It's certainly stopped me buying the amount of upf I used to, which is a good thing. Stuff you actually need like household items is another matter.
Cost of Living - Shrinkflation is speeding up at an alarming rate
- Thread starter Ice Tea
- Start date
Oil prices halved, food prices doubled/tripled/quadrupled — where’s the money going?
Most of these price hikes were blamed on fuel, transport, and energy costs… yet oil and gas prices have fallen sharply over the past year. So who’s cashing in? Hint: it’s CEOs, not shoppers.
Big brands like Heinz are enriching executives at the expense of their own long-term survival. As demand drops, their products will take up less shelf space, lose prime spots at aisle ends, and slowly fade from visibility.
Once consumers switch to cheaper alternatives — often just as good — they’re unlikely to switch back, even years later. Kids growing up with store brands won’t pick Heinz either.
This is classic short-term thinking: CEOs get their bonuses now, while the brand bleeds over the next few years. Mismanaged, overpriced, and overconfident, these iconic brands are basically betting their legacy on people never noticing.
Wake-up calls are coming in 1–2 years when the shelves tell the real story: high profits now, vanished relevance later.
also your being overcharged for convenience so basically an idiot tax. for not wanting to use a cheese grater or slicer.
Most of these price hikes were blamed on fuel, transport, and energy costs… yet oil and gas prices have fallen sharply over the past year. So who’s cashing in? Hint: it’s CEOs, not shoppers.
Big brands like Heinz are enriching executives at the expense of their own long-term survival. As demand drops, their products will take up less shelf space, lose prime spots at aisle ends, and slowly fade from visibility.
Once consumers switch to cheaper alternatives — often just as good — they’re unlikely to switch back, even years later. Kids growing up with store brands won’t pick Heinz either.
This is classic short-term thinking: CEOs get their bonuses now, while the brand bleeds over the next few years. Mismanaged, overpriced, and overconfident, these iconic brands are basically betting their legacy on people never noticing.
Wake-up calls are coming in 1–2 years when the shelves tell the real story: high profits now, vanished relevance later.
because it takes time and energy to slice it, they mix it with flour or whatever to dry it out and have to fill the packet with whatever gas they use, seems to be c02 for meats/cheeses ironically
also your being overcharged for convenience so basically an idiot tax. for not wanting to use a cheese grater or slicer.
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Probably mentioned already but didn't bother searching.
Loaded up on the £1 Terry's chocolate oranges the other week. Now down to 145g from 157g but as things are £1 is still decent IMO.
They initially made them thinner (so gaps between the segments) but this time I don't know what else they did.
Diameter of the orange smaller 1-2mm less perhaps?
I can't see the segements are even thinner it's hard to tell as haven't got one from last year to compare with!
I know you don't get that large chunky bit down the middle any more.
Loaded up on the £1 Terry's chocolate oranges the other week. Now down to 145g from 157g but as things are £1 is still decent IMO.
They initially made them thinner (so gaps between the segments) but this time I don't know what else they did.
Diameter of the orange smaller 1-2mm less perhaps?
I can't see the segements are even thinner it's hard to tell as haven't got one from last year to compare with!
I know you don't get that large chunky bit down the middle any more.
Corner shop is a Morrisons, Terry's orange is £2.20.
Move over shrinkflation
Your haiku made me sad.
I think we're seeing quality degradation more than shrinkflation. The quality of supermarket produce is getting worse by the year.
I saw that a study that noted that carrots from 1950 contained about 75% more magnesium than today's carrots. Per £ spent on veg, you're not getting the same nutrition you were previously. The carrot might tick the box of looking like a carrot, but it's not really a carrot anymore
I saw that a study that noted that carrots from 1950 contained about 75% more magnesium than today's carrots. Per £ spent on veg, you're not getting the same nutrition you were previously. The carrot might tick the box of looking like a carrot, but it's not really a carrot anymore
Soldato
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A lot of our food gets imported from Europe and farmers over there have seen catastrophic wild fires decimating harvests. Out side of Europe El-nino has wrecked havoc in Africa with draught and crop diseases again causing huge problems with harvests (the price of Coco was at one point triple what it was in 2024).
Also the price of fertiliser has skyrocketed as a result of the war in Ukraine along with the general cost of electricity going up and up every year due to green policies. Add all that up and it's no wonder our food is more expensive.
Also the price of fertiliser has skyrocketed as a result of the war in Ukraine along with the general cost of electricity going up and up every year due to green policies. Add all that up and it's no wonder our food is more expensive.
I was reading a story about recipes changing and they used butter as an example
they claimed country life spreadable used to be 65% butter 35% oil
and it changed to include almost 25% water LOL I couldn't believe it but
almost 25% profits due to the tap! I bet the salts like 1%
you can make your own spreadable easy btw, left the butter go soft but not melted! and mix in a bit of olive oil or some water if you want to be authentic
We're back to the old medieval times like adding sawdust to bread to squeeze more profits... I'ma start looking at other stuff when I'm shopping I bet water is added to almost everything, cheese on pizzas etc.
they always seemt o be a bit frosty these days, a few grams of water vs cheese/pure sauce probably skims a fortune..
