Pay more and get less as ‘skimpflation’ adds to ‘shrinkflation’ woe

SHOPPERS can expect less meaty sausages, boxes with fewer teabags and smaller crisp packets at the supermarket in a fresh wave of “shrinkflation”.

Dozens of items on supermarket shelves are getting smaller but their prices are not falling, leaving shoppers with less for their money.

In some cases, shoppers are in fact being charged more for less. Bottles of Listerine Fresh Burst mouthwash shrank from 600ml to 500ml, but at Tesco for example, the product’s price has risen by 52p – meaning shoppers paid 21 per cent more for 17 per cent less, research by consumer group Which? found.

Similarly, PG Tips The Tasty Decaf Pyramid tea bags went from containing 180 teabags to just 140 but the price on the shelves at Ocado has risen from £4 to £5.09.

At certain supermarkets, items including Kettle chips, Andrex wet wipes, Colgate toothpaste, McVitie’s dark chocolate digestives and Lurpak butter have shrunk in size. Polling from the consumer group suggested that 77 per cent of shoppers have noticed shrinkflation at supermarkets, while 33 per cent had noticed “skimpflation” – where popular foods are downgraded to include typically cheaper ingredients.

Tesco Finest sausages were reduced from 97 per cent pork to 90 per cent, while Yeo Valley Spreadable Butter went from containing 54 per cent butter to 50 per cent and Morrisons guacamole dropped from 80 per cent avocado to 77 per cent, it found.

Subtle recipe changes were also seen in supermarkets’ own-branded meals, with Tesco beef lasagne going from 23 per cent beef to 19 per cent, and Waitrose Butter Chicken Curry dropping from 47 per cent chicken to 41 per cent.

Manufacturers said that such changes often reflected their own costs or helped to keep products more affordable for consumers, and in some cases had improved the flavour or healthiness of a product.

Ele Clark, Which? retail editor, said: “Our research shows that while some popular products are subtly decreasing either in size or quality, the same can’t be said for their prices – which means shoppers are inadvertently paying more for less. Supermarkets and manufacturers must be more upfront by making sure changes to popular products are clear, and by ensuring that unit pricing is prominent, legible and consistent in-store and online so that shoppers can easily compare prices across different brands and pack sizes.”

Food price inflation stood at 6.7 per cent in December, according to analysts Kantar, the lowest it has been since early 2022 and a significant drop from 9.8 per cent in November. But shrinkflation and skimpflation continue to leave hard-pressed shoppers falling victim to regular reductions in product sizes.

Earlier this month French retail giant Carrefour said it planned to ditch PepsiCo products after repeated price increases. It previously put labels on shelves warning shoppers that items including Lindt chocolates and Lipton iced tea had seen their “volume or weight fall”.

Commenting on its butter recipe change, a Yeo Valley spokesman said: “Yeo Valley Organic shared the news with consumers ahead of the changes in-store through its website and email. There’s no hiding from the fact that the cost of producing high-quality tasty organic food has never been higher. While pricing is set by retailers, we made the hard decision to reduce the pack size to help keep organic as accessible as possible.”

A Waitrose spokesman said: “Our focus is always on our customers and our new curry recipes performed better than the previous range in benchmarking tests. We’ve kept the same prices since this change and we continue to use industry-leading higher welfare chicken from British farms across our entire ready meals range.”

A spokesman for Kenvue, which makes Listerine, said: “Like many other manufacturers, we are faced with cost increases. While we as the manufacturer set the RRP, the final pricing decision is at the sole discretion of retailers.”

PG Tips also stressed that “pricing is at the absolute discretion of the retailers”.

A Tesco spokesman said: “Changes to products are often to make them tastier or healthier. In the case of our Finest sausages, we updated the recipe in 2021 to deliver a healthier and better tasting product.”