Come clean on shrinkf lation, big brands urged
Experts want ‘sneak rises’ labelled
BIG brands should be forced to show cuts in pack sizes on the label to tackle the scandal of ‘Shrinkflation’, consumer experts are demanding.
Manufacturers and supermarkets are guilty of shrinking products without lowering the cost in what amounts to back-door price rises.
The phenomenon has now reached epidemic proportions, according to the Office for National Statistics and evidence revealed by Which?
The consumer magazine has identified a string of big-selling household products where packs have been cut in size while prices stayed the same – or even went up.
Packs of Fairy All in One Lemon dishwasher tablets initially fell from 70 to 67 per pack and they are now down to 60.
Which? found that Morrisons cut the price from £10 to £9 when the number of capsules fell from 67 to 60, however the cost then went up to £12 in the middle of last year.
Likewise, 1kg packs of Ambrosia Devon Custard were replaced by a 750g pack around November 2017. The price remained the same at £1.85 after the change at Morrisons and Sainsbury’s.
But at Tesco the 750g pack was more expensive despite being smaller – going up from £1.65 to £2.
Which? found a similar ploy with some Bisto sauces where the price rose from 0.6p per gram to 0.78p per gram.
Colman’s sauces, Felix cat food, Doritos and Ecover washing up liquid show similar rises. It comes after Toblerone bars, Terry’s Chocolate Orange and multi-packs of Cadbury’s creme eggs had pack sizes trimmed.
Which? magazine editor Harry Rose, said: ‘Our research has shown that while some popular products have shrunk over the years, the same can’t always be said for their prices, which ultimately means people paying more for less. The bottom line is that they need to be upfront with their customers about these changes, so people can make an informed choice about how they spend their money.’
Ratula Chakraborty, professor of business management at the University of East Anglia, said: ‘Studies show consumers are four times more demand-sensitive to a price rise than a corresponding package size cut.
‘Suppliers and retailers need to be honest and, if necessary, obliged by law to mark on their packages when the pack size has been reduced, for a period of at least one month.’
Jonathan Seaton, reader in business economics at Loughborough University, said shrinkflation is often a response to rises in manufacturing costs, demand uncertainty, and competition from discount stores.
He said: ‘Stealthy, cloak-anddagger price rises don’t make for happy consumers.’
The number of bags of Walkers crisps in multipacks has been cut. In Asda, the number of 25g packets dropped from 12 to 10, The Grocer magazine reports. The price fell from £2.25 to £2 – an 11.1 per cent fall in price, compared with a 17 per cent reduction in quantity.
‘Price rises by stealth’