Reducing quantities without reducing prices in supermarkets, here is the miracle recipe for food industry professionals to (discreetly) pass on the increase in the costs of raw materials.
This is called "shrinkflation", "shrink" to shrink in English.
To discover
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This inflation, disguised, is complicated to reveal in broad daylight: “
It is very difficult to catch manufacturers in the act because you have to find the same product before / after in the same store at the same time. In the past two years, we have successfully identified two cases of shrinkflation. Our weapon? The name and shame on social networks. Another obstacle, manufacturers and distributors are passing the buck. We are facing a very opaque industry. We therefore have few supporting figures
», Explains Camille Dorioz, campaign manager at the NGO Foodwatch.
Especially since “shrinkflation” is not illegal, as long as the labeling is compliant.
Note that alcohol is the only good whose concentration per unit is strictly regulated.
To avoid disappointments, it is better to monitor prices per kilogram, a parameter that many consumers are already scrutinizing, and be wary of packaging changes.
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Camille Dorioz goes so far as to mention “
one of the most devious practices of marketing because it consists in waiting for a product to be well anchored in the consumer's cart to degrade the quality and / or play on the quantity, step by step.
The process can take 3-5 years.
Buyers are then less attentive
”.
Strategy assumed
“
90% of the products consumed in Europe are imported.
And when you know that bringing a 40-foot container from Asia costs four times more than 18 months ago, around $ 15,000, the bill is steep.
From there to ascribing the 'shrinkflation' to a short-termist response from industrialists or to a long-term strategy, difficult to say
”, comments Arthur Barillas, CEO of Ovrsea.
The debate is therefore far from settled.
What is certain is that the temptation is growing.
It must be said that the room for maneuver of these heavyweights is thin: between rising sales and rising prices, the border is often thin.
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Contacted by
Le Figaro
, the agri-food unions did not wish to follow up. Brands either. Nor the specialized research companies, which do not have the data. This shows how difficult the phenomenon is, far from achieving consensus from a scientific point of view. Take the example of Coca-Cola. Its net billing level, which has fluctuated between $ 33 billion and $ 37 billion since 2017 according to Statista, appears to have reached a high plateau. The multinational firm is now relying on the packaging of its precious nectar. It offers glass bottles and aluminum cans with a neat design but with a limited capacity (25 and not 33 centilitres).
But consumers are not fooled by these somewhat dubious commercial practices, and benefit from the harmful power of social networks. On Reddit, they notably see a reduction in the size of the Pringles cookie or the Dove shower bar.
In September 2020, they had already rebelled against an overflow of ... void. Indeed, who has never been disillusioned, even annoyed, by opening a packet of crisps, well inflated, but half full? “
Shrinkflation can create a full vacuum, but the reverse is not necessarily true. However, we must not castigate all industrialists
.
At the time, some tried to justify themselves,
”adds Camille Dorioz. This investigation, initiated by Foodwatch, had pilloried certain references, in particular a package of cereals from Carrefour. “
Carrefour called us two hours after going online. They have since reduced the size of their packaging, aware of the paradox of such a practice with their CSR policy.
[Corporate Social Responsibility] ".
