Up untill a week ago Nofrills carried these “three packs” of salmon for $10. Now the same pack contains two for the same $10. I thought it felt light when I bought it yesterday.
This comes to about $0.02 increase per gram, and a $1.10 price increase overall. Or a 11% increase in price overall. Meanwhile inflation is at 6-7%?
This sucks. One of my favorite places to eat has both inflation and shrinkflation. Higher price for smaller portions.
More than likely their suppliers are bleeding them, a lot of restaurants in my town are dealing with the same shit
Yeah. One of my favourite restaurants closed a couple months ago because they just couldn’t justify charging more for food, but their suppliers sure could.
It’s not the supplier “bleeding them” the supplier has the exact same problem the restaurant has, inflation, if they don’t raise the prices they go bankrupt. It’s a vicious cycle of everyone raising prices not to go bankrupt which causes everyone else to do the same.
If you don’t think suppliers are using inflation to justify robber-baron price hikes, I guess you missed the part where companies are posting record profits.
Huzzah for our current system of capitalism that insists a company is only doing good if each quarter has record profits. What’s bad with doing “good enough?”
This concept of greedflation has been disproved in recent meta-analysis. It should probably die. I’ll copy paste a comment I wrote in some other thread analyzing it.
I think everyone should probably listen to this great report from NPR that dissects this issue. The Tl;dr: is greedflation is not really a real thing.
The deeper answer to your question of, “can one party increase prices in a market?” is sort of basic economics, and the answer is, “Usually, no.” In a competitive market, the answer is no. In a monopolistic market (meaning one company controls most of the market, think like Google with browsers) with no government oversight, the answer is yes. Things get complicated when you add in government regulation or oligopolistic markets (markets where only a few players control the market). In those cases, it depends on how strong government regulations on price-gouging are and any anti-monopoly or anti-anticompetitive practice laws are, and also depends on how oligopolists behave. Sometimes, particularly in industries with few big players, the big players will make the same decisions independently. If they do this cooperating it will usually violate antitrust laws, but if they both decide they’ll be better off say, not paying workers as much, or charging super high markups, them that can happen. A lot of economic research shows that kind of “tacit collusion” happens in real life, like in the oil and gas industries. But other times oligopolies will behave very competitively, only uniting through lobbyist trade groups if at all (think Microsoft and Amazon in cloud software).
So that’s the facts, but here’s my economic musing: The reason it feels like greedflation is a thing is a combination of factors:
- Inflation was very real, and very salient.
- Corporations (as mentioned in the NPR piece) crowed about their “record profits” in the short term, and also mention them when they are absolute record profits, not just record profit margins (something not mentioned but very real - a company can make twice as much money but also have spent twice as much, making way “more” money but with identical margins)
- In the US at least, we are seeing the highest numbers of industry consolidation and monopolies/oligopolies since the Gilded Age, so it feels like companies should be able to raise their prices if they want to.
- Media coverage and online spaces have become extremely polarized, so “corporations bad” is a very easy refrain to find if you’re watching or reading anything remotely left-wing, and it has been parroted by many democratic politicians as well, because it scores cheap and easy political points (also, and this is just my opinion, it helps vilify corps more in the public eye to help get more support for better antitrust legislation and enforcement, the actual end goal. I don’t think senators like Bernie Sanders don’t actually understand what’s going on with profit margins, I think they’re using it to generate political will, but that may be my own bias creeping in).
Inflation drives all the numbers up. If money inflates to half the value but you maintain the same profit margins, you’ll make record profits despite the finances having functionally remained exactly the same.
Workers are also making record wages. It doesn’t mean much if you don’t consider how much the money is actually worth, as we’ve all been discovering over the last few years.
so why not just lower the profit margins? also give me some of them record wages please, all I got was a bottle of champagne for all the work weve done and record profits but also raises in pay are frozen because of the turbulent times
so why not just lower the profit margins?
Probably for the same reason you don’t casually decide to go to your boss and say that you voluntarily want a pay cut.
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages
Average hourly wage at the start of 2020 was $24. It’s now $29, which comes to about $10,000 more each year, and is an increase of about 21%. That growth has been concentrated in the service industry, but the data is pretty clear regardless, and the general trend applies to basically all sectors. Inflation in that same time period is 18.1%, so it simply is a matter of fact that the average worker has greater buying power today than they did in January 2020.
That’s an average, of course, and may not necessarily apply to you individually.
You got champagne? All I got was runaround, brand new policies pulled out of thin air, and creative counting to deny seniority benefits. Turns out, I’ve worked for the same place 30 years when it inflates their retention and longevity numbers for the oversight agencies. I’ve also worked there for only a year (started a new position last year) when it suits them to deny a published benefit. The completely mindboggling part? These two countings were in the same email.
you got champagne? I just got lumped onto more projects for no more money
Workers are not making record wages, maybe CEOs and the upper middle class are but nobody else is. Maybe this is specific to America? Nearly everyone I know across multiple wage brackets I struggling with the cost of living.
