CNN reporter shows how products are shrinking but keeping the same price

CNN Business correspondent Alison Kosik explains how manufacturers make small changes to products but keep them at the same price. The process called "shrinkflation" usually happens when companies are trying compensate for high costs. #CNN #News

58 comments

  1. This has been going on for more than 10 years that I’ve noticed from fast food to yes tissue. Nice to escalate it and blame inflation

    1. @Save 🇺🇸 LOL I see your not seriously at all. Trump with good intentions and we definitely need it but covid relief spending is part of the problem. Everyday Americans put the money we got back into the economy but the money the airlines and corporations got they kept

    2. Keep in mind that many producers of ground beef are adding what I’ve known ‘pink slime’ to the ground beef mix. Pink slime is animal byproducts at one time is used for feed but it’s now processed for human consumption. We obtain all of our ground beef from a butcher who does not add pink slime to the mix.

    3. @Akashats across the board tax cut but with con then he’s but small and large businesses, job creators. you need to create an incubation, pro business status, much like or similar to China in their special administrative regions (SARs) to catapult progress.

  2. 0:55 – “one choice, they could avoid defrauding their customers for *more* profit” “but don’t laugh we know they aren’t going to do that” – precisely what’s wrong with the US extreme approach to capitalism. Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme no matter the societal cost.

    1. @Mike Bridson who said anything about socialism, or the government controlling groceries?? That’s the problem with our politics – fear mongering extremes on both sides portray the others thinking as impossible. Well yes when you come up with terrible ideas like government controlled groceries, of course. How about finding a reasonable middle ground? Something US politics hasn’t seen in decades.

    2. You demand higher pay, more benefits, higher taxes, more PTO….what did you think was going to happen?

    3. @ZZ Did you NOT understand what I said? We ALREADY have the best system that is fair & based on FREE MARKET. It is the best system in the world & has made ANYBODY who puts the effort in able to grab their version of the American dream. The ENVY of the world!

  3. We have been seen this in candy bars, for years and no one batted an eye! But toilet paper begins to shrink and everyone loses their minds!

    1. Well not everyone is a simpleton who is foolish enough to eat candy bars more than a couple times a year, if that. Deal with it. Toilet paper is a necessity. Its morally wrong to scam consumers on it

    2. @Valkyrie Hannah Kennedy-Smith all chips. Doritos has mastered this with the single serving bags. Once 2 for a dollar, many stores sell them for the price on the bag which has gone up. It’s now 1.50 for 2. Not at this one bodega I know though for some reason. I bet they knew people wouldn’t be able to afford the increase so they just take a slightly smaller profit to make more sales. In any event, the doritos in dollar stores and certain less than pleasant bodegas have been rather bereft of proper spicing. Strange phenomenon but I always assumed the company sends them selectively and saves money on spice therefore turning a bigger profit. Most people probably have no idea this goes on.

    3. @Valkyrie Hannah Kennedy-Smith Thats more of a shipping issue! Having a full bag would have burst open mid transportation. Also, through transportation, it gets rough up that the air inside acts like a type of cusion.

  4. Just noticeable diference. Learnt about it in marketing 30 years ago. Largest amount you can change before it is noticed.

  5. You should have kept the previous title because the new one is inaccurate, the prices don’t stay the same, the prices actually go up while the sizes go down. 🤦 And this isn’t new, it’s been happening for a long time, it’s just that people are finally starting to notice what some of us have been furious about for years. 😒 (Some products shrink and get more expensive so much that in just the past 5 years, they’ve become almost 20× the price per quantity! 😠)

  6. I understand a 10-15 % price increase. For a lot of items stores like Walmart and Kroger are increasing prices by 35- 40%. There is inflation but a lot of stores are using this opportunity to make more money.

    1. @Poopdeck Pappy Right and all I’m saying is we regulate the demand. There was a case in Romania where they jacked up gas prices and people stopped buying, using public transportation and car pooling. They had to reduce the price because they did not have any more storage capacity. Something similar happened at some point in time in Germany.

