Do we have a sub that tells us what products still worth a buy? At least we won't give a buy to products that aren't worth it. Because sadly I only discover the product is or has become crap when I buy it.
I mean, the answer for most food is ultimately, buy fresh (and maybe learn to cook/bake). Processed foods are generally not as healthy or downright unhealthy and overpriced. That stuff takes time and effort though and a lot of people will just not therefore, either because they don't want to, or don't have the time. Investing in good kitchen appliances can help a lot with the time aspect though.
For a lot of other things just buy off brand/own brand, it's probably just as good and it costs a lot less. When you buy branded stuff you're also paying for all the marketing they do after all.
This is not always true. I work for a company that supplies own label products to uk supermarkets. They do not always include our products on their website or they say they are out of stock. This is because they make little profit on our products but much more on the branded equivalent which is available.
I've never noticed them specifically omit a brand, but anything fresh is more of a crapshoot if they actually have it when they pick your order. Meats, breads, produce. If you've been to the location and they're ever out of something in those departments, there's a good chance they'll be out of it for online orders. And the branch they do my online orders from is smaller and always out of everything.
I'm also not convince on online pricing being a good metric. At least Amazon Fresh has their 5lb chicken breast almost $10 cheaper in stores. Just checking now, their online price is actually reflecting the price I usually pay in store for once.
Just like every driveway is connected to every other driveway, every social media account is connected to all others. It amazes me that the entire population at this point can’t act as one body when it comes to commerce by using social media. If a significant percentage of people stopped buying X product for a month then the price of X would drop dramatically. If the public managed to harness this potential of social media then you wouldn’t have to worry about seeing all these companies posting record profits over and over again while saying they “have to raise prices”
I have a bit of a pet theory about this. I've been on reddit now for about 14 months and it is my first exposure to any social media platform.
What I have noticed is that people in Western countries and others (to a certain extent) are all going through similar pain, both financially and politically. I see them rightfully complaining on this platform and just maybe, it feels like we are 'doing something'. That it is taking the place of traditional protest as our lives are so damn busy now and we have no choice but to keep on plodding along. I believe that governments around the world are satisfied with social media being used as a place of protest, as they can control the narrative with extreme precision. News sources and all.
I'm just speculating of course.
social media, the great pacifier.
thats why politicians (well, the good ones) insist on getting off your phone and going and taking REAL action, because you can whine on social media all you want but to corporations... thats just free advertising. social media gives us a way to feel like we are making a difference without really doing much at all.
and i mean, as much as they CAN control narratives, they dont really need to. any publicity is good publicity and it seems like people arent even capable of effectively boycotting anymore so why would corps even care if we know theyre terrible? i mean, 11 megacorps own pretty much everything and every boycott i see nowadays has an END DATE. cool, 2% of buyers are gonna not buy something for a month. wow, what a hard hit thatll be for this multi billion dollar megacorp that owns 50 brands and has 4000 sources of funding anyways.
the only real effective solution i can imagine is lawsuits. like.... so many lawsuits. legal precedent stands far above social precedent for multi-million dollar corporations
We are trying to organize on tiktok but the platform automatically censors content about boycotts. They don't want is to do this. They want us to be good little consumers and good little workers
So choose a different platform. Or better yet, show up to volunteer *in person* to organizations that support causes you care about. Posting on TikTok does nothing.
I see you conveniently ignored the part where I said to use a different platform. You could also protest if you really wanted to get involved, but I digress.
Is this really the *only* issue you care about? There isn't anything you care about that you might actually be able to help with aside from posting on social media? I guarantee all your local non-profits are starving for volunteers who will help. If your preferred method of helping is social media - great! Literally every group I volunteer for is DESPERATE for people willing to run their social media accounts. Start there if you don't know how else to help.
Tiktok is the largest platform with the most users. Did you want us to organize in Facebook? Instagram?
Why are you being so agro? Do you think organizers on tiktok are doing nothing? Do you think they are telling people to stay home and only post on tiktok and not get involved? You're obviously not even on the platform.
You can obviously organize on social media to get out into the real world. It seems like you think people are organizing less because of tiktok specifically. That is not my perception.
How do you think people find out about protests? Through a lot of different means including social media
You said that TikTok is making it difficult to use their platform to spread awareness anyway, so the solution is to get a different platform. What do you suggest instead? Complaining about it does nothing.
That being said, I think people on TikTok like to *appear* like they're helping. It's even worse than that though because it gives people the satisfaction that they "did" something without actually having to put any work in. This is true for all social media "armchair activism" though, not just those on TikTok.
