The Great 'shrinking food and other items' Hunt

just-a-consumer

elsien said:

Short answer - yes they do.
Long answer is in the ONS guidance. 

Thank you.  I did look for such guidance before posting here.  If you can provide a link I would much appreciate it. 

arnoldy

cymruchris said:

 cut the amount of butter within (as it's a blend). If the fat per 100g is lower then there's definitely less butter in that butter. It'd be interesting to see the 'ingredients panel' for both. 

Hopefully people are aware that these "Scandi-pak spreadable" (and clones) are butter mixed with a lot water and cheap(er) vegetable oil. More expensive than butter, which when kept in a butter dish would be just as spreadable.

elsien

just-a-consumer said:

elsien said:

Short answer - yes they do.
Long answer is in the ONS guidance. 

Thank you.  I did look for such guidance before posting here.  If you can provide a link I would much appreciate it. 

7.Quality change

It is important that the index calculations are based on like-for-like comparisons, of prices each month for each of the items in the basket.

However, some brands or varieties of particular products priced at the start of the year may not be available in later months. This is common in markets where the rate of technological progress is high, as is the case with many electronic goods, or where consumer tastes change rapidly, for example, in clothing.

When particular products do disappear from the market, care is taken to ensure that replacements are of broadly comparable quality so that price comparisons are not distorted. If this is not possible, prices are adjusted to take account of the change in quality, using one of a range of techniques, from fairly simple methods, to procedures that relate the prices of goods to their features.

Explicit adjustments are made, for example, in the case of personal computers, where most replacement models are of higher quality than their predecessors. A rise in price might be accompanied by improvements in processing speed, for example. In this case, an index that did not take account of improved quality would show higher inflation than an index that does adjust for quality change.

A simpler example occurs where a manufacturer changes the size or weight of a product. For example, this has happened with the size of some confectionery products being reduced. Not adjusting for this change would result in an index showing lower inflation than an index that is adjusted for the change.

In this way, quality adjustment helps to focus the index on “underlying” price changes for a fixed basket of goods and services.

Consumer price indices, a brief guide - Office for National Statistics

The guide is from 2017 but was linked to from the 2023 link so I presume is still relevant. There's probably more detail in the tables and appendices but that's as far as I was interested in looking. 

Consumer price inflation, UK - Office for National Statistics

dealyboy

Hi @just-a-consumer ...

I thought this was a really interesting question with an accomplished answer by @elsien, the only thing is where is the picture of you with the raised eyebrow? 

just-a-consumer

Thank you @elsien for providing the detail and link.  Of course, retailers will know which products are in the National Shopping Basket and which they can ‘manipulate’ with to much bother.  If only they were so keen to advertise “Weight Drop” as avidly as they are to promote “Price Drop”😉🤣

just-a-consumer

dealyboy said:

Hi @just-a-consumer ...

I thought this was a really interesting question with an accomplished answer by @elsien, the only thing is where is the picture of you with the raised eyebrow? 

Thanks, but I’m not really that photogenic so you’ll have to make do with this… 🤨

MSE_Laura_F

Really interesting, thanks @just-a-consumer , @elsien and all. I've merged the posts with this ongoing 'shrinking food hunt' thread.

maman

just-a-consumer said:

Thank you @elsien for providing the detail and link.  Of course, retailers will know which products are in the National Shopping Basket and which they can ‘manipulate’ with to much bother.  If only they were so keen to advertise “Weight Drop” as avidly as they are to promote “Price Drop”😉🤣

You're probably right that retailers play the system but even the weight drop items in the basket helps to explain why food inflation is higher than the average. 

harrietliberty

Tesco choc ices - over the last year they have gone from 10 for £1 to 8 for £1 to 6 for £1 and now 6 for £1.40. I buy these every week so keep an eye on the price

jonny7227

Whiskas cat food pouches were 100g but have recently shrunk to 85g and the price has soared.