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Carson in Wilmette asked:
“Why do I pay more for less? At restaurants, they make the portions look like it’s the same, but when I open it, it’s less. Everything is shrinking, yet costs go up. Why?”
Edgar Dworsky, long-time consumer advocate and founder of the websites Consumer World and Mouse Print, has been tracking “shrinkflation” for more than 30 years.
He said restaurants face the same problems as grocery stores in that they’re often faced with higher costs for inventory and labor. They can also pay more for delivery and tariffs on certain goods.
“They all know consumers are price sensitive,” Dworsky said. “So if they raise the price substantially, that’s going to turn off some number of consumers and shoppers. They certainly then think of the alternative — and the alternative is, well, maybe if we give the person a little bit less in the portion or a little bit less in the package, they won’t notice it as readily.”
Dworsky said with high inflation and tariffs it can lead to both smaller portions and higher prices.
He said most grocery items aren’t in see-through packages so it’s often hard to notice if you’re getting less product. That’s why you should check the net weight or net count like with paper products, Dworsky said.
“In terms of things that are weighed out, how many ounces in the package? And that has to be truthful,” he said. “If you get to know the net weight or the net count and you go back to the store … and see it’s less [product], even though the package looks about the same, you are getting less. So in essence, you’re paying more.”
Dworsky said shrinkflation tends to occur more frequently when the economy is experiencing high inflation. Manufacturers and sellers are under more pressure because their costs have gone up and they’re looking for ways to maintain a profit.
“When prices start to go down and [companies’] costs start to go down, we won’t have as many increases as we’re seeing now,” he said. “But over the last couple of years because of rising prices we see shrinking products and portions.”
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