The more things change, the more they stay the same. I authored this comic way back in 2009 and many years later it seems more relevant than ever. There are normally three ways of addressing inflation; the first is to say it’s only temporary; the second is to adjust the measurement of it; the third is by means of shrinkflation. In this comic, the Boss explains inflation to Neatstep. Below, I discuss the curse of shrinkflation!
To begin with, who would have guessed that we have inflation? The experts apparently didn’t or pretended they didn’t! Of course, idiots like me notice little things like that. What’s more noticeable and what is more annoying than pesky “inflation” is sneaky “shrinkflation”. That’s when you buy a large container of something only to discover the contents are half the previous amount.
Some kinds of “shrinkflation” are immediately obvious and some are not. The silliest example I experienced was when I bought a packet of metal screws that used to contain 12 and now only contained 11. I won’t comment further on the implications of that. Then, of course, there are the bars of chocolate which get smaller and thinner over time. More recently, my favorite packet of cookies, which was designed for 10 cookies in each row, now contained only 7. That is shrinkflation with a vengeance!
So how does one combat the curse of shrinkflation? On the positive side, there are some benefits. One tends to eat fewer cookies and less chocolate, which is probably a good thing. It’s also an opportunity to try other products – ones which are hopefully larger and less expensive. Instead of buyer’s remorse, that is the ultimate buyer’s revenge!
Meanwhile, I hope nobody has noticed that this blog is getting smaller!