COLORADO, USA — Have you looked in your pantry lately? Like, really looked? There's something companies don't want you to notice.
"It's very manipulative. It seems like they're trying to pull a fast one," said Darrin Duber-Smith, senior lecturer at Metropolitan State University of Denver. "Fewer Doritos in the Doritos bag – fewer tissues in the tissue box – fewer garbage bags on the garbage bag roll, and so you end up having to buy more frequently."
Duber-Smith said it's called "shrinkflation" and the concept itself isn't anything new to the marketing world. Companies have been doing this for decades. It's completely legal and there are no regulations against it.
"I don't think that we've seen it on this level where every company is doing it," he said. "I have noticed it in almost everything that we have bought in our household over the last several months."
Duber-Smith said there's only so much shrinkflation that can happen before consumers start feeling ripped off and prices can only go so high to stay competitive.
"It's sort of a dance where you raise the price a little bit you shrink the package a little bit and you're hoping that consumers don't get freaked out," he said. "Couple of ounces – couple of grams. They hope that most consumers don't notice, and during normal times, they don't."
But, these haven't been normal times.
"When everyone is doing it, when the entire supply chain is experiencing these inflationary pressures it's a lot easier for companies to justify what they're doing because everyone's doing it and everyone's forced to do it," he said. "It's a waiting game. Consumers are just going to have to wait for it to work its way through the supply chain and work its way through the economy."
Duber-Smith said consumers need to shop smarter and consider "trading down" to a lower-priced brand.
"I think a lot of consumers are going to realize they've been paying too much for a lot of their brands and so consumers have to be willing to try new things," he said.
And then hopefully soon your pantry will go back to normal.
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