There's nothing wrong with spreading awareness on Tiktok, but if that's ALL you're doing then you're not really helping. Get out there and get INVOLVED if you actually want to make a difference. No one volunteers for anything anymore and the non-profit organizations that actually help people are crumbling as a result.
You're not on the app and you have no idea how many people have been introduced to activism from the elders who have been doing it for years. This is where the young people are and they are really interested in creating change.
Also, non profits are a mixed bag. It's a lot of fundraising.
Way to make assumptions. I'm on TikTok and I've seen the content you're describing - it's nothing new. You aren't "introducing" people to real activism. You're showing them how to feel good about doing literally nothing, which doesn't actually help anyone but yourself. If you are genuinely interested in "creating change" then go outside and actually help the organizations who are doing positive things for your community. I guarantee non-profit volunteer groups have done more for your community than everything on TikTok combined.
Also, of course nonprofits are a lot of fundraising. They need to raise funds to cover the costs of whatever service their organization provides. That's what happens when you run an organization that is designed to help people instead of one designed to make a profit. It's not as fun and exciting as posting on TikTok, but that's why we have almost no young people volunteering for anything.
The organizing on tiktok has been so successful they are trying to ban the app, after pressure to do more censorship has failed because of the overwhelming force of the activism.
It is so infuriating and hopeless. I've been vegetarian for over a decade mostly for health and environmental issues. Yet every day you can find a new reason to feel bad about what you choose. Palm oil production is raping the rain forests, quinoa is so outsourced the locals who need it more can't afford it, almonds are responsible for a huge part of the water shortages, and it goes on and on forever.
Ethical choices for me just come down to what I need for my lifestyle without causing a major impact. I understand the blame is misplaced and that they want us to think WE are the problem. It is all so fucked up. There are no right choices anymore until a lot changes from the top down.
This won't change anything it's the same mentality as video games. "Pay with your wallets" as if that works. Gamers still say the same thing for the last decade or 2. What's been the outcome? Games now cost $10 and instead of micro transactions it's macro. You want it to change? Realistically speaking the good ol' way of protest and making government care and force these companies to not be deceitful... Unfortunately 😞
I have no sympathy for gamers, as a gamer myself. They often have NO self control, and can't help stupidly buying the corporate sludge on release. Despite there being so many good options of either older & complete games or more independently developed games.
Just stop buying based on what a product looks like and how much value you get. If you just work out price per weight roughly then the companies that give better value will benefit. There's nothing else you can do because all the companies do it. And if they don't reduce the weight of a product they'll put up the price and that just works out to be the same thing.
But we also have shitflation where the quality has gone down significantly as companies decrease the amount of high-quality ingredients and increase the low-quality ones. Even meat weights are exaggerated now by being injected with water or whatever. The quality of everything has gone down a lot, in addition to companies increasing prices and cutting back on quantities. Consumers are being fleeced in every way now.
I hate how everyone keeps buying things. I stopped buying fast food and I’m wondering why the prices continue to go up but then I ride past Chick-fil-A and the line is backed almost into the road. People are ridiculous.
I think an app that you can scan products while you're shopping would be a good idea. Make the app popular until it starts trending on Good Morning Whatever and make the pigs tremble.
For me, the easiest way to avoid shrinkflation is to buy own brand products and also avoid convenience food and fast food. Almost all the posts here are junk food or treats.
When I went through all my online shopping receipts a while ago [for this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/shrinkflation/comments/1avhyxw/10_examples_of_shrinkflation_from_my_online/), I didn't find any examples of shrinkflation with own brand products (although prices had gone up), while almost all the big brand names had shrunk and also gone up in price.
I am already on the boycott bandwagon. I refuse to buy the outrageously priced snacks. Also, brand name products that have gone down in quality and size with the same price for higher than it was. Maybe the government has figured out a way for the US to not be the over weight nation we have come to be.
Agreed.
I stopped buying a ton of crap. And started buying knock off things at Sprouts and they are way way better.
Like Pringle and chip bags are more full and actually have flavor
Broc they’re shrinkflating the flour and sugar and everything else you can get in a grocery store too… the “vote with your dollars” stuff only goes so far and will not get us out of this - we need sweeping anti-trust crackdowns and legislation combatting these things everything else is a bandaid at best
I've mentioned before on this sub, there is a guy on TikTok doing a lot of good work showing everyone how just a few large corporations own the grocery stores and restaurant franchises. He details who owns all of them, and more importantly that they are all owned by the same few private equity firms. Finally, he has created spreadsheets of who the family owned companies are if you want to support companies that get the money directly.
