Inflation’s bad, but shrinkflation’s worse

OPINION:

Inflation rose 7.9% in February, showing potentially as Joe Biden’s biggest presidential headache as the trickle effect to fellow Democrats will likely impact how Americans vote in the midterms.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: The title has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Better than speaker, that’s for sure.

But inflation’s only one side of the equation. Shrinkflation’s even worse.

Whereas inflation is an obvious price increase, shrinkflation is that sneaky, subtle, deceptive ding to the consumer wallet. It’s when manufacturers, facing higher inflationary costs (yay Joe Biden), meddle with product sizes — that is to say, shrink product sizes — while simultaneously keeping prices the same, or even higher. The effect is consumers pay more for less.

Check out cereal boxes in recent times. What used to pass for a regular size is now being billed as family size — and sold at the heftier family size price.

This isn’t imagination.

And it’s hardly just cereal.

“How companies are hiding inflation without charging you more,” Quartz just wrote in a headline.

Doritos has quietly replaced its 9.75 ounce bag with a 9.25 ounce version, selling to consumers a portion that’s roughly five chips light but priced as if it were not. The Wheat Thins’ family size box is now 14 ounces, but priced the same as when it was 16 ounces. The effect to buyers? A loss of roughly 28 crackers.

One of Crest’s toothpaste products has downsized from 4.1 ounces to 3.8 ounces — but priced at 4.1 ounces. Bounty paper towels has dropped its 165-sheet size to 147 sheets. Gatorade cut its 32-ounce bottle to 28 ounces; Gain laundry detergent from Procter & Gamble reduced its bottle size from 165 ounces to 154 ounces. Charmin cut one of its toilet paper products from 264 double-ply sheets per roll to 244 — and Cottonelle reconfigured similarly, reducing its 340 one-ply sheet toilet paper to 312.

Candy bars have shrunk.

McDonald’s food portions have shrunk.

But prices to consumers?

They’ve not shrunk. Between inflation — gas prices are regularly hitting at $5 per gallon and higher! — and shrinkflation, the middle class in America is being swallowed. Chewed, swallowed and spit out, in fact.

At least inflation’s out in the open — it’s visible, it’s obvious, it’s in that regard, honest.

Shrinkflation is a hidden inflationary cost because who, after all, compares product weights? Who even notices that Hershey Kisses, for instance, now comes in oddly sized packages of 17.9 ounces — or that so-called “pound” of bacon is actually now only 12 ounces?

Democrats would blame the companies and call out the corporations as greedy fat cats exploiting the work and wages of the little guy. But that’s more lie than truth.

Truth is, Joe Biden’s economy is rippling across the energy sector, the retail sector, the transportation sector, the service sector, the manufacturing sector. And Jen Psaki says this: Inflation? How about those Mets?

The middle class is a crucial element for a free society because it keeps the rich from becoming lords over the poor. It keeps the spirit of entrepreneurialism alive and well. It gives the lower income, less educated cause for hope. It fuels the dreams of the youth who know they don’t have to grow up and join a caste system culture. It drives the economy via small business start-ups, ventures, successes. 

And thus, it’s easy to see why the left hates the middle class.

It’s easy to see why the left uses regulation and economic policy to ding the hard-working American citizen, rather than bolster.

So what to do? How to fight?

“For one thing,” The Motley Fool wrote, “pay closer attention to the everyday items you buy. … While inflation may peter out as supply chains that were halted during the pandemic manage to catch up with consumer demand, shrinkflation probably isn’t going anywhere. Pay close attention.”

Demand companies stop the deception.

If corporations can cater to the woke crowd, they can certainly cater to the educated consumer crowd, as well.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.