Savvy shoppers have noticed that some of their regular supermarket buys have got smaller while prices have remained the same or even increased.
A survey by Barclays found that two thirds of consumers were concerned over the effects of ‘shrinkflation’ as the cost of living crisis continued to strain family budgets, with 20% of them boycotting the downsized items in protest.
With food prices up by almost 20% in the past year, the latest snapshot of consumer activity from Barclays found households were spending on essentials but were increasingly concerned that manufacturers were reducing the size of products such as chocolate bars and packets of crisps.
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Over the last few months, many popular branded products have been reduced in size. Manufacturer Arla Foods came under fire only last week for reducing the size of a block of Lurpak butter by 20%, from 250g to 200g but Lurpak is just the latest product to shrink, with Hellmann’s mayonnaise jars slimming down from 800g to 600g, McVitie’s Digestives cut from 400g to 360g and multi-packs of Penguin and Club biscuits reduced from eight bars to seven to name a few.
“Consumers are still paying close attention to their everyday spending, and we are seeing growing concerns around shrinkflation in the weekly shop,” Barclays director Esme Harwood told The Guardian. “Many are having to forgo discretionary purchases to offset rising food prices, with clothing and restaurants most impacted.”
This comes as Barclays found that consumer card spending grew by 3.6% year on year in May, which is less than half the latest rate of inflation at 8.7%. Grocery spending is at its highest level for two years, pushed up by food price inflation which soared 19.1 per cent in the year to April.
Snack lovers seem to be worst hit by shrinkflation, as the products that customers say are shrinking most are chocolate (50%), crisps (40%),packs of biscuits (39%) and snack bars (35%).
More than 63% said they were looking for ways to reduce the cost of their weekly shop, with 41% of budget-conscious Britons using vouchers or loyalty points to get money off shopping.
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Top ten items customers think have been subject to shrinkflation according to Barclays are:
- Chocolate
- Crisps
- Pack of biscuits
- Snack bars
- Punnets of fruit
- Sweets
- Cheese
- Toilet paper
- Cereal
- Toiletries
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