Shrinkflation is price inflation's obnoxious cousin, where you get less product but pay the same price. It has been rampant across Canada and beyond since 2015, and even more dramatically since 2021. It's time to document another example of shrinkflation, and it's the second one I've written about involving bread. Last time, I talked about shrinking loaves. Now, I'm noticing loaves with a massive hidden hole running right through them!
That's 5 slices hanging off my finger. I made a sandwich, but the tomatoes and cucumbers kept falling right out! What is this, Swiss bread? Also, the hole creates a thin area that burns in the toaster.
With the size of the loaf dropping so much, and huge holes missing out of each piece, you aren't getting a lot of bang for your buck! These loaves are $8.50 CAD ($6.25 USD) each, so I'm paying $0.75 per slice - and each slice only contains about 3 bites of food!
You're looking through half the loaf, into my back garden, where I'm growing food to help offset the horrendous rate of inflation! Here in Canada, food is going up 1% in price every 3 weeks! For generations in this country, it has been 1% per YEAR.
People here aren't used to seeing the price jump so quickly. So companies have resorted to other tactics, like shrinkflation. Now you get a small drink with your combo, instead of a regular. Now there are 10 in a package, instead of 12. And so on.
Another major tactic being waged against the consumer right now is something my wife and I nicknamed stink-flation, referring to products that stay the same size, and stay the same price, but drop in quality. A lot of food has become, well, gross. But that's a topic for another post.
What is price inflation like in your region? Have you noticed shrinkflation? What methods do you use to handle it?
DRutter
That looks like a little suitcase LOL. When I was in secondary school until I finished college I used to buy and sell bread. Overtime, I experienced first hand how the bread size evolved. The famous Philippines bread called Pandesal, it was as big as the softball ball into almost a size of a jackstone ball.
I am buying from local farmers and small stores, who do not seem to have raised their prices much at all. I'm supporting the parallel economies as much as I possibly can, paying cash only except in large grocery stores or other large outlet stores, which I try not to use at all. Shop small!! And grow your own. It's incredible how much food even a small piece of property can produce.
Those holes in bread happen when it has risen too long in the loaf, btw. While I can see that stuff is shrinking. I'm not sure that's what's going on with that bread.
I used that shrinking trick myself long ago when I owned a bakery and needed to increase profits - raise the price and everyone notices, but make the product smaller and almost no one notices.
Inflation is hitting us all hard, even our producers. They, too, are trying to stay alive.
Oh this is sad reality. It does not only happen in your place, also in ours. Bread comes in same price but too small compared to before. Life is really difficult this time. If the product does not go shrink-flation, it is too high price also. Grrrrr!
In my native country, Venezuela, no such thing happened; However, when inflation began to get out of control, things began to shrink. It was no longer a kilo of product, but 900 and even 850 grams of product.
I have been seeing the same thing in Chile; I remember that when the Venezuelan migration, along with the Haitians, arrived in Chile, we couldn't find green plantains (some call it male plantains) anywhere. When they started importing them from Ecuador, they were big, about 30 centimeters, but just yesterday when I went to buy them, I found them about 20 centimeters long and skinny. The quality has decreased considerably not only in this area but also in many others, affecting the quality of the products we consume.
This issue of "shrinkflation" seems to be spreading to various countries. The case of these slices of bread is rather curious; it seems that a mold was used to minimize the quantity of bread used. This is the first time I've seen something so obvious on all the slices. Do you find this on every pack of this brand that you buy? My brother-in-law bought a small bread-making machine several years ago, it allows him to get very creative with the different types of bread he makes.
Well, that bread's no good anymore, fuck it!
I swear it used to be made out of sourghum flour and other hearty stuff and now it's all cheap starch. And tiny and really crusty....
Haha 😂 That hole is hilarious!! 😂
Much better off making your own bread it seems. Outdoor ovens are easy to make and economical too.
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