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Shrinkflation, when brands make products slightly smaller, often imperceptibly so, rather than raising prices, strikes many consumers as a particularly mustache-twirling practice. A 2022 report by Morning Consult found that when consumers notice a product has been shrinkflated, almost half (48%) choose a different brand.
Now the German government wants to make shrinkflation verboten. Steffi Lemke, Germany’s Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety, and Consumer Protection (and winner of the Longest Official Title contest), is speaking out against shrinkflation, and is sponsoring legislation to ban the practice.
Lemke, a member of the Green party, is concerned not just that shoppers may be deceived, but also that shrinking the contents but keeping the package the same size is an environmental no-no.
“Such practices are problematic both from the point of view of consumer protection and from the point of view of waste prevention,” Lemke told Handelsblatt, a Düsseldorf business newspaper, according to an account in the Teller Report.
French press: Shrinkflation isn’t winning any popularity contests in France, either, where Bruno Le Maire, minister of the economy (with a suitably economical title), called shrinkflation “totally revolting” and announced he’s pursuing a law in France that would require manufacturers to disclose prominently on packaging when they’ve shrunk a product without lowering the price.
As Retail Brew reported recently, Carrefour, a grocery chain in France, is festooning shelves with signs warning shoppers that a product has been shrinkflated.
No major supermarkets in the US have similarly called out products for shrinkflation with shelf signage yet, but plenty of Retail Brew readers think they should. When we asked readers to weigh in on this in an online poll recently, 88.5% said yes, supermarket chains should warn shoppers about products that have been shrinkflated.