Nearly 1 in 3 supermarket products have been shrinkflated over last four years

Shrinkflation—the tendency of brands to shrink products, often imperceptibly, without lowering the price—is something we first noted in 2022.

And while there have been many developments since—what with a French supermarket naming and shaming shrinkflated products with shelf signage, Germany drafting an anti-shrinkflation law, and President Biden releasing a video decrying the practice—we hadn’t encountered a comprehensive study of just how pervasive the practice was in the US.

Until now.

A LendingTree analysis of 98 supermarket products found that over the last four years, 30 of them (31%) had shrunk. Paper products (toilet paper and paper towels) were the most apt to shrink, with 12 of 20 (60%) shrinking since either 2019 or 2020. A 12-pack of Angel Soft mega rolls saw per-roll sheet count shrink from 429 to 320 sheets, a 25.4% decrease. While the cost of that 12-pack was lowered from $9.97 to $8.44 over the period, the study revealed that the price per 100 sheets increased from 19 cents to 22 cents, an increase of 13.5%.

Charmin Ultra Strong, meanwhile, shrinkflated and raised the price. A 24-pack of mega rolls saw each roll shrink from 286 to 242 sheets, a 15.4% decrease, while the cost rose from $23.82 to $26.48, a per-100 sheet increase of 31.4%.

The data was gathered using the Walmart website and the Wayback Machine, a nonprofit web archive.

Sweet and sour: More Americans are waking up to shrinkflation—literally. Among 16 breakfast cereals the study tracked, seven (43.8%) shrank over the period.

Something even more sweet than Frosted Flakes, candy, saw 5 of the 13 (38.5%) of the products downsized. Party-size packages of both Reese’s peanut butter cup miniatures and Rolos shrank from 40 ounces to 35.6 ounces, an 11% decrease.

In the case of Reese’s, after the package shrank, the price subsequently went up, from $8.98 to $13.24, meaning the price-per-ounce price went from 22 cents to 37 cents per ounce, a mind-boggling 68.2% increase.

“People are already frustrated that things cost more,” LendingTree chief credit analyst Matt Schulz said in a post on the company’s website. “Shrinkflation just adds insult to injury. It all adds up to a lot of Americans feeling squeezed every month to afford the basic things they can’t do without.”