Deceptive packages flood the market: Customers pay a lot more - "The highlight is yet to come"

Created: 08/24/2022, 04:45 am

More and more deceptive packs can be found on supermarket shelves.

© imageBROKER/Stephan Schulz via www.imago-images.de

2022 is not a good year for consumers.

Prices continued to rise in the first half of the year.

But the companies are also tricking with more and more deceptive packages.

Hamburg - It's not just the prices when shopping in the supermarket that are rising thanks to inflation, now customers are also being fooled by the packaging.

Because it is quite possible that the familiar pack or even the contents of the pack have shrunk, even if the price is the same as before.

"We are currently experiencing the first wave of such hidden price increases," said Armin Valet, food expert at the Hamburg Consumer Center, the German Press Agency.

"But I think the high point is yet to come."

Consumer Center Hamburg: More and more complaints about deceptive packaging

Valet has been observing for years how manufacturers and retailers use pack sizes to disguise price increases and chooses one deceptive pack of the year every twelve months.

At the moment there are a lot of complaints about tricks like this at the Hamburg consumer center, said Valet.

In 2021, the cheat pack of the year was a paprika sauce.

But why is that: Food prices are currently rising dramatically.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, food and non-alcoholic beverages were 14 percent more expensive in July than a year earlier.

In addition to the increased raw material prices, higher energy costs or additional expenses for logistics as a result of the corona pandemic and the Ukraine war are also having an impact.

Video: This popular product is the "Sham Pack of the Month August"

"Shrinkflation": Manufacturers conceal price increases through smaller packaging

The temptation for manufacturers and dealers to hide the price increase is apparently very great right now.

If the pack shrinks a bit, it's often less noticeable than if the price goes up.

There's even a word for it: "shrinkflation" - a combination of the English word for shrink - and inflation.

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"We will see this more often in the future than in the past," says marketing expert Martin Fassnacht from the WHU business school in Düsseldorf.

The reason: retailers and manufacturers were reluctant to exceed the usual price thresholds, such as 1.99 euros.

"If such a threshold is exceeded, a product suddenly appears significantly more expensive and there is a risk that the sales volume will collapse drastically," says Fassnacht, describing the problem.

The expert certainly understands this practice.

However, he believes that manufacturers should then play their cards openly towards consumers.

"For reasons of fairness, it is important that the manufacturers also reduce the packaging when they reduce quantities." Then they could certainly hope for understanding from consumers.

"Some people may be happy that they don't have to pay more because of the reduction in volume."

Deceptive packs: Haribo reduced the pack for the same price - 12.5 percent less content

But where do these "shrinkage cures" make themselves felt?

Haribo, for example, recently reduced its gold bear bag from 200 to 175 grams. The recommended price of 0.99 cents remained the same - despite 12.5 percent less content.

"As a company, since the beginning of the year we have been confronted with extraordinarily rising costs for high-quality ingredients, but also for foils, packaging materials, cardboard boxes as well as energy and logistics in the high double-digit range," said Haribo, explaining the step.

The company is adjusting packaging sizes and price to remain affordable.

Haribo downsizes its pack at the same price.

© MiS via www.imago-images.de

"It was important to us that we no longer have 'air' in the bag, i.e. keeping the size of the bag, but also making the bag visibly smaller," emphasized a company spokesman.

As a result, the reduction in the filling quantity is clearly recognizable to customers.

Henkel also took a similar approach with its Vernel fabric softener.

"Since we were not able to fully absorb the cost increases in some cases, we decided to partially adjust the filling quantities of our products," the company reported.

The snacks manufacturer Intersnack was also forced to "adjust the filling quantity of the ültje peanuts" due to the increase in costs.

But consumer advocates have also encountered shrinking package contents for jam, margarine, crisps and even frozen pizza in recent weeks.

Rama has also recently downsized its pack at the same price.

More and more deceptive packages on the market: the number has almost doubled

That's not forbidden, admits Valet from the Hamburg consumer advice center.

But the tricks were of course at the expense of the customers.

According to him, it is striking that supermarkets and discounters are increasingly resorting to such hidden price increases for their own brands.

Aldi, Edeka, Rewe and Co. have hardly had this in the past.

According to the Hamburg consumer advice center, the frequency of so-called double price increases on the association's list of deceptive packaging has also increased.

This means products in which not only the filling quantity has been reduced, but the price has also been increased by retailers.

While this has affected an average of 18 percent of the articles recorded in the past two years, it was already around 35 percent in the first half of 2022.

For the time being, consumer advocate Valet does not expect an end to the downsizing of everyday products.

On the contrary: the peak could be yet to come.

He calculates that retailers need about six months in advance to change the labels and sell off the old goods.

"I think that there is still a lot to come." (md with dpa)