Products are getting smaller while shopping bills get bigger
We have discovered yet more household products that have shrunk, while the price has stayed the same or even increased. Are any of your favourite products shrinking?
In our investigation into shrinking products, we found a pack of Birds Eye beef burgers with four fewer burgers in it than before – 12 down from 16. We also discovered Pledge furniture polish had shrunk by almost a fifth. And we found you get fewer Dettol anti bacterial wipes and even fewer crisps than you used to.
For most of the products we investigated, the price stayed the same after the shrink. The biggest decrease in product size we found was 25%, while the smallest was Walkers cheese and onion crisps that decreased by 6%. Check out our gallery at the bottom of this post for some of the shrinking products we found.
How do you feel about shrinking products?
It’s certainly a topic that gets people hot under the collar. Last time I wrote about shrinking products on Which? Conversation, over 100 people joined the debate and some very strong views were expressed. Alan Pearcey felt that he was being tricked:
‘Manufacturers and retailers are equally complicit in this blatant, underhanded, conspiracy to confuse and cheat those who represent their very survival – their customers – with this latest ‘smoke and mirrors’ practice.’
M. would rather see prices go up:
‘I would prefer them to raise prices so we could see the knife coming, rather than put up with this devious practise.’
Frugal Ways wondered if shrinking products avoided being picked up by price index measures:
‘It’s clear to me that smaller pack sizes for the same price is an actual price rise, yet this sharp practice does not impact on inflation, RPI, CPI figures, etc. These figures are used nationally by governments, councils, et al, to calculate benefits, wages, etc.’
So why are products shrinking?
We looked at branded products (eg not supermarket own-brand), using independent shopping website mysupermarket.co.uk. We asked the makers of these products why they had shrunk them, and were generally told that, in the face of rising costs they choose to shrink products rather than increase prices.
Many of the manufacturers we spoke to said supermarkets ultimately set prices. We asked whether they reduced the wholesale price or set a lower recommended retail price when the product shrank. Most manufacturers either said they didn’t do this or wouldn’t comment. So it’s perhaps not surprising the prices in supermarkets didn’t drop.
Would you prefer a price increase or a smaller product? How important is it that manufacturers and retailers make it clear to shoppers when a product has reduced in size?
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Graham Cox
Collecting data on packaging changes without compensating change in price.
My freedom of Information Request ahs been replied to. Very fast. Thank you Office of National Statistics. Full Fifo response below..
The result is that even though we pay for this data to be collected off the shelves by ONS people, it cannot be released in the way we want (who changed packaging size on what products ). . But researchers can see the incidence of such packaging changes.
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/what-we-do/FOI/foi-requests/economy/package-size-reduction-without-proportionate-price-cuts/index.html
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Request
Please advise where the public can see the list of package size reduction without proportionate price cuts that have been used in the calculation of the CPI over the last year.
Response
Thank you for your enquiry. ONS does not publish a list of package size reductions without proportionate price cuts that have been used in the calculation of the CPI.
When a product included in the CPI sample changes package size, the price collectors note this information and an adjustment is then made to the recorded price to reflect that consumers are now getting more (or less) for their money. An example may help. If a chocolate bar cost £1 and weighed 60g in February and cost the same but weighed 55g in March these details are noted at the point of collection. ONS’s systems then adjust the price by (60/55) and would record the price as £1.09 (rounded to the nearest penny). This change would therefore rightly show up as a price increase in CPI as the consumer was getting less for their money.
This process is called ‘quality adjustment’ and reflects that we aim to measure actual price changes in the CPI – not changes in the size or quality of goods and services. ONS uses a variety of internationally recognised quality adjustment techniques, picking the most suitable one for each product in question.
ONS does not and cannot provide a list of products to your specifications due to our requirements to maintain data confidentiality. ONS obtains written agreement from retailers before we collect prices from their premises and we must seek their permission each time we want to enter thereafter. Part of the agreement is that the shops will not be identified in any way through our data.
ONS publishes anonymised price quote data (available at http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/user-guidance/prices/cpi-and-rpi/cpi-and-rpi-item-indices-and-price-quotes/index.html). You can identify those price quotes where there has been a change to the size of the product (regardless of whether the retailer has proportionally changed the price) by looking for those quotes with a ‘W’ in the ‘indicator_box’ column of the price quote files. Please contact the CPI team at cpi@ons.gsi.gov.uk if you have any questions regarding the use of these data.
