Notice Your Groceries Are Shrinking While Prices Stay The Same? You Could Be Right

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Notice Your Groceries Are Shrinking While Prices Stay The Same? You Could Be Right

Are you struggling to explain why your family seems to eat through more bags of chips, candy bars and juice cartons than they did a few years ago? Science has an answer, but it might upset you.

Researchers at the UK's Office for National Statistics have crunched the numbers on the sizes and prices of groceries, including necessities like toilet paper and snack foods like chips and candies. They found that while the sizes of these items are shrinking, the prices aren't dropping.

Experts call this trend "shrinkflation," and it affects us just as badly as our neighbors across the pond. According to the ONS, 2,500 items have shrunk over the last 5 years, while only 600 have gotten bigger, so every family is bound to have one item in their cart that keeps getting smaller.

While companies blame these changes on rising prices for ingredients like sugar and cocoa, ingredient costs have actually gone down recently, according to the ONS, while families are still feeling the pinch.

In fact, according to consumer research company Which?, everyday items like coffee, orange juice and toilet paper have shrunk the most:

Coffee

It's not surprising that prices for expensive fair trade coffee are on the rise, with this one's package shrinking by 12% while prices actually went up per 100g. Lots of other companies are following suit.

Toilet Paper

Value brand Andrex caused a stir in the UK when they cut down the number of sheets on each roll from 240 to 221 with no price drop, meaning every package is 8% lighter. Check your Charmin - it's probably shrinking too.

Learn how much Doritos, Tropicana and other products have shrunk on the next page!

Doritos

The chip brand shrank 10% from 200 grams in every bag to 180 grams, which is a big difference considering potato chip bags are already mostly full of air to begin with.

Orange Juice

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Tropicana's premium juice line shrank by 5 ounces without discounting the price according to Which?, meaning you'll wind up buying more juice overall. Even the regular packages have been slowly shrinking.

Soda

In one of the most famous cases of shrinkflation ever, Coke discontinued their 2 liter bottles and introduced the new 1.75 liter bottle. It was a 12% reduction that only got a 5% price drop, leading angry fans to start a petition asking Coke to switch it back.

Cookies

While snack foods are hit the hardest by shrinkflation, Oreo cookies seem to have a particularly tough time. America's favorite cookies have shrunk again and again over the years, with a recent cut translating to 4 less Double Stuf Oreos in each package.

Chocolate and candy

Mondelez International caused a stir last year when they hit the iconic triangular Toblerone bar with a shrink ray, reducing each bar by more than 10% from 170 grams to 150 to stay competitive in discount shops.

But they're not the only candy makers downsizing their products: bags of candy (like Reese's Pieces and their incredible empty boxes) are shrunk pretty often. Over the years a bag of Maltesers has gotten 15% smaller with no price change.

Have you noticed any products getting smaller? Share this post and tell us!

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