"Shrinkflation" ... now I have a word to describe my frustration with food prices.

[lxskllr]

A minor piss off of mine is when similar items are broken down in unlike units, making the math harder than just figuring it yourself.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

If you can afford a cell phone you can afford to eat. Cell phones are a luxury. Get over it (it being paying for the most expensive form of communication).

b-b-b-ut i have a RIGHT to my cell phone with a dataplan! I gots my Obama phone!



No but seriously, fuck people and their cell-phones. Get the fuck off your phone and accomplish something in life instead of talking to people.

 

[UKBB]

Inflation is "officially" at about 2% but, if you may have already noticed, food prices are increasing much faster than inflation ... and everyone needs to eat. To add insult to injury have you noticed how the size/weight/quantity of the product that you are buying has actually shrunk in size over time? One of my favorite examples is frozen peas. Just 5 years ago I could purchase a 16oz bag of frozen peas for $0.99. As of today it will cost me about $1.49 for a 12oz bag of peas. Not only has the price of the product gone up much faster than inflation but the quantity has decreased as well.

I have found this practice used across a broad range of products that I typically buy ... begrudgingly. Was reading an article this morning and finally found a label for the practice: "Shrinkflation":


http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40703866


Thoughts?

Do you have Aldi or Save-A-Lot in your area?

 

[KMFJD]

Since work rarely gives anything close to a raise that matches with inflation i have started to practice workflation, it's been working out great, i've been doing so much less at work and making the same amount, i love being able to give myself a raise.

/probably 30% decrease so far

 

[Scarpozzi]

Since work rarely gives anything close to a raise that matches with inflation i have started to practice workflation, it's been working out great, i've been doing so much less at work and making the same amount, i love being able to give myself a raise.

/probably 30% decrease so far

It's rare that we get more than a 2% raise.....and rare that we get those bumps in pay on 2 consecutive years. It's usually just enough to cover the increase in health insurance. Last year, however, we got 3.5%. This year, it's supposed to be another 3-4%. To me, those are indicators that minimum wage increases, free govt handouts, and all the covid credits were a bad idea. They didn't benefit me or anyone in my circles....they've only hurt the stock market and my spending power.

I don't know what I would be doing right now if I weren't almost totally debt free. I'm saving more money each month than ever before and my wife is too....we've turned the corner on stuff and don't intend on borrowing money for a long time. The plan is to save money, cook cheap food (staples like rice and beans and whatever cheap meat we can get) and make it to 2025 when things change one way or another.

 

[Red Squirrel]

We actually managed to get 2% for every year of this contract (4 years) which is still paltry as far as being able to keep up with inflation goes, but it's the highest we've ever had. Can't complain, some years we've had nothing. In fact, that's most years. The past 2 contracts have actually been half decent. Last one was 0.5, 0.5, 1, 1 if I recall. I don't think it's realistic to expect workplaces to pay enough to keep up with inflation and think it would only aggravate it even more, what really needs to be done is inflation itself needs to be stopped at any cost. This is a problem that has been around for decades probably like half a century at this point and it has gone unchecked for so long it's now finally starting to really catch up with lot of people.

 

[Exterous]

We actually managed to get 2% for every year of this contract (4 years) which is still paltry as far as being able to keep up with inflation goes, but it's the highest we've ever had. Can't complain, some years we've had nothing. In fact, that's most years. The past 2 contracts have actually been half decent. Last one was 0.5, 0.5, 1, 1 if I recall. I don't think it's realistic to expect workplaces to pay enough to keep up with inflation and think it would only aggravate it even more, what really needs to be done is inflation itself needs to be stopped at any cost. This is a problem that has been around for decades probably like half a century at this point and it has gone unchecked for so long it's now finally starting to really catch up with lot of people.

Inflation has been right around 2% for Canada over the last 30 years. And the current view is that ~2% is the target zone for a healthy economy and represents a good balance between low unemployment, a porridge economy (not too hot not too cold), and reasonable price increases. Not exactly what I would call an 'unchecked' issue especially compared to where Canada and much of the world was in the mid 70s to mid 80s.

We normally get raises ~3% every year. This year it will be 4-4.5% although I likely won't get the additional 0.5% bump

 

[pmv]

Since work rarely gives anything close to a raise that matches with inflation i have started to practice workflation, it's been working out great, i've been doing so much less at work and making the same amount, i love being able to give myself a raise.

/probably 30% decrease so far

Is that "workflation" or "shrink-ductivity"?

(I suppose the opposite of productivity would be conductivity, but that's just confusing - and might end with getting electrocuted - so I'm going with shrinkductivity as a descriptor for a perfectly legit response to employers current love for below-inflation pay increases)

 

[sportage]

I was trying to remember that term "Shrinkflation", where quantity is reduced yet prices stay the same or in todays world we see both reduction and higher pricing.
I feed my dog cooked chicken breasts as a mid-day treat that I buy from Walmart. Use to be 6 large breasts for around $10-$13. But now, it's down to 5 breasts and the new price $15 - $18. But I love the little guy so what am I to do?

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Yeah it sucks, but frankly Americans have been overeating their asses off (on?) for a long, long time.

I can feed my family of 4 fresh, tasty, nutritious food for about $10 a plate and its already more food than we can eat in many cases.

 

[Aikouka]

It's rare that we get more than a 2% raise.....and rare that we get those bumps in pay on 2 consecutive years. It's usually just enough to cover the increase in health insurance. Last year, however, we got 3.5%. This year, it's supposed to be another 3-4%. To me, those are indicators that minimum wage increases, free govt handouts, and all the covid credits were a bad idea. They didn't benefit me or anyone in my circles....they've only hurt the stock market and my spending power.

In my opinion, one of the harder aspects of living in society can be realizing and accepting that not everything that goes on in society will benefit you. To be clear, if nothing benefits you, then you've got a problem. Although, I am not trying to suggest that all pandemic relief measures were without fault. To ensure fast dispersal, the government chose to use less oversight, which lead to accepted abuse. For example, when it came to securing PPP loans, people that ran their own business with themselves as a sole employee were able to secure a loan by simply claiming hardship. It wasn't exactly hard to claim a hardship during the pandemic because there was no metric on what was deemed worthy. (I know people that did that.) Although, I do think it's a bit unfair to lump in things like minimum wage with COVID relief measures. Given our heavy reliance upon services, we can't treat our service workers as disposable folks whom we expect to sustain themselves on metaphorical pennies.