Malcolm R
We all accept that prices must change. These changes should be made apparent – particularly if the contents reduce. It is deceitful otherwise. Just don’t try to fool us with “clever” marketing.
wavechange
Of course.
For years we have read ‘New bigger packet – better value’. Fair enough, but they should also use ‘New smaller packet – poorer value’ when they decide to make their packets smaller.
william
I challenge anyone to find a product that still says better value on these days. The supermarkets are forcing manufacturers to drop that phrase so they’re not legally obliged to enforce it.
wavechange
You have mentioned this before, William. I am suggesting a new slogan to launch an honest approach to marketing.
william
In addition to the actual product getting smaller, have you noticed individual ingredients getting smaller?
e.g. Has Quaker Oatso simple Apple and blueberry always had 0.5% apple and 0.5% blueberry? Seems rather low %age to get away with calling it apple and blueberry ( I have an outstanding claim with Trading Standards on that)
william
Just had a reply and if if wasn’t so sad I’d laugh. Turns out the legislation is about the taste characteristic and nothing to do with the quantity of ingredients. The woman from Trading Standards even had to agree with “so if one molecule of apple and one of blueberry were enough to have a distinctive taste in the porridge then they could get away with just adding that”.
Makes me think the food industry has played a big part in shaping that law.
fonetic
With the average can of chicken soup containing about 3 minuscule pieces of chicken, I’d guess that the meat from one chicken can make about two thousand cans of chicken soup.
Malcolm R
Good news for chickens, then, if not for us! Try M&S cartons of chicken soup – that’s where they’ve gone.
LizzyF
Just noticed another one! Patak’s Tikka Masala sauce. This used to be 500g, is now 450g. So that’s a 10% price rise?
Malcolm R
Not wishing to appear pedantic, but that is in fact an 11.1% price increase – 500/450 (!)
LizzyF
Maths fiend!
LizzyF
I was just putting my shopping away and I’ve noticed another one! “Fry Light” oil spray seems to have been on a diet. The almost-empty one in my cupboard is 250ml, the brand new full one is a far slimmer 190ml. Now I don’t have a note of the previous price but I’m pretty sure it hasn’t gone down! Where will it stop, will the manufacturers wait six months and shave another 10% off the pack size, still thinking that the consumer hasn’t noticed? When will they realise that we HAVE noticed but we have little choice if we want to buy the products?
william
I had a go at Tesco last week and amongst the numerous issues I raised was “9) Shrinking product sizes, again by not bringing this a a shoppers notice it gives the impression you’re trying to pull the wool over their eyes.”
Their reply to that point was “I can appreciate your comments with regards to the shrinking product sizes. Rather than increase the price of product, suppliers will reduce the overall size of the product, thus allowing customers the opportunity to continue buying the product rather than going without.”
You can imagine I was impressed.
John Ward
THose are god questions Lizzy. Where will the salami-slicing stop?I think the manufacturers and retailers are all petrified, like rabbits caught in the headlights, wondering where and when the tipping point will come – when they have to put more in the packet and whack the price up by a hefty lump. Who will jump first? Can Tesco beat Asda at brinkmanship? Will some of the smaller manufacturers [who supply the copy-cat and own-label products] go under, leaving the field to the major brands? Some supermarkets might withdraw from some own-label product categories altogether to the relief of the surviving brands. In a different market but apposite, when Comet folded, I suspect they were jumping for joy in Currys’ boardroom, so close had they come to the brink.
John Ward
Well, of course, I meant “good” questions. I’m sorry for the faux pas.
Malc.Moore
Not only are products getting smaller check out what you are actually getting i have noticed recently
e.g.Beefburgers actual meat content has gone down in percentage of beef.OK you can buy 100%Beefburgers at double the price of the average ones but beware some baddies are reducing the meat content of the average ones.
Ruthie
i always buy tesco value corned beef because I prefer the taste. When I started buying it there was 8 slices in the pack and cost £0.75 per packet, now it costs double the money for 7 slices.
Malc.Moore
Nothing surprises me about Tesco anymore always Top Prices 1 loose Parsnip costs almost as much as a Pack at Aldi shocking.
Roger Trigg
A large carton of Finish dishwasher tablets used to contain 84 tablets. The same size carton now contains 78, a 7% decrease. Moreover, the carton is 25% empty, a waste of both warehouse and kitchen cupboard space
Graham Cox
Please specify which type. There are three products name and several box sizes. Need to find the one you refer to on the web. Thanks.
