What really grinds my gears is when shrinkflation happens to pre-packaged products that are used as ingredients because it throws recipes off. Here's three examples:

Campbell's pre-made soups like Cream of Mushroom or Creamy Tomato changed from 10.75oz down to 10.5oz. If your favorite casserole doesn't taste quite like it used to this is probably why.

Pre-packaged meats like bacon and tuna. For as long as I could remember pre-packaged bacon was always sold in some multiple of a pound, now you have to pay attention because often the bags are 10 or 12oz instead of 16. Growing up tuna was 6.5oz can and its now down to just 5.

The same thing has happened with canned vegetables like green beans or even canned mushrooms. Once you're done adjusting the amount of Cream of Mushroom in that Green Bean Casserole you're going to have to circle back and fix the amount of green beans in it.

When you bust out Grandma's recipe card you need to be careful because her "can" or "jar" of something was almost certainly bigger than what you have!

Oh, and if you are trying to make older recipes it's not just the volume / amount of things that changed it's also the formulation. Almost everything that is pre-processed has been re-formulated over the past 20 years so it no longer cooks or tastes the same as it used to.

Some old recipes are damn difficult to make correctly these days because the ingredients aren't the same type or size. It's frustrating.

Yeah! Cmon Pepsi, Coke, and General Mills, get with the program. America needs to sell some high fructose corn syrup and your smaller portions are hurting big ag.

Hey, let's go one better. Let's require manufacturers to design product containers that don't waste product. I genuinely want to write a letter to whatever government organization oversees this type of stuff (in the US) at some point once I can figure out where, who, and gather documentation.

I'm talking everything. Salsa containers with a lip at the top that keeps all product from pouring out. Thin-necked mayo, tomato sauce, alfredo, etc. food containers that make even using a spatula and beatings difficult.

Then, lets move onto other things like bodywash, household cleaners, even the poop sprays. Airwick's poop spray is a good example. When the package is half-empty, tilting it to spray will pull the hose out of the liquid unless you rotate the container to resubmerge it. You can't even get half the product out before it is troublesome. Its whole life will be spent tilted at a 90 degree angle to spray in a toilet bowl. Why even use a hose? Oh, wait...for the profits.

More minor things, Bodywashes like Suave that switched from squeeze bottles to pumps. Most hand soaps also end up here too. The container is shaped with a dome in the bottom for structural reinforcement and the hose touches the reinforcement instead of extending all the way down to the bottom. Or every lotion bottle ever made.

Net sum, you end up with a few ounces of product that can't be used. Most people probably just chuck it and buy a new one. Just to spite them I try to use up every last drop of whatever, but it is an annoying effort every time.

The manufacturer doesn't care because the product being sold is the least expense of the entire supply chain, but think of the supply chain...

Let's talk body lotion and estimate 4oz of unused product in every lotion bottle (probably closer to 6, but even 1 adds up) and a 16oz lotion bottle.

I used AI to scrape the web for some numbers, so huge grain of salt here, but, it estimates a 40 foot cargo container and a packaging efficiency of 80%, that 37,000 bottles of 16oz lotion could fit in one container.

That's 148,000oz (1156.25 gallons, 4376.9 liters) of unused product being pointlessly shipped around per cargo container, with intent that it will be thrown away, per container. That is fuel in ships, trucks, aircraft, trains, delivery vans, peoples' cars all being burned to transport something that will never be used.

Multiply that by every kind of product line that does the same thing, it's a boondoggle of energy waste, pollution, CO2 generation, and customer ripoffery.

Mandatory changing of the design of packages for food, body, and other products could all by itself help with climate change on a planetary scale, as well as keeping the shrinkflaters more honest.

Coke, Pepsi, and General Mills must have missed their payments.

On the one hand, I'm in favour of portion sizes getting smaller for junk foods.

On the other hand, I'd prefer to be getting the same amount of stuff each time I buy the same product. I'd rather prices go up instead of things getting stealthily smaller.

The worst is when they use the same packaging, but just have less product. Kraft Dinner/instant Mac & Cheese being a particularly egregious offender...

The federal government should just enact a national unit price mandate for fair comparison shopping.

Currently, eighteen (18) states and one (1) territories have unit pricing laws or regulations in force. Ten (10) of these have mandatory unit pricing provisions. They are: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and the District of Columbia.

https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/national-legal-metrology/us-retail-pricing-laws-and-regulations

Here I'm starting to see "family sized" chocolate bars that are way more expensive but it weights the same grams as the old size before shrinkflation.

On the one hand, shrinkflation is a fucking awful thing to do to consumers.

On the other hand, I wish people would see the fact that they're eating fewer chips and drinking less sugary soda has a silver lining.

Maybe keep the physical shrink and shrink the price too?

I'm fine with Coke and Pepsi keeping their shrinkflation.

Fuckingcapitalists

I was looking to find what this actually does about shrinkflation and couldn't find it.

If this is some fact-finding committee i swear I'll lose my mind. The shrinkflation's not even subtle, and its much much more than the paltry examples listed.

Like it's so insulting i stopped me bad habit of eating kids cereal as a treat/dessert. The fact there's no value prospect anymore is one thing, sure but the size of these goddamn cereal boxes got so small so fast even my lizard brain (the one ad guys work so hard to manipulate) gets angry instead of tempted.

I leave the grocery store imagining it's on fire every week and I bet I'm not the only one

All their “deals” are like 10.5oz canned sodies for $10/12pk or 3 pks for $20. They sell sugar and water and carbonation and they price it like expensive spring water. It’s poison.

It’s awful, but it has been going on for decades.