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Shrinkflation, when brands reduce the size of products, often imperceptibly, and charge the same or more, has drawn backlash, so when a company appears to reverse shrinkflation, it’s big news.
“PepsiCo is unshrinking shrinkflation,” began an October 16 article on CNN.com about the company’s plan to introduce bonus packs with 20% more product for some bags of Tostitos and Ruffles.
But does a bonus pack signify, as a headline in Benzinga the same day put it, that “Pepsi fights back” against shrinkflation?
No, contends consumer advocate Edgar Dworsky.
“Don’t jump to conclusions that PepsiCo has seen the light, is caving into governmental pressure and consumer anger, and plans to upsize all their products,” Dworsky wrote on his website Consumer World. “By definition, a ‘bonus pack’ is a temporary promotion whereby the new package has some additional content compared to the regular size. They did not announce a general upsizing of their products.”
Chips and dips: As Domino’s did recently with a shrinkflation-avenging Moreflation campaign, you’d think PepsiCo spun the bonus packs as countering shrinkflation, but there’s no evidence that’s the case.
PepsiCo snack division Frito-Lay issued no press release that mentions the bonus packs or shrinkflation; neither did it make any mention of the bonus packs or shrinkflation on its Instagram, Facebook, X, or YouTube accounts.
PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta revealed the plan for the bonus packs during an October 8 earnings call, explaining that during fall and winter, with football and the holidays, there are “normally large group gatherings, so bonus packs make a lot of sense.”
In the ~6,400-word transcript of the call, there is no mention of “shrinkflation” or “inflation.”
We emailed Frito-Lay’s media team for clarification, asking how long the bonus bags will be sold, and if they agree with Dworsky that they do not counter shrinkflation. The company declined to respond to the questions, directing us instead to the recent earnings call transcript.
The shrink next door: What’s clear is that PepsiCo, whose brands also include Doritos and Gatorade, has been a shrinkflation practitioner, as Consumer World and others have documented.
On October 7, US Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Madeleine Dean wrote letters to Laguarta, as well as to the CEOs of Coca-Cola and General Mills, decrying shrinkflation.
“Shrinking the size of a product in order to gouge consumers on the price per ounce is not innovation, it is exploitation,” stated the letter to PepsiCo.