Wage growth in the US has been most pronounced in the lower end of the market. Growth-oriented businesses like tech are a lot more sensitive to interest rate spikes, since their entire model is to borrow a ton of money to pay highly skilled workers a lot to “disrupt” an industry and achieve very rapid growth.
That isn’t necessarily contradictory with still struggling, since inflation exists. If you suddenly make 10% more money but everything costs 10% more as well, you are objectively making record wages, even though your buying power remains the same. Per that report, inflation-adjusted wages have actually grown on the lower end of the job market, so the average low-wage worker’s buying power has actually increased, but general statistics don’t always translate over to real-life experience super cleanly, and of course, a slight improvement from a bad financial situation doesn’t suddenly put you in a good situation.
You’re getting downvoted but the suppliers have suppliers too, and even if it’s a farm-to-table thing the farms have supply costs.
Every place I used to eat pretty much. And they cheap out on cheap shit too, like fries and rice. I used to work at a restaurant and the owner always taught me to fill up the sides cause it makes people feel they got their money’s worth
Some countries have outlawed this behavior. If the seller/producer wants to decrease the package contents and keep the package size and price the same, they can (of course), but they must write on the package that the contents have decreased in large bright characters that are hard to miss. Something like this:
255gnow 200gI’m not sure where you are (assuming USA, based on the packaging), but it’s not illegal in the USA, since consumer protection is near to nonexistent.
Pretty sure this is Canada, no frills is a franchise chain under Loblaws. Loblaws is the kind of company that increases a product price by 20% and then puts up a “same price everyday” sign to gaslight customers.
Cool business move… NOT!
(Should we even be bringing back the ‘not’?)
In the US it’s actually illegal for companies to do something that benefits the consumer
The thing that pisses me off the most is “””eco-friendly””” companies doing shrinkflation. My guy, you can tell me it’s recycled plastic or whatever, if the portions are smaller you’re still pumping out more plastic than before, asshole.
The worst part of shrinkflation is that it ruins all the old mid-century recipes that were based on “convenience foods” and specified ingredients like “one can” of cream of mushroom soup or “one package” of jello. Nowadays you’ve got to use a can and a half, or whatever – WTF am I supposed to do with half a can of leftover soup, assholes?!
Americans in shambles as shrinkflation ruins their measurement system /s
I had a recipe for queso I found that asked for 13oz of condensed milk.
The stores here only sell 12oz cans. So I had to buy a small 5oz one to go with it. It’s so dumb.
… Or, you know, just adapt the recipe. Not simping for shrinkflation here, but it’s pretty dumb to buy more than you need just to exactly match a recipe for queso. Shit ain’t analytical chemistry
Food isn’t as precise as people think. I used to stress over recipes and shit when I first started cooking regularly. Shit just kinda works if you stick roughly to most recipes.
Edit: this is just a general comment, I know some foods require an absolute fuck ton of skill and precision to get right
Baking is where it turns into an exact science.
Cooking is art, baking is science.
I’ve never made it before and I usually follow recipes as they are and everything always comes out really good so I try not to deviate from that.
When I get experimental, it sucks and then I’m wasting food.
I was also intimidated by making queso specifically as I have a hard time making sauces. I do experiment but they come out shitty when I do and they come out shitty when I follow the recipe.
Most other things come out fine if it’s a recipe I already know and can change a bit without having to worry.
I didn’t mean to come off rude before. I’m sorry for that.
I can see this is very important to you and I shouldn’t have made light of it.
Thank you. It did turn out for the best that I had extra condensed milk so I could figure out the best measurement for it.
I’m actually working on something tricky making my own queso. I want to make something that stays liquid but uses real cheese.
Cursed cheese. Never the consistency you need lol.
as a chemist this got a chuckle out of me
I’d try adding more milk or cream if you’ve already got some. I ain’t wasting an extra can either. I’m the kind of person who puts a ton of beans in my chili compared to ground beef because I can’t waste them lol
I’m on disability. Watching the prices climb the past few years has been genuinely distressing. I could never afford a full month of groceries but now I can afford even less. Food doesn’t go nearly as far as it should. I find myself having to stretch stuff over days or do what I’m currently doing and just not eat for the better part of a week to save the little I have left.
I am not doing well and this shit is making it worse… I’m honestly afraid.
Don’t be to humble to go to a food pantry. It’s food for people who need it. I’ve used them. I’m not ashamed.
I recommend you check out TheFreePizzaDude on Imgur. There is a limit to how often you can receive donations (like once every other month), but they will help with getting you a pizza or even some regular groceries if you ask.
