We’ve all been hearing a lot about inflation but it’s shrinkflation that shoppers really need to worry about.
Shrinkflation is where manufacturers charge the same or even more for smaller servings, betting on most consumers not noticing the difference.
And with rate rises and cost-of-living pressures hitting many hard households, these reductions are offering less and less value for money
Consumer group Choice has been getting tip-offs from peeved Aussies about products that have been downsizing, recently verifying Smith’s crinkle cut potato chips had been trimmed by 5g — or about three chips — to 170g per pack.
There has also been a 20g drop in large packs of Red Rock Deli potato chips to 165g and boxes of Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes have shed 30g.
And sweet-toothed shoppers have been left with a sour taste with Cadbury family-sized chocolate blocks going from the once-standard 250g to 180g.
The latest to drop weight is Maltesers, with a spokeswoman for manufacturer Mars Wrigley saying it was “facing unprecedented cost pressures” like many Australian businesses.
“From time to time, external factors make it necessary for product changes so that we can continue to ensure the availability of our products to all Australians,” she said.
Choice spokesman Liam Kennedy said shrinkflation was a global trend that was expected to continue.
“Most of the examples that we see, a lot of the tips we receive, are in that snack area, cereals,” Mr Kennedy told The West Australian.
But it has hit pet food too, with bags of Purina One cat food contracting by 100g to 1.4kg but costing more.
Owner Nestle blamed that on recipe changes and higher costs for raw materials, packaging and transport, Mr Kennedy said.
“A lot of business are feeling that right now,” he added.
Elizabeth Jackson, a food supply chain systems expert at Curtin University, warned shoppers to expect ongoing pain at the checkout, mainly due to high transport costs, saying the current inflation spike was reminiscent of that seen in the oil crisis of 1973.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics inflation data showed transport cost jumped the most of 11 expense categories in the year to June, up 13.1 per cent.
“The products that have been escalating so greatly have been those we can’t do without, your staples — fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, cooking oil, pasta,” Dr Jackson said. “We can’t get away from it.
“But why people are feeling it so much is we’ve actually been experiencing unnaturally low prices.
“In 2011, food inflation got as low as -3.2 per cent, so we’ve been enjoying things too much and we’re just getting back to reality now, and we don’t like it.”
Those previously unusually low prices were caused by retailers engaging in price wars, squeezing the margins of primary producers, she said.
But now, on top of costs including fertilizer and fuel soaring, the freight transport sector was battling labor problems, faced with an aging truck driver workforce and a struggle to attract young workers.
“What we’re experiencing now, we need to get used to. This is business as usual for the foreseeable future,” Dr Jackson said.
Choice’s latest Consumer Pulse survey, which polled 1083 Australian households, found 23 per cent were struggling to get by, up from 18 per cent in June last year.
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