Shrinkflation is out of control

Comments

• betternotbigger@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  There’s this fast food chain fried chicken place called Raising Canes, used to serve massive strips. Now the price is 50% more expensive and 50% less chicken. They’re extremely tiny, never going back again yet all the zombies who love that place relentless spend their money there anyway.

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  • 1ird@notyour.rodeo ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    We tried that recently and I was disappointed. For the price I could just buy my own chicken and cook it and have it for a week.

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  • downpunxx@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Tried them once, succumbing to the hype, they didn't taste like anything at all

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    • betternotbigger@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I think it’s done like that on purpose so that their Canes sauce does a lot of the heavy lifting.

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• silvercove@lemdro.id ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  This is the cost of war.

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  • twei@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    This is the result of company greed

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    • drphungky@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Literally just copy pasting this places now because so many people are still claiming greedflation is a thing. Not trying to spam but links to comments don’t seem to work, and as a literal economist who works on inflation I’m tired of reading political talking points disguised as economic analysis.

      I think everyone should probably listen to this great report from NPR that dissects this issue. The Tl;dr: is greedflation is not really a real thing.

      The deeper answer to your question of, “can one party increase prices in a market?” is sort of basic economics, and the answer is, “Usually, no.” In a competitive market, the answer is no. In a monopolistic market (meaning one company controls most of the market, think like Google with browsers) with no government oversight, the answer is yes. Things get complicated when you add in government regulation or oligopolistic markets (markets where only a few players control the market). In those cases, it depends on how strong government regulations on price-gouging are and any anti-monopoly or anti-anticompetitive practice laws are, and also depends on how oligopolists behave. Sometimes, particularly in industries with few big players, the big players will make the same decisions independently. If they do this cooperating it will usually violate antitrust laws, but if they both decide they’ll be better off say, not paying workers as much, or charging super high markups, them that can happen. A lot of economic research shows that kind of “tacit collusion” happens in real life, like in the oil and gas industries. But other times oligopolies will behave very competitively, only uniting through lobbyist trade groups if at all (think Microsoft and Amazon in cloud software).

      So that’s the facts, but here’s my economic musing: The reason it feels like greedflation is a thing is a combination of factors:

      1. Inflation was very real, and very salient.
      2. Corporations (as mentioned in the NPR piece) crowed about their “record profits” in the short term, and also mention them when they are absolute record profits, not just record profit margins (something not mentioned but very real - a company can make twice as much money but also have spent twice as much, making way “more” money but with identical margins)
      3. In the US at least, we are seeing the highest numbers of industry consolidation and monopolies/oligopolies since the Gilded Age, so it feels like companies should be able to raise their prices if they want to.
      4. Media coverage and online spaces have become extremely polarized, so “corporations bad” is a very easy refrain to find if you’re watching or reading anything remotely left-wing, and it has been parroted by many democratic politicians as well, because it scores cheap and easy political points (also, and this is just my opinion, it helps vilify corps more in the public eye to help get more support for better antitrust legislation and enforcement, the actual end goal. I don’t think senators like Bernie Sanders don’t actually understand what’s going on with profit margins, I think they’re using it to generate political will, but that may be my own bias creeping in).

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  • squiblet@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    If you mean Ru vs Ukraine, the for-profit cost gouging for groceries disguised as 'inflation' began prior to that.

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  • Professional_Human@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    What war?

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    • downpunxx@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      the war of the roses. very costly.

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    • silvercove@lemdro.id ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      the one in Ukraine

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  • jabberati@social.anoxinon.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    @silvercove @NarrativeBear 3% of the US military budget?

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    • silvercove@lemdro.id ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Two of the largest agricultural producers in the world are fighting. Food prices will rise.

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• BorgDrone@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  The bread rolls at the supermarket have gotten so comically small that you can’t even use them to make a proper sandwich anymore.

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• eager_eagle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I paid like $8 for 115g of marinated salmon last week because I wanted to try it, but that is ridiculous.

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• abfarid@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  [deleted]

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  • collin@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yesterday you gave me $10 and I gave you 3 hamburgers. Today you give me $10 and I give you 2 hamburgers but I still keep all 10 of your dollars. I blame it on inflation but in reality I’m just a greedy corporate fuck

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  • Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    200 g vs 255 g, bottom left

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• triclops6@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  2 for the price of 3 is a whopping FIFTY% increase my dude, no frills feeling a lot more like Loblaws arm

  I guess we’re all going vegan at this point

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  • MaxPower@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    going vegan at this point

    Eating vegan is even more expensive.

    If you want to save money, go fruitarian.

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    • jcit878@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      every day I think breatharians are a little less stupid

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    • squiblet@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Why would it be? I can get tofu and beans cheaper than even the subsidized rates of meat and cheese. If you buy processed vegan products, perhaps.

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• inconel@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I always check price/weight, and its increase has been ridiculous. For ones that don’t increase price also taste different, sadly. The best way to detect real value vs. price is look into nutrition tables but I don’t have the all database memorized lol so they’ll get away with it. :/

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• MooseBoys@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’d have more sympathy if this was something like peanut butter or eggs instead of smoked wild salmon.

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• Showroom7561@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Highway robbery.

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