Cost of Living - Shrinkflation is speeding up at an alarming rate

Rai200's comments about pro kitchen cleaning were interesting ..

if you get chicken pieces from Waitrose, anyway,there is some liquid in the packaging ... and if you want to pan fry them (none of this air fryer malarchy)
you want them patted dry after a quick rinse, before seasoning and olive oiling.

Shocked to see 1L of olive in aldi now £5.22, on saturday - they'll be tagging it soon.
 
I remember a amazon (morissons) frozen delivery once which was wrapped in ice, was picked about 3-4 hours before came to me, the ice bags were water when arrived and the contents was well past defrosting. So that experience puts me off, considering these are not 4 hours but actually 24 hour deliveries, and they even have a FAQ telling you to ignore soggy boxes and what not.

I will probably try them before Christmas, just am wary.
Why? This is great. They are 99% of the time fine, and the odd time they are iffy (I mean I guess they were still super cold), you can get the whole shop refunded.
 
Brought some fresh meat today and seems a new trick.

Of course its the old keep the packaging the same size and reduce the contents, however there is a label going around the middle of the packaging so you can see both ends but not the middle part, one end has the contents filled up to the top, the other end is empty, however if I examine whats going on in the middle, it slopes down, its not an equal height. So under the label its sloping. Based on this I would say its filling maybe 40% or so of the packaging and not 2/3 as they have presented it, crafty.

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Brought some fresh meat today and seems a new trick.

Of course its the old keep the packaging the same size and reduce the contents, however there is a label going around the middle of the packaging so you can see both ends but not the middle part, one end has the contents filled up to the top, the other end is empty, however if I examine whats going on in the middle, it slopes down, its not an equal height. So under the label its sloping. Based on this I would say its filling maybe 40% or so of the packaging and not 2/3 as they have presented it, crafty.

V3QeDSu.png
Do you not buy by weight, rather than eyeballing?
 
Maybe - new cma report seems ambiguous : branded products apparently contributed to inflation, though they increased prices to compensate for lower market share & costs - seems tenuous conclusion

Across the food and groceries sector, the CMA found that high inflation has been driven largely by rising input costs, particularly for energy and key agricultural inputs like fertiliser. But the evidence collected by the CMA indicates that, over the last 2 years, around three-quarters of branded suppliers in products such as infant formula, baked beans, mayonnaise, and pet food have increased their unit profitability and, in doing so, have contributed to higher food price inflation.

However, own label products often provide cheaper alternatives with suppliers of these products earning lower profit margins and competing to win and retain contracts from retailers. In all but one of the relevant product categories the CMA looked at, as food prices have risen, many consumers have switched away from brands towards own label alternatives, or reduced their consumption, leading to a decline in brands’ market shares and profits. This switching is positive for competition and allows those able to switch, to lessen the impact of high food price inflation.
Baked beans is a high margin product category which has seen rising
prices and unit profitability since 2021, but in which declining volumes
have reduced absolute profits for brands
A.7 Branded and own-label baked beans manufacturers have increased prices to
retailers significantly in recent years. All manufacturers have increased prices by a
similar amount in recent years - by around 10% between 2018 and 2021, and by
20 to 40% between 2021 and 2022.
A.8 This has in part been driven by significant input cost inflation, in particular higher
costs of packaging (primarily metal for tins); food ingredients (eg beans, starch,
tomatoes); and manufacturing (especially energy) as explained in section 2.
A.9 However, per unit, prices have risen by more than production costs, leading to
increases in unit profitability (profit per kg or unit).7 One manufacturer told us that
increasing unit profitability offset increases in other costs including wages and
interest payments. For some manufacturers, profitability increased as a
percentage of revenue in 2022, and for others it declined. Both branded and ownlabel manufacturers remained broadly within normal ranges of net profitability
when compared with recent performance.
A.10 Branded manufacturers of baked beans have had declining profits or subinflationary profit growth since 2021. Own-label beans manufactures have
increased profits, although for some manufacturers this represented a recovery
from a low in 2021 to levels more consistent with pre-Covid averages.



[
CMA still need to investigate the UK supermarket supply lines
(fixed priced contracts, that screwed over egg/dairy producers under Ukraine/covid/bird-flu vs european supermarkets)
]
 
Fixed price contracts are normal. Fixed price contracts give both parties certainty on future income/cost. If a supplier doesn’t price in risk or gets their risk calculations wrong, that’s on them.

Sometimes things happen that people realistically can’t foresee but that’s the risk you take when you run a business. Realistically, buyers are not going to want their own suppliers to go bust, that will ultimately cost them more in the long run than renegotiating the contract with the supplier.

As much as fixed prices contracts are fixed, they can be renegotiated and often do when things change. Both parties should have break clauses in the contract.
 
Baked beans is a high margin product category which has seen rising
prices and unit profitability since 2021, but in which declining volumes
have reduced absolute profits for brands


Need to look out for these baked beans made with british beans - perhaps branston will put a patriotic UK flag on the tin - should give Heinz a kick.


The beans were tinned — in a tomatoey sauce — by Princes, the company behind Branston Baked Beans, with a dozen cans produced in a trial run. Andrew Ward, the Lincolnshire farmer who grew them, said: “It’s the first commercial-scale planting of a variety of haricot beans that could end up in a can on everybody’s supper table.

“At the moment we don’t have any beans that are grown here that are suitable for baked beans, our climate isn’t right for producing this type of bean.”

The gastronomic milestone marks the culmination of 13 years of research. The plants that produce baked beans do not thrive in the relatively cold and damp British climate. Most of what we eat is grown in the United States and Canada, with other imports coming from as far afield as Ethiopia, China and South America.
 
can't believe pubs may be getting rid of large glasses of red wine .... apparently for our benefit.

of course it just happens that it's the large glasses which are cheaper per ml so it's stealth price increases.

luckily I don't drink wine so there is that. (just don't touch my pints!)
 
can't believe pubs may be getting rid of large glasses of red wine .... apparently for our benefit.

of course it just happens that it's the large glasses which are cheaper per ml so it's stealth price increases.

luckily I don't drink wine so there is that. (just don't touch my pints!)

Yeah pints will be next. They will be halved to half-pints but the price will most certainly be more than half, so what used to be £4 for a pint will be £2.50 for a half. All in the pretence of improving our health. 440ml cans for £3.60 will become 330ml and will still cost £3.60.
 
I am not one for chocolate, but used to be. I bought a Mars bar the other day and was absolutely horrified! Firstly, it was disgustingly sweet, but apart from that it was absolutely tiny. So much thinner than it used to be.
There are so many products they are just wrecking with shrinkflation. Colman's is another one that it's simply not worth buying their products because mostly what you are paying for is a glass bottle. It's so tiny there is one or two portions in it and that's your lot.
Certainly, I have noticed a reduction in quality too. Less expensive ingredients in products. It's insane. I would rather they stay the same and they increase the cost instead of this..
 
Now affecting tea bags and crisps, although crisps isn't a new one as I remember Walkers sneakily reduced their standard bag size from 34.5g to 32.5g about 10 years ago.

The flipside of this is how many places just sell “grab bags” as the only individually packaged product. They are notionally for sharing but I doubt they ever are - no wonder we’re a nation of people with obesity.
can't believe pubs may be getting rid of large glasses of red wine .... apparently for our benefit.

of course it just happens that it's the large glasses which are cheaper per ml so it's stealth price increases.

luckily I don't drink wine so there is that. (just don't touch my pints!)
I was under the impression most places charged proportional to the volume, same as with beer. My local doesn’t have prices on its online menu so I can’t check. Do we have any bar managers lurking?!
 
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