Senator Bob Casey warns of shrinkflation taking bite out of grocery purchases
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — It's hard to miss the price hikes at the grocery store these days.
But have you also noticed the size of packaging is going down, so you are getting less for spending more? As KDKA-TV money editor Jon Delano reports, Senator Bob Casey says too many companies are taking advantage of unaware consumers.
Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, issued a report on what he calls shrinkflation, saying reducing package sizes while hiking prices amounts to "greedflation."
"I'm going to keep exposing this, and people should know about this," he said. "And it's going to lead to action to make sure that consumers have the information, but also changes in law that relate to the companies has to take place to hold them accountable for this."
Using government statistics, Casey found that between January 2019 and this past October, household paper products went up nearly 35 percent in price with over 10 percent of that price hike hidden through reduced packaging. Snacks went up 26 percent with nearly 10 percent attributed to shrinkflation and household cleaning products went up 24 percent with over 7 percent the result of giving the consumers less.
"Just exposing this more than we have in Washington over a long period of time is vital to give consumers information to know that sometimes they're being ripped off," Casey said.
Casey cites specific products in his report: a 5% decrease in Doritos, a 6% decrease in Oreos, a 12% decrease in Wheat Thins, a 12% decrease in Gatorade and a 28% decrease in Great Value ultra-strong toilet paper.
Casey says these mega-companies are making record profits by hiking prices and reducing package sizes well above the inflation rate.
"This problem of greedflation, greedy corporations jacking up their price or not telling you when the contents of a product is getting smaller and the price stays the same, this is causing a lot of inflation — has over the last couple of years," Casey said. "We can document that."
Economists say consumers are more sensitive to price hikes than slight reductions in package sizing. So, rather than raise prices dramatically, companies prefer to give you less for the same price. Casey says he understands that but everyone needs to be aware of what's going on in the grocery stores.