This is something the government should be doing though, rather than having to rely on charities and kind individuals. In most developed countries, the government has good programs to assist people in need, ensuring they can get basic groceries. The US is an outlier.
If it’s not Shrinkflation, it’s Diluteflation.
I occasionally see posts and news articles about how AriZona Tea Company has “held the line” and kept their giant cans of iced tea priced at 99 cents for so long.
Well, after drinking a few cans of the stuff recently, I’m almost certain they’re watering down their product. The tea is nowhere near as concentrated as it was a few years ago. There’s practically no flavor to it anymore.
I kinda doubt they would bother to water it down. Realistically the flavouring in it costs a fraction of a cent for them. If they changed it for any reason would probably just be to be healthier
Hmm I’ve been drinking it for years and don’t notice that either. Maybe check the sell by dates on yours. They do kind of deflate over time.
The absurd thinness of the “family size” boxes of frosted mini wheats is another one.
They won’t be able to stand upright in the next round of shrinking.
Interesting that while there is only 2 instead of 3 in a pack, the total weight has gone down only 22% (from 255g to 200g, instead of 170g if the weight dropped by a third/33%). So the actual salmon pieces may be bigger?
This is still shrinkflation but there has probably also been previous hidden shrinkflation in the individual salmon pieces too and that bit has been slightly undone.
Usually when I buy bigger packs of salmon, the amount varies and the only thing roughly consistent is the weight. So if they decreased the weight, you might either get 2 bigger fillets or 3 smaller fillets depending on the package
You have to stop buying them now. That’s the only way the prices will ever stabilize.
I love them sockeye… Watching them fight to get to spawning ground is something special to watch. One year I watched a group splinter off the Hoh river in Washington and make their way up a feeder stream. Ever day after school I’d run out to see where they were. So many started and only a few made it.
They literally saved my life. I was looking for somewhere to end myself when I found them. Their presence intrigued me and I decided to see it out. The day the last one spawned and died broke something in me, that hate I had. It’s hard to explain but I was so overwhelmed by the experience I decided that if they can do that journey, i can do mine.
Thinking about it again always makes me so emotional.
Anyways that salmon is cheap and it should be cherished for what it is.
Sockeye Salmon are the best flavor of salmon.
You comment made me feel emotional too. I’m glad you’re doing better now.
Will at least all our problems of overweight, diabetes and clogged arteries be solved in a few years? Or will most of us be dead by that time? I fear the latter…
Unfortunately, buying ultraprocessed foods is cheaper than buying healthy food. So I’d say it will only make the problem worse.
The lucky ones will be dead. I don’t expect that surviving the collapse is going to be a desirable option.
If you’re from a first workd country and not already in poverty, you’re probably going to be fine.
I’m sorry, what? The entire American west is becoming unlivable, Canada is burning to ashes, poisoning tens of millions of people across the continent, a hirricane just hit Californis, an entire fucking city just got wiped off the map in Hawaii, and western Europe is going to go into freefall when the impending collapse of tbe Atlantic currents drastically ravages their climate.
But sure, tell me more about how being in a developed country is going to save us when there’s no fucking food and everything is on fire.
Oh nooo people won’t be able to live in Phoenix Arizona
Was all yall dumbasses fault for trying to settle big cities in literal wasteland.
Most places in sane locations in the first world will be more or less shielded from the worsr effects of climate change.
Economically, maybe.
in every other respect? uhm… have you looked at the news this year?
Cheap food is usually less healthy but if you talk about people staving a little from time to time it seems realistic that many might get slimmer, not the healthy way to do it but I guess some could end up healthier
My guy.
Losing weight by starving does not lead to a healthier person. What you get is a malnourished person.
Thinner people does not equal healthier people. These two factors need to be considered separately. Of course, the grossly obese tend to be less healthy, but even those in a “healthy” weight range, can have a large number of health-related problems, both with their diet and with their exercise and otherwise.
Of course, it’s a missfired joke!
It’s like that episode of Next Generation “Remember Me” when the universe is shrinking and everyone’s disappearing and the Enterprise computer keeps gaslighting Dr Crusher trying to convince her it’s fine, everything’s fine, this is totally normal. But it’s not fine, it really isn’t.
Everybody blaming shrinkflation and nobody mentioning how terribly low salmon stocks are right now.
Can someone please check on the salmon make sure they’re ok?
Who is gonna stop them? Nobody, so of course they’re pricing them above inflation. They’re there to make a profit, fuck you and yours and all that
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It’s consistently amazing to me that people have no idea how the money system works; it’s only the economics of the country, no big deal.
Ah yes, the Fed causing inflation in all of Europe and Canada. It’s crazy how the Fed made inflation lower here at home though. I don’t know how they do that without there being some kind of series of global supply shocks.
Lol yeah the person who replied didn’t know what nofrills was but the bank of Canada also increased total money supply similar to how the us federal reserve did.
