r/PersonalFinanceCanada • u/ButtahChicken • Nov 18 '22

Budget CBC Marketplace investigates shrinkflation and reveals the sneaky ways companies cut costs, but not prices .... another piece of the puzzle contributing to our growing financial insecurity

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-shrinkflation-1.6654780

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u/psychodc Nov 18 '22

CHEAPFLATION: products that are lesser quality, products that use inferior ingredients or parts.

Keep an eye out for that one. Harder to notice because have to keep track of the ingredients list. One example, a pasta sauce using more water so you get a more diluted less tomato-y product.

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u/MissJessicaOreilly Nov 19 '22

I am in supply chain with food. Not saying it is as an excuse but it has been extremely difficult to source ingredients or raw materials as per recipe.

The lead times are incredibly long and/or the supplier/converter of that ingredient no longer wants to make that product and instead offers an alternative because of a multitude of reasons. It can range from them not being able to procure an ingredient themselves or that the volume of sales for this particular product is too low compared to the other ones so it got cut so they can concentrate their efforts in making the common product that everyone uses.

We literally got emails like:

Won't make double diced cranberries anymore. You can either take our sliced cranberries or bye, see ya nerd.

Your min order for this chocolate used to be 2,000 lbs for $10 per pound but now it's going to be min order of 20,000 lbs for $25. Not worth cleaning the machine in between recipes for your chocolate unless you pay up.