilogram by 58.42%!

“Discounts” in quantity, but without corresponding discounts in price, are now also found in yoghurt products, which was also expected. The yogurt produced by the renowned food industry is now sold in 3x190g packs instead of 3x200g. The goods at this time are sold in almost all networks for a promotion with a price reduction of 1 euro. However, this does not mean that at the end of the promotional period its price will not be higher than when it was sold in a 3x200g package.

The compression phenomenon seems to fit into several categories, not just the most basic ones. An illustrative example is a packaged croissant of a well-known brand, which is no longer sold in a 110 gr package, but in a package … 98 gr.

What “weapons” do consumers have? Pay very close attention to what is written on the packaging of the products you buy, and especially pay attention to the label that accompanies the product on the supermarket shelf with the price per unit of measurement (per kilogram, per liter, etc.).

Development Department starts inspections

The problem of shrinkage in the Greek market, according to the statements of the Minister of Development and Investment Ad. Georgiadis under the microscope of the Inter-Agency Market Enforcement Service (DIMEA) inspections, while pointing out that sufficient time is required to complete the inspections, document the violation and impose appropriate penalties. However, as a first step, and in order for consumers to have a better understanding of what is happening, it would be a good idea to update the electronic consumer database (Food Price Observatory) of the General Secretariat of Commerce with the new packaging of products, rather than the old packages with new prices on the actual actually displayed packages, however, that are no longer available in supermarkets. And whether there is a violation or not, and what appears in the e-Consumer, becomes even more important in view of the implementation of the famous “home basket” in the near future.