Los compradors de cometibles está notando algo raro. Bolsas de papas fritas llenas de aire. Latas de sopa que se han encogido. Packets of detergent más pequeños.
The companies are reducing the size of their products without reducing the prices, and the comments of the consumers, from Reddit to TikTok, passing through the section of Comments of The New York Times, rebosan indignation, por estaendedshrinking inflation in English).
The practice is not new. Sellers have been discreetly reducing products for centuries to avoid raising prices, and experts believe that it has been an obvious corporate strategy since at least 1988, when the brand Chock Full o’Nuts reduced its bottle of 465 coffee and its competitors followed the example.
But today’s indignation is more pronounced. President Joe Biden shows eco del enojo and a video shot. (“Lo que más rabia me da es que los envases de gelado han diminuido de tamaño, pero no de price”, he lamented). Las propias empresas explotan esta practica con trucos publicitarios. A Canadian staple – a pizza increase in inflation . (“En terminos de pizza”, bromeaba el comunicado de prensa de la empresa, “una tajada más grande”).
But, how does reduflation work from the economic point of view? Does it happen more often in the United States and, if so, does it mean that the official data does not reflect the real scope of inflation? Below we explain the trend and what it means for your pocket.
La reduflación fue gallopante in 2016
Puede resultar difícil de creer, pero la reduflación parece estar ocurriendo con menos frecuencia hoy que hace a few years.
The EE government. UU. adjusts the official data of inflation to take into account the reduction of the size of the products, and the data collectors who monitor the size adjustments detected fewer cases of reduction of the 2000 items.
The reduction was frequent in 2016, when general inflation was low. It became more infrequent after the start of the pandemic in 2020, and more recently it has started to return to levels prior to the pandemic, according to analysts from the Office of Labor Statistics. (The economists pointed out that the set of products that are measured changed something over the years, which makes the comparisons over time more of an approximation than an exact science).
But the magnitude for some products is now more pronounced
Although size reductions are not produced with such frequency, reduflation is having a great impact on some key categories, such as sweets, detergent and toilet paper.
From 2019 to 2023, rediflation added 3.6 percentage points to the inflation of products such as paper towels and toilet paper, compared to 1.2 percentage points from 2015 to 2019. precios de las golosinas y los products de limpieza.
In the case of snacks, the reductions in size added 2.6 percentage points to inflation, approximately in line with what they contributed from 2015 to 2019. generally 2019 to 2023.
La reduflación se mide, pero no la hyperinflation
The contraction itself is reflected in official inflation data, but there is another hidden force that represents a cost for consumers and does not appear in statistics. Sometimes companies use cheaper materials to save costs, a practice that some people call hyperinflation. For the government it is much more difficult to measure.
If the roll of paper towels costs the same, but the number of sheets is lower (reduflation), the increase in the unit price is added to the official inflation. Si las toallas de papel son del mismo tamaño, pero suddenly están hechas de peor material (hyperinflation), the government does not register it as inflation.
De hecho, according to government statistics, food and domestic products do not adjust directly to changes in quality different from size and weight. In this way, if the microwave food brand you buy starts using vegetable oil instead of olive oil, or if the resealable container comes without its closure, it will not be noted.
Companies do it because it works
Companies choose to collect their products instead of charging more for a simple reason: consumers tend to focus more on prices than sizes.
Cuando baja la candidad, “la gente puede darse cuenta, pero a menudo no lo hace,” said John Gourville, a professor at Harvard Business School. “I do not produce el Impacto de Verlo en la etiqueta”.
An ejemplo famous es el de Dannon, que solía vender yogures envases más grandes que los de su competidor Yoplait: 226 grams frente a 170 grams (ocho onzas contra seis). Consumers were convinced that Dannon’s yogurt was more expensive and they didn’t know that it was simply more expensive. In the end, the company gave in and reduced the size of its packaging.
“Las ventas de yogur de Dannon, que diminujeron immediatente después de la reducción de tamaño, se han recuperado desde entonces”, informed the Times in 2003. “Y Dannon se embolsa ahora una major ganancia por cada vasoqueso”.
No todos los cambios de tamaño son equales. Algunos pueden be surrepticios, como aumentar el tamaño una crendura en la base de un tarro o cutar las esquinas de una pastilla de bón. For consumers, it is especially difficult to recognize the changes in size when they are produced in three dimensions, says Nailya Ordabayeva, associate professor at the Tuck Business School in Dartmouth, who has studied the respuesumidores de.
“El cerebro está programado para realizar heurísticas más secillas”, explanation.
In addition, he pointed out, los consumptives pueden estar disputuestos accepter quantitas menores o even preferirlas en algunos casos. For example, junk food products are sometimes shrunk to reduce the number of calories.
Even so, consumers could react negatively
When companies limit themselves to looking after their profits—and not their consumers—there is a fear among price experts that a persistent reduflation will discourage buyers.
Cuando los costos de las materias primas suían y la inflation era noticia, lo más probable es que los consumers comprendieran que las empresas debien trasladarles parte de esos aumentos. These include our products that protect our products and valuable maxima, as well as the various types of specialists.
But now, general inflation has calmed down: after reaching a maximum of 9.1 percent in July 2022, January was reduced to 3.1 percent. And the consumers could be less willing to accept the reduflation now that the companies are facing less severe cost pressures, especially because the profits of the food companies have been—y en muchos sidos—y en muchos casndoas.
Puede que simply se sientan estafados.
“I see that consumers are increasingly aware of the existence of reduflation,” confirms Jun Yao, professor of marketing at Universidad Macquarie de Australia, who has studied this trend.
And as more chains and online retailers publish unit costs, buyers can be more attentive to size changes, said Yao, something that could counter the contraction of portions.
This practice, he said, “puede ser counterproducente y deñar la imagen de marca”.
Jeanna Smialek writes Sobre la Reserva Federal y la economía para el Times desde Washington. More from Jeanna Smialek
