Welcome to "skimpflation"

[dixiegrrrrl]

"Shrinkflation" is when the price of stuff stays the same, but the amount you get goes down.

The economy-wide decline in service quality that we’re now seeing is something different, and it doesn’t have a good name. It’s a situation where we’re paying the same or more for services, but they kinda suck compared to what they used to be. We propose a new word to describe this stealth-ninja kind of inflation: skimpflation. It’s when, instead of simply raising prices, companies skimp on the goods and services they provide.

Businesses are having a hard time finding workers at the wages they used to pay.
Whether it’s because they can’t afford to, or they don’t want to, or they’re being greedy — i
nstead of enticing workers with higher wages, many businesses are cutting back on the quality of their services in order to stay profitable.
Oxford dictionary definition of the word skimp seems to fit what they’re doing: “expend or use less time, money, or material on something than is necessary in an attempt to economize.”

skimpflation is a form of inflation. As with normal inflation, it means we’re getting less for our money. And some argue the government is failing to properly account for this kind of inflation when crunching official statistics.

*don't want to or being greedy*

I remember a time post Reagan when companies used to run by selling something, paying expenses from the sales, and what was left over was a good enough profit.

Now they feel compelled to make bigger and bigger profits every quarter/year
no matter what they have to cut in order to do so, to protect/expand salaries and stock of the executives.
It's now the norm, just like it was in the Robber Baron era. So their earnings spiral upward to protect stock price, while employees' wages are put into a downward spiral.
the Robber Baron system liked having hordes of unemployed who would feel compelled to work for peanuts to avoid starving.

So it's fascinating to see now that businesses are begging for workers, and being forced to raise wages in order to entice them, while making their customers accept less in goods and services.
Because god forbid company Execs. accept any decrease in their own salaries.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/10/26/1048892388/meet-skimpflation-a-reason-inflation-is-worse-than-the-government-says-it-is

[PoliticAverse]

1. There's also "shrinkflation". There's a Wikipedia page....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinkflation

In economics, shrinkflation, is known as grocery shrink ray or package downsizing, is the process of items shrinking in size or quantity, or even sometimes reformulating or reducing quality, while their prices remain the same or increase. The word is a portmanteau of the words shrink and inflation. First usage of the term "shrinkflation", has been attributed to both Pippa Malmgren and Brian Domitrovic.

[Amishman]

4. yes, shrinkflation is the term I've heard for this for years

and it has been going on a long time, but is definitely accelerating.

Been a very long time since a standard tub of ice cream was a half gallon...

[Autumn]

2. I always buy solid white albacore tuna. I opened a can I bought last week and when I drained it

and took the lid off the tuna can it was over half empty.

[dweller]

3. But the company says

It’s half full …


✌🏻

[Autumn]

5. The company lies.

[roamer65]

10. I'd say within 10-15 years we won't even be able to buy it.

At any price.

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. So we have to buy 2 cans to get the old amount.

Last edited Thu Oct 28, 2021, 08:55 PM - Edit history (1)

I use Ragu cheese sauce. Always came in glass jar. Now comes in a carton. Same price, but 2 ounces less.

[Autumn]

12. I used to get enough to make tuna salad for my husband and I out of one can. It takes two now.

Smaller amounts in everything.

[ProfessorPlum]

13. That sounds like scary stuff!

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. Lol......typo... n/t

[Taylor Picker]

14. I might be able to top that...

I recently got a 2 cheeseburger meal at a ubiquitous fast-food drive-through.
It turned out that neither of them had a meat patty on it. IDK if that qualifies as shrinkflation or just bad service.
I went back and got my money back.
There was a time when not getting so much as a "sorry about that" would have upset me. I now realize the days of apologies over customer service are, for the most part, long gone.

[rickyhall]

6. It's like eating a "Hungry Man" TV dinner & still being hungry afterwards.

[dweller]

8. But that's just

Truth in advertising
🤔



✌🏻

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. Brand name frozen pot pies...

Nice crust..and less than 2 tablespoons of any veg/chicken.....I measured.

[lagomorph777]

7. Same trick SineManchin are using against us.

[roamer65]

9. Stealth rationing.

Gotta shroud the fact that we are having to ration to feed 8 billion people.

Alarmed people actually may do something about it.



Here’s shopping Venezuelan style.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/20/venezuela-bolivars-hyperinflation-banknotes

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. Not only rationing, but sky high prices for food will continue

The droughts will see to that.

[roamer65]

22. The sky high prices are definitely a rationing system.

Especially under high inflation.

[musette_sf]

15. In not just one but two Boston Market frozen meals I recently encountered,

half or all of the meat portion of the entree was MISSING.

The Salisbury Steak entree should have two patties per entree - we purchased one that had only one patty.

We purchased a Country Fried Steak entree with NO MEAT AT ALL, just gravy.

Never seen such a thing before, and to have it happen twice in three weeks was bizarre.

[marie999]

16. The first item I saw was ice cream, 64 oz. to 48 OZ.

[displacedtexan]

17. And companies don't even try to hide it anymore.

Have you seen what passes for a full size Hershey Bar?
How about the size of bread loaves?
Egg yolks are 3/4 their historically normal size.
It takes 2 boxes of Jiffy Cornbread Muffin Mix, 2x the milk, & 2x the egg for an 8" round cake pan.
The most egregious example in the kitchen (imho) is butter. Each 4oz stick is 3 7/8 oz. I weigh everything in grams for baking, and the weight loss adds up when scaling recipes. I understand slight variances in factory produced package goods, but paying for 16oz & getting 15oz every single time is insulting.

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. I've used Jiffy Cornbread mix for well over 40 years

have always used 2 boxes at a time. So haven't yet noticed any skimping.
It's always taken 2 boxes to the 8" iron skillet for baking.

[hatrack]

23. Even cheap stuff, like Best Choice frozen vegetables . . . .

Used to be a pound of broccoli, "California Blend", whatever. Now it's 12 ounces, and for a slightly higher price.

Haven't seen a half-gallon of ice cream in years.

[shrike3]

24. This has been going on for years.

Smaller portions, a can half full, etc. Glad other people are noticing the same thing.

[Retrograde]

25. I remember a Mad Magazine piece on this

from the 1960s - it's been going on for a long, long time. It's especially annoying if you're trying to translate a recipe from an old cookbook: does anyone still use #2 cans?