‘Shrinkflation’ and Other Terms for Inflationary Times

A prolonged period of elevated inflation has left consumers cranky and eager to cast blame. Higher prices for goods and services have proved more resilient than the US Federal Reserve and other central banks had predicted. That’s encouraged theories and explanations that are shorthanded into buzzwords and phrases, including these.

Think of this as inflation in disguise. The premise is that the bag of coffee or box of cereal that we buy at the supermarket comes in smaller packaging, meaning there’s less product, but the price remains the same — if not higher. In the UK, 76% of consumers noticed such shrinkage in September — chocolate was the most cited example — and 68% said supermarkets should have to label products that have gone down in size or weight, according to a survey by Barclays Plc. Shrinkage can also manifest in operating hours, the level of customer service and the quality of product offered for sale. The phenomenon gained renewed attention in March after the fictional Cookie Monster of Sesame Street fame complained on the X social platform that his cookies were getting smaller, drawing a sympathetic response from the White House, which wrote that C wasn’t only for cookie, it also stood for “consumers getting ripped off.”