    2. @Poopdeck Pappy You’re missing some points. Some products or services will always we required. Corporation could attempt a monopoly over products and services. Competition does not grow over night in short amount of time. Stop blaming everything on Joe Biden and government they are not the only one to blame.

    3. @Cristian Armaselu no, I think you’re missing the main point. The free market will correct itself if you can keep government from trying to mess with it. You might have the best of intentions with your opinions but experience says government tinkering in the marketplace rarely ends well. If I am a company that produces widgets and everyone needs a widget if the government steps in and tells me what I and my competitors are allowed to charge for that widget, even if I still am allowed to make a modest profit, what’s the point of me trying to improve efficiency or improve my product so I can sell more and better widgets? I’m not gonna innovate, I’m gonna sit like a lump on a chair or and hope to keep things the way they are. And selling more and better widgets means I can hire more workers, afford to pay them higher wages and better benefits. And all those workers will also be paying taxes. Your idea is like giving all school students a C grade no matter how well or poorly they perform. What’s the point in trying hard to study and improve yourself if you’re going to get the same outcome as everybody else including the lazy student at the back of the class who misses half the school trimester?

  7. anyone who thinks they’re tough enough to take on the toughest babymaker on the internet (me)—let your presence be known.

    1. As a chef, soon yall will be lucky to find something other than a large chain… sad really.

    2. @Commentz z Where it’s really obvious is volume error. If it says 16 ounces, it can be as low as 15.6 ounces. Not a lot for one item; massive profit over a million units.

    3. @Sean Embry you are absolutely right .. this exactly correct and it has been going on for long time now, but it was ignored at the time when the cost was insignificant to the public.
      But now this issue is becoming the general accepted pattern in everything not only food .
      We need root changes .

    4. @Gardening Houston yes that is really really sad … but it is coming fast, less and less competitive markets, which leads to price manipulation, and greater dept to public.

    5. @Commentz z agreed. Sooner than most think. I know many cooks that received pay cuts during covid and still haven’t got back to their pre-covid pay, who are now dealing with this inflation. Perfect mix for personal & business failures

  8. They left out shrinking cereal boxes! Same size facing out on the shelf, an inch and half thick. Sneaky.

    1. @TOS100 Returns
      Lol, sorry, I’ve been complaining about it since the 90’s, and guess what? No one has or is doing anything about it….. and no one is going to.

  9. when products were hard to come by during the beginning of the lockdown, sugar and flour went from 5 lbs to 4 lbs. same price.

    1. Buy Dollar Store toilet paper give everyone a role and tell them that’s all you get for 2 weeks make it last

    2. That’s weird, my coffee sugar that I buy has always been 4lbs. Been drinking coffee almost 10 years. I know the size because I had to fit it in a small area of the cabinet.

  10. Republicans screamed inflation for a year and corporations heard I can price gouge. Look where it got us .

  11. I have a simple solution to this. If the price remains the same but the amount declines, I find a way to do without that product ever again. Amazing how many things we consider “vital” that are anything but.
    If the price goes up, the price goes up. Don’t try to hide it.

  12. We need another stimulus check to deal with all this price gouging and capitalism bs! These big companies deduct any “loss” but the consumer has to PAY taxes on it.

  13. FINALLY, OMG!! CNN actually did a REAL report & research! My wife & I have been talking about this for awhile… we’ve been noticing a significant difference in the amounts of products lately. We knew we weren’t crazy., lol. Why are their prices the same OR more though? This is BS!

  14. I mean, CNN has been “shrinking” in quality for years but the cost of their products is much greater to the world than 12% less chips in my Lays bag..

  15. This has clearly and obviously been going on for at least 40 years and people who buy food often comment on it. If you’re just noticing it now and it had to be pointed out by an “economist” that’s just one more reason to lose confidence in main stream news.

  16. Companies has been doing this for yrs. The customers never know unless they actual pay more attention to the weights and how it’s shaped

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