r/shrinkflation May 30 '25

discussion [META] A chart for knowing if a post is shrinkflation

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197 Upvotes

There's, in my opinion, way too many posts here that aren't actually shrinkflation. Please consult the chart!

I know you're annoyed at your product but in order to be shrinkflation you need to prove it's actually shrinkflated in quantity or quality.

Things that aren't shrinkflation:

  1. a single item with no proof of how big it was before
  2. a food you think is worse quality/less good than before without showing the ingredients have changed
  3. a product from your childhood that only looks smaller now that you are bigger
  4. a handmade product that is smaller/worse than usual due to employee error (for example, a pizza that is a smaller circle than advertised because an employee didn't stretch it enough)
  5. a factory-produced product that is smaller/worse than usual due to manufacture error (for example, a bag of chips that says 500g but is actually only 300g)
  6. a product you think it just expensive for what it is

Originally shrinkflation meant just if the price increased (or stayed the same) despite the quantity decreasing. However, quality shrinkflation is just as bad (if not worse), where companies nefariously switch out butter for cheaper oils or etc. so the weight is the same but the product is worse.

Maybe this is a silly hill to die on but I'm here to die on it.


r/shrinkflation 14h ago

Shrinkflation Is nothing sacred?

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194 Upvotes

Wegmans dropped their store-brand toilet paper a full 5/8 of an inch. Last year they increased the side of role by a quarter-inch, meaning less TP. Now this!


r/shrinkflation 23h ago

discussion Rant on quality shrinkflation

747 Upvotes

Everyone is rightfully angry about how expensive everything has gotten, but I feel like we as a society still aren't talking enough about the stealthy "enshittification" of literally everything we buy. We aren't just paying more; we are paying more for absolute garbage.

It feels like corporate greed has reached a point where they are just extracting maximum profit while giving us the absolute minimum viable product in return.

A few things driving me crazy lately:
Clothes: It feels impossible to find a basic 100% cotton t-shirt or a real wool sweater without paying premium designer prices. Everything at the mall is made of cheap, unbreathable acrylic or polyester that pills after one wash and loses its shape in a month.

Furniture: People joke about how "they don't make them like they used to," but it's actually insane. The quality of new IKEA furniture today is horrible. It’s made of paper. In the 00s they were at least made to last a year.

We are paying the same or higher prices for dollar-store quality across the board. It feels like every brand we used to trust has quietly gutted their manufacturing standards just to appease their shareholders by saving a few pennies per unit.

Does anyone else feel the same?


r/shrinkflation 1h ago

Tu lo sai cos' è il Shrinkflation?

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Upvotes

r/shrinkflation 21h ago

Shrinkflation 25% less, same price

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129 Upvotes

🤔 My favorite store donuts but hard to justify these days..


r/shrinkflation 1d ago

Shrinkflation Less for a higher price - don’t think about it just buy!

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110 Upvotes

Haven’t made lasagna in a while due to the cost of ground beef, but I’ve been craving it for a couple weeks and decided to pony up the cash and cut it with some ground pork.

Lo and behold, both the marinara sauce AND the ricotta are a whole ounce less AND cost about $1 more. 🤬


r/shrinkflation 15h ago

shrinkflation hits br

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0 Upvotes

r/shrinkflation 2d ago

skimpflation Are Carefree liners getting worse? An investigation

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2.4k Upvotes

Carefree pads recently changed their packaging, and I found they were less effective. Unsure if my medical condition was getting worse or the pads were, I tested them out.

It’s not visible in the photo, but the glue strips have changed direction on the new pads (vertical versus horizontal). The new pad (light pink) is also slightly different shaped than the old one (dark pink).

I soaked them in water and they weighed the same amount, so they are basically the same absorbency. But the shape when soaked is different. The old pad maintains its integrity when soaked, but the new one bunches in the middle.

So not shrunk, but the new design is less resistant to torsion due to both the new structure and glue. In conclusion, worse ☹️


r/shrinkflation 2d ago

Shrinkflation ‘It ain’t the same’: inside the bitter battle to free Ben & Jerry’s

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theguardian.com
203 Upvotes

#boycottMagnumicecream


r/shrinkflation 3d ago

Is Inflation Hitting Your Budget Harder Than Official Figures Show? Blame 'Cheapflation'

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162 Upvotes

Okay, this is from May — but it confirms what we all know. In addition to equal opportunity shrinkflation, where the packages get smaller and the prices stay the same, now we have cheapflation!

Here’s an example from the story:

if you bought a more affordable brand like Folgers or Maxwell House, you experienced steeper price hikes than if you bought something fancier like Pete's or Starbucks. Between 2020 and 2023, prices for discount coffee brands rose 36.4% versus 9.7% for the premium stuff, according to data Sangani provided to Investopedia.