Yo dawg, I heard you like water… so we put water in your food so you can drink while you eat!
no wonder supermarket food started tasting so bland.
next they'll be injecting air into everything for more volume, and I don't mean like crisp packets, just waiting for that extra fluffy watery butter to come out.
someone patent hollow out fries or swiss chips full of holes
they claimed country life spreadable used to be 65% butter 35% oil
and it changed to include almost 25% water LOL I couldn't believe it but
Ingredients
Butter (50%), Rapeseed Oil (25%), Water, Saltalmost 25% profits due to the tap! I bet the salts like 1%
you can make your own spreadable easy btw, left the butter go soft but not melted! and mix in a bit of olive oil or some water if you want to be authentic
We're back to the old medieval times like adding sawdust to bread to squeeze more profits... I'ma start looking at other stuff when I'm shopping I bet water is added to almost everything, cheese on pizzas etc.
they always seemt o be a bit frosty these days, a few grams of water vs cheese/pure sauce probably skims a fortune..
Yo dawg, I heard you like water… so we put water in your food so you can drink while you eat!
no wonder supermarket food started tasting so bland.
next they'll be injecting air into everything for more volume, and I don't mean like crisp packets, just waiting for that extra fluffy watery butter to come out.
someone patent hollow out fries or swiss chips full of holes
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Interesting that you say air, I believe this is what is done with ice cream, as the more air in the product the easier it is to scoop, however it also cuts the amount needed to fill a tub.I was reading a story about recipes changing and they used butter as an example
they claimed country life spreadable used to be 65% butter 35% oil
and it changed to include almost 25% water LOL I couldn't believe it but
Ingredients
Butter (50%), Rapeseed Oil (25%), Water, Salt
almost 25% profits due to the tap! I bet the salts like 1%
you can make your own spreadable easy btw, left the butter go soft but not melted! and mix in a bit of olive oil or some water if you want to be authentic
We're back to the old medieval times like adding sawdust to bread to squeeze more profits... I'ma start looking at other stuff when I'm shopping I bet water is added to almost everything, cheese on pizzas etc.
they always seemt o be a bit frosty these days, a few grams of water vs cheese/pure sauce probably skims a fortune..
Yo dawg, I heard you like water… so we put water in your food so you can drink while you eat!
no wonder supermarket food started tasting so bland.
next they'll be injecting air into everything for more volume, and I don't mean like crisp packets, just waiting for that extra fluffy watery butter to come out.
someone patent hollow out fries or swiss chips full of holes
Ice-creams got air in it and you really have to evaluate it by the dairy fats/sugar in it, by ml serving, versus double cream (unless you are into vegan carte-d'or)
25% saturated fat it seems versus butter at 50% - so spreadable remains butter diluted at 50% and also half the price
usually get aldi's for both
even butter has water in it though (google saying 16%) so you have to consider what the (neuvo good for you) saturated fat content is per knife full.
25% saturated fat it seems versus butter at 50% - so spreadable remains butter diluted at 50% and also half the price
usually get aldi's for both
you don’t need to list water on the ingredients label if it’s naturally present in a food and hasn’t been added as an ingredient.
Butter naturally contains about 15–18% water, but since that water is inherent to the churning process and not added separately, it doesn’t need to be listed.
they literally adding it as a bulking agent it's not the same thing.
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I found rump steaks cheaper than that in 5 seconds on google from all the supermarkets even Waitrose...
I did used to think Sweden was really expensive when I first came here but the UK is insane.
Im on my yearly return trip to the fatherland in December and can't wIt to be shocked at the prices
It's the brand name items that are craziest.
Though....Even a budget brand can of beans here is like about, hmm 60p..
What's own brand in Tesco now?
Im on my yearly return trip to the fatherland in December and can't wIt to be shocked at the prices
It's the brand name items that are craziest.
Though....Even a budget brand can of beans here is like about, hmm 60p..
What's own brand in Tesco now?
42p vs something like Heinz which are like £1 a tin if you buy the 4 packs. No idea if its worth the price difference myself, baked beans are pretty horrible.
Well if you don't like them anyway...
A tin of beans is actually quite easy to pimp up, for example by adding a squirt of sauce or a teaspoon of curry powder.
The funny thing is that Heinz beans have the brand recognition and are so expensive, but usually do badly in blind tastings against much cheaper alternatives.
That really doesn't surprise me, I find most Heinz products absolutely awful in terms of quality and taste.
Go on, tell us your supermarket own-brand wins then.
For me:
Mayo - Aldi - 95p
Ketchup - M&S - £1
Hot sauce - M&S Naga Chilli sauce - £2
Coffee - Italian ground coffee, own brand. In order of preference: Asda ---> Aldi ---> Sainsbury's ---> M&S
We actually did a proper taste-test of all of the above and found these to be the best.
For me:
Mayo - Aldi - 95p
Ketchup - M&S - £1
Hot sauce - M&S Naga Chilli sauce - £2
Coffee - Italian ground coffee, own brand. In order of preference: Asda ---> Aldi ---> Sainsbury's ---> M&S
We actually did a proper taste-test of all of the above and found these to be the best.