The Incredible Shrinking Product
You're not imagining it — that bag of chips really is smaller. Shrinkflation, the practice of reducing product sizes while maintaining or increasing prices, has accelerated dramatically since 2021. It's inflation's sneakier cousin: while a price increase is visible on the shelf tag, a 10% reduction in product size often goes unnoticed.
The examples are everywhere. Gatorade bottles shrank from 32oz to 28oz. Doritos 'Party Size' bags went from 15.5oz to 14.5oz. Folgers coffee canisters dropped from 51oz to 43.5oz. Charmin toilet paper reduced sheets per roll from 352 to 301. In each case, the per-unit price increased significantly more than the shelf price suggests.
Why Companies Do It
Consumer psychology research consistently shows that shoppers are more sensitive to price changes than quantity changes. A 10% price increase on a $4.99 product triggers purchase hesitation. But shrinking the same product 10% while keeping it at $4.99 — or even raising it slightly to $5.29 — generates far less resistance. Companies know this and exploit it systematically.
The defense against shrinkflation is unit pricing — the per-ounce or per-count price displayed on shelf tags. Some states require prominent unit pricing, but many don't. Store brands and warehouse clubs, where package sizes tend to be more stable, offer some insulation. But for the average shopper grabbing familiar brands on autopilot, shrinkflation is effectively invisible inflation.