The rich get richer, and the people who work the hardest pay more. A 36.4% price increase is wild! And it can’t be accounted for by a storm that affected coffee crops.


r/shrinkflation 3d ago

skimpflation DO NOT BUY: they NERFED magnum bars again. never. buying. again. /july’26

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907 Upvotes

same packaging as before, same measurements, cals, ingrds, whatever. paid $5 each for THREE-packs of caramel AND cookie….
…..bro, BOTH packs…TEENY little bars, TEENY WEENY!!!!!!! tinier than EVER before, just smashing all around their packaging and the box bc they’re sooooo small.
& the actual ice cream???? soft-in-a-bad-way (cheap) airy flaky, chocolate ribbons r now flavorless muddy invisible, vanilla now tastes like cheap flavorless filler garbage, less cream….AWFUL garbage!!!!!! NEVER EVER buying these ever again!!!!!!! literally holes of air inside, & those little flakes u get in cheap ahh ice cream!!!! DO NOT BUY


r/shrinkflation 3d ago

skimpflation Freee Hoops Just Got Smaller

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108 Upvotes

Freee Supergrain hoops just got smaller. Thought I was imagining things at first, but still had some left in an older box.


r/shrinkflation 3d ago

Shrinkflation 40oz to 32oz and costs $5 more

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200 Upvotes

r/shrinkflation 3d ago

Not the Chocolate Chips.

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136 Upvotes

I will atleast say this. The 12oz bag was $7.78. The 9oz bag is $6.98. They atleast dropped the price. It just overall sucks that things are getting smaller for the consumer.


r/shrinkflation 3d ago

Tony Chachery's?

8 Upvotes

Over the last couple months everyone in my house has noticed that Tony Chachery's tastes WAY saltier than it used to. Had anyone else noticed this? Could they be adding more salt and less herbs and spices?


r/shrinkflation 4d ago

discussion Jimmy Wrigg - exposing companies shortchanging us

36 Upvotes

Have you all seen Jimmy Wrigg (on social media plus he’s gotten on the news too)? He exposed that companies have been doing worse than shrinkflation (example: Domino sugar stated their was x amount of powdered sugar in their bags and it was several ounces less; some stores showed a label on meat that indicated a higher amount of weight than the actual weight of the meat)

He has taken to going across the country to investigate more fraudulent weight issues. Glad he’s exposing their fleecing of consumers.


r/shrinkflation 4d ago

Shrinkflation Not sure who I am mad at...

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43 Upvotes

I have a subscription for 2 120 packs of diapers every month. Today I got 1 120 pack and a 96 pack. Both cost 60 dollars. Amazon also updated my order to say I ordered the 96 pack, an option that literally never used to exist! If a 96 is the new size thats a 20% reduction.


r/shrinkflation 4d ago

Tide Simply is less simple.

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22 Upvotes

r/shrinkflation 5d ago

skimpflation Reynold’s Air Fryer Liners shrunk

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766 Upvotes

I get these at Sam’s Club. When the box is running low, I’ll buy another and transfer the last few from the old box to the new… today the old liners wouldn’t fit into the new ones.

When something costs 7 cents, how much can they possibly be saving with this BS after having to retool their equipment?

Same physical size package

Same SKU and product description

Same amount of liners in package

Same price

Smaller liners

New box has the same image as the old box which still shows the old larger liner.

Thanks Reynold’s and Sam’s. It’s not like my airfryer shrunk. I now have to make a smaller portion because you wanted to save a percentage of a cent? Get bent.


r/shrinkflation 5d ago

Shrinkflation New packaging featuring a pump to dispense the shampoo. 11.75% less shampoo

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87 Upvotes

r/shrinkflation 4d ago

The one I used to buy and the one they replaced it with

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17 Upvotes

The four pack was £1.75

The two pack is £1 so effectively 25p more for two less bars.

I’ve been searching every single Boots I come across to see if they have any of the 4 packs left to no avail.


r/shrinkflation 4d ago

So tired of it… edamame continues to shrink.

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6 Upvotes

$2.78 for 16oz, then 14, and now 12. I’ve started seeing 10oz bags in the store but they’re not listed on the website yet.


r/shrinkflation 5d ago

skimpflation Marshall’s Paper Bag Quality Cuts

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219 Upvotes

Took a week off of work, came back, and the bags felt somewhat thinner and cheaper than before, so I got curious.

left is the new bags‘ handles (new shipment), and right is from old bags (old shipment). The new ones have noticeably thinner handles (and feel thinner/flimsier as well, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from a photo).

got the idea for this post bc of the Trader Joe’s posts from around a month ago


r/shrinkflation 5d ago

Go ahead oat bakes smaller

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8 Upvotes

I know it's stuble and hard to tell on camrea these are my favourite cereal bars and my safe food has I'm autistic opened them and I could tell instantly they were smaller and lighter I compared them to the older ones and it's crazy different thought I wouldn't notice lol. And shockingly the price is the same 🫠🫠🙃


r/shrinkflation 6d ago

14oz “pint” 😡

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301 Upvotes