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A new study confirms that it isn’t all in your head — some products have gotten smaller. The Toronto-based nonprofit organization Community Researchers found that 20 per cent of 60 grocery store products have experienced shrinkflation since 2019. Poultry, products high in fat and sugar, and baby food tended to experience the highest shrinkflation, with chocolate cookies, frozen chicken nuggets and fruit pouches among the worst hit.
Shrinkflation is a form of inflation in which the product gets smaller, but the price remains the same. As common as it’s become, shrinkflation isn’t easy to identify. The report found that the reduction can be substantial, with products downsized by as much as 25 per cent in the past five years. It doesn’t help that manufacturers wrap the smaller version in packaging that “closely” resembles the previous product.
The report analyzed foods from three supermarket chains in Ontario — Metro, No Frills and Walmart — across 20 categories from Canada’s food guide, including beverages, fats and oils, and fruits. Using an archive grocery flyer website to determine past product sizes, lead researchers Rachel Lee and Michael Harker found that more than half (55 per cent) of the product categories have experienced shrinkflation since 2019.
“We really wanted to study this because, in terms of Canada, especially Ontario, it’s pretty easy to find differences in price items, especially using mobile apps. But for shrink inflation itself, it’s quite difficult to pinpoint and to see exactly which products do have shrink inflation,” Lee told CP24.
“The Worst Offenders” fall into five categories: higher-sugar and higher-fat food (-9.2 per cent), such as chocolate-dipped granola bars and brownies; baby and toddler food (-8.3 per cent), such as puree pouches; poultry (-7 per cent), including frozen chicken wings and chicken fingers; processed meat (-5.9 per cent), such as deli meats and bacon; and unsaturated fats and oils (5.6 per cent), including extra-virgin olive oil and vegetable oil.
Saturated fats and oils (-4.2 per cent), starchy vegetables (-3.7 per cent), cheeses (-3.7 per cent), condiments and sauces (-3.5 per cent), red meats (-3.3 per cent) and yogurt (-2.2 per cent) experienced some shrinkflation. The study found nine categories with no shrinkflation: beverages, dark green vegetables, fruits (apples), legumes, nuts and seeds, other beverages (containing sugar), seafood, snack foods (chips) and whole grains (bread).
Shrinkflation means the cost per unit goes up. If you paid $12 for 1.7 kilograms of smoked ham in 2019 and that same $12 today for 1.4 kilograms, you’re getting less ham for your buck.
When deciding between increasing prices or shrinking package sizes, manufacturers often choose shrinkflation, professor Sridhar Moorthy, Manny Rotman Chair in marketing at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, told CPA Canada. According to a Journal of Retailing study, people were four times more likely to buy a downsized product in the same packaging than pay a higher price.
Your best defence is to pay attention to unit prices, Moorthy said. “People are more conditioned to look at prices than package sizes. Unit prices are posted precisely for that reason. However, many people don’t check unit prices and get misled as a result.”
The top 5 items with the highest shrinkflation
- Fruit sauce pouches, Gogo Squeez: -25 per cent
- Chicken bites, Janes: – 21.1 per cent
- Chocolate biscuits, Our Finest: – 20 per cent
- Smoked ham, Great Value: -17.6 per cent
- Vegetable oil, Crisco: -16.9 per cent
Source: Shrinkflation In Ontario: A Study by Community Researchers
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