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somat | on: Mars Bar from 1991 found – and it's 20g bigger than today's
Companies hate raising prices, or more specifically customers hate it when prices are raised so companies don't like to do it. especially in foods. As such the go-to dance to keep up with inflation is to reduce the size while keeping the price the same as long as possible, when this becomes too noticeable the size is returned to original the price is increased and a big 20% more is added to the package. Repeat as needed.

Note that this is the most charitable interpretation where the customer deception is fairly minor(inflation happens, gotta sneak that price increase in there some how) Stuff like deceptive packaging(make it look like there is more than is actually present) punts it into the outright evil category.

Night_Thastus | parent | next
Yep. People blame companies, but ultimately they are doing what the customer 'wants'. Same with things like separate fees for credit cards, or shipping. Customers don't like seeing an extra fee, so companies roll it all together - even if it often means they end up paying more in the long run.
8note | root | parent | next
the customer doesnt want higher prices or smaller items. This is a dirty trick to try and make customers not notice that the quality is worse

ultimately the company is taking part in the government's goal to keep a certain level of inflation, rather than just its own desire to screw customers and make the number go up. If the government wasnt in on it, there would be regulations around shrinkflation

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klabb3 | root | parent | next
I believe that in all of EU you can just look at the ”comparison price” which is per-weight and listed below the normal price. It’s also very useful for quickly comparing similar products directly in-store. It’s a great piece of no-nonsense regulation that counters a lot of the deception, and instead favors competition on the price-quality axis, ie healthy market dynamics.
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keybored | root | parent
Call it blame, call it something else, but they are in the end changing the product while hiding it. I get these emails sometimes, probably because of regulations:

- We are changing the price from X to Y. [tirade about rising prices]

Maybe they should hang this in the restaurant:

- The THING is now smaller than January 2026. [And it’s your fault. You misers don’t want higher prices? Well have you heard of the Central Bank? ...]

That last part is optional.

The consumer is the last part in the value chain of cow to beef patty so of course he or she just has himself or herself to blame.

28304283409234 | parent
I also note you completely forgot about the other strategy: taking the losses out of the ludicrous profits.
bell-cot | root | parent
Corporations are made out of humans. They're about as eager to cut their own profits as human workers are to reduce their own wages.
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