That shrinking feeling

Companies have used inflation as an excuse to trim sizes and cut quality. Economists, ever slower than shoppers, are aware of the first trick but are still being duped by the second.

“Food sizes are getting smaller, but prices are going up” created by OpenAI DALL•E 2

Inflation is higher than people realise. Consumers and households, already stretched by higher prices and stagnant wages, are getting less bang for their buck as food companies cut the size and quality of their products. Standard inflation measures catch the first move but miss the second. Shrinkflation, a portmanteau of shrink and inflation which means to make products smaller but keep prices the same, is spreading.

Edgar Dworsky, who runs Mouse Print, a website and newsletter that calls out shrinkflation, reckons it’s dishonest to pass on a price increase that way and wants to expose it. In an interview with Marketplace, a segment on Minnesota Public Radio, he said, “if a manufacturer is reducing the number of ounces in their detergent, and it went from 100 ounces to 90, it’s done so inconspicuously that most people won’t notice. That’s where I come in.”

While he thinks the practice has spread, he also…