Shrinkflation: Consumers Are Paying More Through Smaller Portions
An example of shrinkflation, what was once a 24-can box of Coca-Cola now holds 20 cans.
Americans are seeing the real costs of inflation in their daily lives as they pay record-high gas prices, significantly increased grocery costs, and suffer sticker shock at restaurants, hair salons and other places.
Restaurants are charging more, with some posting notices on their doors. Increased prices, they say, are necessary to stay open simply to cover their increased costs for cooking oil and other goods. Some restaurants post signs accompanying empty containers to show that while they’re not increasing prices, their portion sizes are smaller.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that prices have increased by 7.9% in the past 12 months, since the start of President Joe Biden's presidency. But the increased prices don't take into account the fact that consumers also are paying more for less in another way: shrinkflation. The term points to how less of a product is sold at th