The incredible shrinking shopping baskets

Soundsuper

Story from the BBC website - (sorry can't post full url, so please insert www. in usual fashion)
bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13725050

I have just sent this email to Innocent Smoothie drinks -

I was in our local Sainsbury’s where I normally buy your 1L drinks which my family love. I was taken aback by a store ‘NEW’ sign with your drinks but with no explanation as to what was new until I realised that the products were 25% smaller for the same price I had paid a couple of weeks ago! I see this sort of undercover scam to try and fool the consumer all over the supermarket from soap to chocolate and is really a poor show. Just be honest – say how much your raw materials have gone up and try and source more local product. It’s going to happen one day…..

Soundsuper

DCFC79

Soundsuper wrote: »

Story from the BBC website - (sorry can't post full url, so please insert www. in usual fashion)
bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13725050

I have just sent this email to Innocent Smoothie drinks -

I was in our local Sainsbury’s where I normally buy your 1L drinks which my family love. I was taken aback by a store ‘NEW’ sign with your drinks but with no explanation as to what was new until I realised that the products were 25% smaller for the same price I had paid a couple of weeks ago! I see this sort of undercover scam to try and fool the consumer all over the supermarket from soap to chocolate and is really a poor show. Just be honest – say how much your raw materials have gone up and try and source more local product. It’s going to happen one day…..

Soundsuper

you know theres a recession(or there was) on so companies are having to make savings,

this has already ben mentioned about smaller packs/bottles and the price staying the same,

the firms are able to do it as its they're product, would you rather they make staff redundant because they never made things smaller which cost more to make than last year or 2 years ago

Middy

Customers will notice a 5% increase in price more than a 5% decrease in the size of the product.

madpiano

The problem is, the products are decreasing by 20-30%, not 5%. So they effectively become 25% more expensive (average), not 5%.
And if your shampoo/toothpaste/soap is smaller, you will have to buy it more often. Probably not so noticeable with chocolate (and might not be so bad for your waistline if it is smaller, but a pain in the neck if you buy it for cooking/baking).
One thing a lot of people have questioned on the BBC website is how it affects the consumer price index. Do they take this into account? Is the shopping basket calculated by price/gram or by product? If they take it into account, I really don't understand how it keeps saying inflation is at 5% when everything I buy seems to be 20-300% more expensive (Tesco Value products have tripled over the last 4 weeks)