With “shrinkflation”, consumers fight back

This is because we should not take them for pigeons! While the food industry has come up with all sorts of practices to make their cash grow at the height of the inflationary context at the expense of buyers, the latter are not letting it happen by adapting their habits when shopping. And we know how resourceful they are in terms of adaptation and defending their purchasing power. In recent years, the Cetelem Observatory has particularly highlighted the ability of the younger generation to find other sources of additional income, for example through the resale of objects or drop shipping.

As for the latest trick from brands, consumers have not said their last word either. According to a study by Opinionay for ShopFully*, no less than 81% of French people have indeed noticed that certain products have the same price even though their quantity has decreased. This is the famous “shrinkflation” effect, a neologism born from the contraction of “shrink” – to shrink in English – and inflation. The scale is such that since July 1st, a decree has required distributors to indicate the brands concerned.

The result is clear: nearly half of consumers (48%) have changed their ways of doing things to defend their purchasing power against this practice. More specifically, they either buy these products less often (24%), or they look for more economical alternatives (20%), or they have simply stopped buying them (4%). Ultimately, “shrinkflation” has led 67% of French people to reduce their purchases. A choice whose repercussions can be significant for the success of a company in the agri-food industry, especially since an overwhelming majority of buyers (90%) reveal that they have lost confidence in brands that have had no qualms about reducing the weight of products without changing prices.

The ball is in the distributors’ case, like Carrefour, which chose at the beginning of the year to point the finger at giants like PepsiCo for their “shrinkflation” strategy by clearly labeling the products concerned on the shelves (the distributor has since been condemned by the Commercial Court). Above all, consumers want to have all the data in hand before buying. For example, three-quarters consider that it would not be useless to improve the display of prices per kilo or per liter, the only real weapon for comparing items with each other. Moreover, this data is becoming essential at a time when a new misleading practice is blurring the lines, namely “stretchflation”. This time, brands are increasing quantities, out of all proportion to prices.

*This OpinionWay survey for ShopFully was conducted among a panel of 1,051 French people, representative of the French population aged 18 and over. This sample is representative of French people aged 18 and over thanks to the implementation of quotas for gender, age, socio-professional category, region and size of urban area. The interviews were conducted from July 19 to 24, 2024.