The Great Brexit banger* con
The packs shrink, but the price stays same or goes UP ... the sneaky way stores hide rises in YOUR shopping
SUPERMARKETS are ‘sneakily’ cutting the size of swathes of popular food and drink items – without making them cheaper.
In one of the worst instances of so-called shrinkflation, the price per kilo of Sainsbury’s sausages has soared by more than 40 per cent. But unless shoppers paid close attention to the packaging, they may not even have noticed.
Stores and manufacturers have turned to the ‘underhand’ practice since the vote to leave the EU sent the pound plummeting, making the price of imported foods and ingredients more expensive.
The effect on some products, such as Terry’s Chocolate Orange and Toblerone, has already been well publicised, but new research shows just how widespread the practice has become.
Channel 4’s Dispatches found at least 25 other everyday products, including fresh herbs, sweets, beer, fish fingers, orange juice and hot chocolate had been secretly hiked since the Brexit referendum last June. Even the price of British goods, such as pork or cheese, has risen because they are traded on the global commodities market in dollars. While that is good news for farmers, it makes them more expensive for supermarkets to buy.
The findings come just days after official figures showed that food inflation has hit its highest level since June 2014.
Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference pork sausages saw one of the steepest hidden rises. Last year, shoppers got 20 chipolatas in a pack, weighing 625g, for £2.63. This year, there are just 16 in a pack, weighing 500g, but the price has gone up to £3 – the equivalent of a 43 per cent increase in price.
In Tesco, a standard packet of fresh curly parsley has been cut from 35g to 30g, but with no reduction in its 70p price – effectively a 17 per cent price hike.
And online retailer Ocado last year sold Thomas J. Fudge’s gourmet mini savoury biscuits at £2.25 for 80g. Now there is 75g in a pack, but the price has remained the same, meaning an almost seven per cent hidden rise.
A few products surveyed were now cheaper – but not by as much as the pack size had shrunk.
Experts have criticised the tactics as ‘sneaky’. Ratula Chakraborty, of the University of East Anglia, said: ‘Shrinkflation is a sneaky practice because consumers are not expecting any size changes so do not inspect package sizes unless there is a really noticeable difference.
‘In contrast, consumers pay much more attention to prices because they change frequently.
‘Consumers already face the immensely complex task of buying groceries from supermarkets offering 30,000 or more products without having to guess or work out whether sizes have changed. The distraction of so many price promotions, with prices bouncing around, adds to that complexity.’ She argued that the ‘sleight of hand’ was particularly difficult to spot in fresh meat and vegetables, where there is no standard pack size.
Vickie Sheriff, campaigns manager at consumer group Which?, told Dispatches: ‘It’s not on. Consumers have a right to know that the packaging has decreased, that they’re getting less for their money.’
Ian Wright, director general of the Food and Drink Federation, which represents manufacturers, said many producers were facing cost increases of 20 per cent since Brexit. But he denied shrinkflation was an underhand way of passing on costs.
He said: ‘To suggest that sneaky manufacturers or sneaky retailers are somehow causing shoppers difficulties is to massively underestimate the savviness of British shoppers and to impute motives to manufacturers and retailers that just aren’t there.’
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, added: ‘Sizing and pricing of products are regularly reviewed and are impacted by a number of factors, including the cost of raw materials, commercial negotiations with manufacturers and changing portion sizes. Prices and sizes of all products are clearly labelled so that customers can make informed decisions.’
Thomas J. Fudge said its smaller pack sizes were ‘in response to the consumer appetite and usage of premium savoury biscuits’.
Dispatches – Supermarkets: Brexit & Your Shrinking Shop is on Channel 4 at 8pm tomorrow.
‘Customers are getting less for their money’
THE costs of Brexit are beginning to find their way into our daily lives. The ‘shrinkflation’ in our supermarkets – under which prices stay the same but the goods get smaller – is just the first sign of the fall in sterling which followed the referendum.
More will undoubtedly follow, as rising commodity prices for imported raw materials work their way into the economy. This year’s foreign holidays will be costlier than last year’s.
But this may only be the start. The fastapproaching negotiations on the details of our departure will soon reveal that much we have taken for granted cannot be guaranteed in the future.
Business costs, especially in banking, and jobs based on Britain’s easy access to the EU are also in question. The Prime Minister, Parliament – and, in the end, all of us – must consider very carefully how we approach these talks and how high a price we are prepared to pay.
The decision has been taken. Many voted to leave in the knowledge that Brexit would have costs. But talking about these things in theory is one thing. Experiencing them in practice is another. This country has never put dogma above practicality. It should not do so now.