After shrinkflation, we will have to be vigilant about stretchflation at the start of the school year

In November 2023, the axe fell: 35% of French people admitted that they did not feel like they were eating enough. A reality revealed by the first Observatory of Food Vulnerabilities which recalled, among other things, the terrible consequences that inflation could have on the purchasing power of certain families. In March 2023, prices on the shelves of supermarkets had exploded by 15.8%. It is difficult to eat according to nutritional recommendations when vegetables display explosive prices of +29.3% over a year.

Order protects consumers from shrinkflation

Preferring private label products, completing your shopping with two different supermarket chains, reducing waste… New habits have appeared in the daily lives of the French, who have learned more than ever to compare prices. A reflex that has become all the more essential when consumers discovered the trick used by manufacturers to make their profits grow without it being (too) obvious. Code name: shrinkflation. A neologism taking up the term “shrink”, meaning to shrink, to indicate products that have undergone a reduction in the quantity sold without the price being changed. The practice that has distorted so many consumers is such that a decree was issued on April 16 to require distributors to clearly indicate since July 1 the items that have suffered this reduction.

Stretchflation: the new scam

Brands are fighting back, and it’s still at the consumer’s expense. Now here’s “stretchflation”. Another neologism, which might at first glance give the impression that the advantage is given to the buyer. In English, “stretch” actually means to stretch. This new word thus evokes the idea that manufacturers have increased the weight of their products. Of course, they have not maintained the same price. Brands are even inflating them, and in a disproportionate way that is unrelated to the quantity added. Revealed by the journalist specializing in consumption Olivier Dauversthis practice can in fact be of the order of 35%, when we take the example of McCain buns whose weight has increased by 15%. This increase being often disproportionate, it is all the more complicated for a consumer to be vigilant, especially if it is necessary to compare each of the prices of the items put in the cart.

Let us also remember that traps are everywhere when shopping, such as “cheapflation”. This “technique” consists of changing the recipe of a product by favoring lower quality ingredients, for always the same final price, or even more.