Roger Trigg
It’s the Mega Pack All in One, current weight 1.54 kg
LizzyF
It looks as though they’ve removed 7% across the range, the picture at the top of the page shows the small pack which has also lost tablets. SO sneaky!
Malc.Moore
Iceland 100%Beefburgers at double the price of the average ones are they for Real????they shrink to a smaller size than there ordinary Beefburgers but double the Price it makes me wonder if there is
another scam going on ripping off Customers with Barbecue season almost upon us it might be time to check those Burgers out.Most of Iceland sausages have poor meat quantity when it was known as BEJAM their Sausages had a higher actual meat content.So before opting for the 100% Beefburgers my advice is think about it you may be getting conned.I axcept meat does have its own fat but more than an ordinary Beefburger????.
Roger Trigg
One way for the government to get a hand on this problem is to bring in regulations that specify obligatory pack sizes for processed foods and household products, such as 50, 100, 150, 250, 500, 750 (excepting 700 for wines & liquors) and 1000 ml for fluids, and similar values in g for weights. Many supermarkets do show the unit price of things but it’s the visual deception on the part of manufacturers that is so unacceptable.
Roger Trigg
Braeburn Apples at Waitrose. I’ve been buying the 4-prepack all winter for £2. While the quality in terms of sweetness varied from week to week they were always of a good size, almost too large for comfort. I’ve noticed that in the last week or two the apples have shrunk in size markedly while the price remained at £2. There’s no weight on the pack or shelf label so today I weighed them: 0.57 kg. At £1-95 per kg for loose apples (of a good size) the pre-pack should have cost £1-11 on a weight for weight basis. I complained to the manager who agreed with my comment about sharp practice and let me have the pe-pack free of charge.
Graham Cox
Well observed Roger.
This loophole of allowing pack to be sold with no weight indication (eg minimum weight) is part of the problem and an issue Which should have tackled long ago, before focusing on luxury gadgets.
The effort of using the one pair of scales, often hidden away, to compare loose and packed fruit , variety by variety, to see which is best value per lb/lg is a miniscule but real part of lower productivity in the country: ie time wasted.
Graham Cox
Dear Richard,
Having reviewed the Foi response from the Office of National Statistics and understood the real issues you face re publishing data collected at premises where ONS staff are guests, I return with a modified request in two parts. Please note that the ‘target’ is not the supermarkets /retailers but the product managers of the manufacturers/importers and the objective is perfect information as defined in Econ 101 as necessary for the best functioning of markets .
1) Consider an example as identified by a Which member. ‘A large carton of XXXX dishwasher tablets used to contain 84 tablets. The same size carton now contains 78, a 7% decrease’.
If your researchers find this happens in all sampling at retailers, I can see no reason not to make available the information, if requested, that Product X in pack description Y had its contents cut without a compensating cut in price. It will be in your data bank and does not affect the retailers who gave you permission not sample.
2) Your previous response cannot relate to supermarkets’ web sites. One hopes the ONS is improving its own productivity by collecting as many price stats as possible from the supermarkets’ web sites. For such data , no permission is needed from the retailer and hence you should be free to share retail findings which do not identify retailers but are market wide.
Clearly in the case of the example and thousand like it , 1 and 2 can be combined to make the case even stronger for release of market wide information of price rises surreptitiously achieved by cuts in packaging size.
Sincerely
Graham Cox
CC ‘Which’ members .
Graham Cox
Tried my best. Can’t see why they should keep product names confidential. But maybe an FIO appeal some time in the future could tackle that one head on; for we the tax payers pay for these price surveys so the info should be available to us unless doing so would stop their work and I can’t see how info on products sold everywhere and on the Internet could possibly do that. Look forward to their article on the subject.
CPI Correspondence Reference – Enquiry Number 2813
The following is a response from CPI to your Enquiry:
CPI Correspondence Response:
Dear Graham
There is evidently interest in the subject of
package size changes and I will look to see
what analysis ONS could produce to talk about
how we take account for this (and other
product) changes in calculating our price
indices.
I would like to make it very clear that we will
not produce any analysis that would identify
individual products or retailers. This goes
against the fundamental principles of anonymity
to which we work and would risk the quality of
the inflation measures.
Kind Regards
Richard Campbell
Head of Consumer Price Statistics Production
Prices Division
Office for National Statistics
tel: 01633 651536