What the worst example of shrinkflation or price rises you've seen this year?

Posted 26th Sep 2023

I’d say Lucozade - £1.60 was RRP before covid, it then dropped to £1 and this year quickly worked its way up to £1.50 in the supermarkets and £2 in the corner shops. Let’s not forget the size went from 1litre to 900ml and now they are changing the sweetners!

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27th Sep
Ok, so the box sizes of Twinings tea has shrunk (medium box 80, used to be 120, then 100). But also the amount of tea per bag is down too!!!
27th Sep
Polo mints , the opposite, the hole has increased in size, great value
26th Sep
Heinz & Kellogg's are amongst the worst companies also I've seen a big pack of bird's eye fish fingers for around the £8 mark.
26th Sep
Yeah, I saw the crazy prices of Heinz ketchup! 460g squeezy bottle is £3.40! That wouldn't last a week in our house!
26th Sep
I work in Asda on the meat so have noticed a lot has changed over the past year... loads of meats have gone up and fish has gone crazy.
You used to be able to get 3 x Extra Special Smoked Salmon for a tenna, now they're £6.25 each working out £18.75
They've actually done away with the 3 for a tenna and only have the 2 for £5 or 2 for £8 now.
The created your own pizzas are ridiculous now as well
26th Sep
Asda is my go to but its nuts how their own Pizzas are like £4 now. I was used to paying that for brands like Chicago Town
27th Sep
Jaffa cakes were shrunk again 5.5cms wide down to 5cms wide.

What I hate is the sneakiness. Same size box and they stopped putting a total weight on the box.

And I am still smarting about Frazzles.

They went from an 8 pack for £1 to a 6 pack for £1.50.

So 24 packs used to cost £3, now costs £6.

That's robbery, not inflation. (edited)
27th Sep
Sometimes they do a double whammy of shrinking the items & charging more!
26th Sep
Strange example to pick when pretty much most things have risen 33-50%

Its beyond any doubt, exploitation.

Manufacturers / distributors / supermarkets are in to selling less product but 100% profit margin increases hence a winning situation.

Just stop being brand / supermarket loyal then prices really haven't increased at all for me (bulk buying when staples are on offer)

A big freezer can pay for itself within a year or two.

Oh, and stop drinking that lucozade poison. Diabetes in a bottle (it's literally overpriced carbonated water with sugar and artificial sweeteners) .

The worst example of shrinkflation / inflation is bisto best gravy

Used to get 400g for £2 on offer. Now it's £3 for 150g!

Make my own gravy now

Get the trolley app and save all your favourites and bulk buy when on offer. Saves us a small fortune but my garage does look like a tesco express

Grocery bill for 2 adults is about £35 per week (edited)
26th Sep
To be fair, I think they did give the worst example as they requested.
26th Sep
My local Tesco got rid of the fresh fish counter. Cheese seems to be silly prices, oh and Tescos own brand lemonade was 17p pre C and it has seen 2 price hikes post C. It also doesn't appear to be an option on their web site.
27th Sep
Asda put up pampers wipes x12 Box to £18! Usually £10-£11! (edited)
28th Sep
My biggest bugbear was muller upping the prices of their yoghurts and rice pots from 60p to 90p at the same time the advert with Declan rice was on the tv and radio constantly. I can’t speak for anyone else but companies paying celebrities a fortune to advertise their products is never going to persuade me to purchase their goods
29th Sep
Things that you need a second mortgage for I've noticed are....

OXO cubes £3.20 in Asda!
Gravy Granules
Cup a Soup's
Chocolate bars
Tinned soups
Fresh Salmon

Only things I've seen levelling off are Butter, milk and bread, so long as you buy them on offer or shop brands
Also places like Heron and Farmfoods, which were previously havens for food bargains are no longer cheap (edited)
Author
7 h, 11 m ago
They still seem to provide rlly good offers, but imagine higher margins on regular non promo items makes up the difference. So if you buy regular stuff and discount at herons it would cost more than herons for discount stuff and Lidl for a main shop
7 h, 22 m ago
Was in Sainsbury's today £3 for Mr Kipling jam tarts! I got 9 for £1.25 in Poundland just as good in my opinion.
7 m ago
What a rip off!
Just for a pack of jam tarts
M&S ones are nice mate. £1.35 for 6
No doubt made in the same factory as Mr Kipling too! (edited)
26th Sep
Consume less people. Make food a necessity, not a luxury as times dictates it to be so. This is how you will get through these hard times. The body doesn't need a lot to thrive on so give it what it needs and not what just tastes good all the time.
Author
26th Sep
Unfortunately there is a not insignificant number of people who would find themselves hugely deficient if they used that mind set, particularly autistic people as they’d just simply eat very little. And tends to be if you eat lot you find it harder to meet your fibre, carbs and protein balance.
26th Sep
Sponge scourers - standard price is £1 for a pack of twenty - to maintain their profit margin, they have been shrunk to a truly ridiculous child size.

In the 'good times', they were a decent size and quality and, if you shopped around, you could get them as low as 69p.

What annoys me about this, similar to the sugar tax, is manufacturers/retailers have taken away your choice - for example, I don't have the choice to pay a higher price for the previous sized/formula product.

What worries me is that, when we come out the other side, these reduced sizes/formulations will be here to stay.
26th Sep
Frijj milkshakes were 400ml last week-ish. This week 330ml
Author
26th Sep
Bet they aren’t 50p on special anymore neither
27th Sep
I've noticed morrisons have shrunk their own brand butter from 1kg to 900ml,
29th Sep
A lot of the spreadables have gone from 500g to 400g