Skip to content

Shrinkflation

See also: poverty-premium

Resources

Acting head of of prices statistics at the ABS (Leigh Merrington) offers this description

when a product's "quantity (or volume) falls but the price remains the same"

Misc other quotes

"Shrinkflation is common in snacks and confectionary, like chocolate and chips, as well as in breakfast cereals, biscuits, spreads, like jam, and non-food items, such as shampoo and cleaning products," Merrington says

Shrinkflation has become more prevalent over the past couple of years, however we don't have statistics available to say by how much," Merrington says.

Mathematical applications#

  • Calculating

Percentages#

ABS article demonstrates using the notion of observed and adjusted price to track the impact of quality changes on the CPI. Following table demonstrates for soft drink

Period 1 Period 2 Period 3
Volume 750ml 750ml 675ml
Observed price $3.00 $3.00 $3.00
Adjusted price $3.00 $3.00 $3.30
Observed movement 0.0% 0.0%
Adjusted movement 0.0% 10.0%