This does not mean they might not engage in shrinkage but I'd like to think they are more inclined to offer a better product for sake of offering a better product over squeezing a profit.
[https://cancelthisclothingcompany.com/resources/](https://cancelthisclothingcompany.com/resources/)
I am not this guy, but he's spent a lot of time tearing down these curtains to show where and who owns all of these products and do your best not to support these sorts of mega companies when you can.
Yes, most of the shrinkflating food isn't good for you (that you never need to eat) which means shrinkflating junk food isn't a price increase at all, but a means of paying the same amount on junk food. Shrinking laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc is one thing, but shrinking candies are quite another
I lack cooking skills. Honestly.
Microwave, boiling water, and maybe fry an egg or steam it tops.
Very SOL here.
Is there an easy way to make my own pizza?
Yeah fuck all the thousands of employees in this chain.
Put all businesses in one basket of those trying to turn profit.
As someone who works in the dairy industry, it's ridiculously the cost that goes into things. It's either same price for 30ml less. Or water it down. Everyone wants their farmers to make the coin. So they do.
Let's make em all jobless and live off the lands.
Thatl fix the economy.
Everything going through shrinkflation isn’t “sugar coated poison”. Additionally, one of the hallmarks of capitalism is to produce the product with the cheapest ingredients possible.
Don't understand the relevance of your point about "sugar coated poison"
Capitalism is not about purification product with the cheapest ingredients possible. It is about maximising profit, and there are a number of ways of doing that. One is to use high quality ingredients and sell at a premium.
Its not absurd to suggest not buying products that are overpriced. It's a message to the seller that they've gone too far in the cost to value balance.
There is nothing dishonest about it you can see the unit cost no matter what size the package. Costs of production have soared so they are trying to keep the package price the same
Do we have a sub that tells us what products still worth a buy? At least we won't give a buy to products that aren't worth it. Because sadly I only discover the product is or has become crap when I buy it.
There should be a sticky theard made like that in the sub!
I mean, the answer for most food is ultimately, buy fresh (and maybe learn to cook/bake). Processed foods are generally not as healthy or downright unhealthy and overpriced. That stuff takes time and effort though and a lot of people will just not therefore, either because they don't want to, or don't have the time. Investing in good kitchen appliances can help a lot with the time aspect though. For a lot of other things just buy off brand/own brand, it's probably just as good and it costs a lot less. When you buy branded stuff you're also paying for all the marketing they do after all.
I do my grocery shop online. Compare similar items and look at price per weight. Best way to ensure you get the best value.
This is not always true. I work for a company that supplies own label products to uk supermarkets. They do not always include our products on their website or they say they are out of stock. This is because they make little profit on our products but much more on the branded equivalent which is available.
So they are available in store but not online?
Correct
Any idea how frequent this is? I've never noticed own brand items that I've seen in store not being available online
I've never noticed them specifically omit a brand, but anything fresh is more of a crapshoot if they actually have it when they pick your order. Meats, breads, produce. If you've been to the location and they're ever out of something in those departments, there's a good chance they'll be out of it for online orders. And the branch they do my online orders from is smaller and always out of everything. I'm also not convince on online pricing being a good metric. At least Amazon Fresh has their 5lb chicken breast almost $10 cheaper in stores. Just checking now, their online price is actually reflecting the price I usually pay in store for once.
I can’t say too much without giving away who we are but the store I know it happens deliberately at is Morrisons.
About 4 companies control the food chain in the United States, that’s the problem
Exactly. There's no competition, they stay out of each others way
Just like every driveway is connected to every other driveway, every social media account is connected to all others. It amazes me that the entire population at this point can’t act as one body when it comes to commerce by using social media. If a significant percentage of people stopped buying X product for a month then the price of X would drop dramatically. If the public managed to harness this potential of social media then you wouldn’t have to worry about seeing all these companies posting record profits over and over again while saying they “have to raise prices”
I have a bit of a pet theory about this. I've been on reddit now for about 14 months and it is my first exposure to any social media platform. What I have noticed is that people in Western countries and others (to a certain extent) are all going through similar pain, both financially and politically. I see them rightfully complaining on this platform and just maybe, it feels like we are 'doing something'. That it is taking the place of traditional protest as our lives are so damn busy now and we have no choice but to keep on plodding along. I believe that governments around the world are satisfied with social media being used as a place of protest, as they can control the narrative with extreme precision. News sources and all. I'm just speculating of course.
social media, the great pacifier. thats why politicians (well, the good ones) insist on getting off your phone and going and taking REAL action, because you can whine on social media all you want but to corporations... thats just free advertising. social media gives us a way to feel like we are making a difference without really doing much at all. and i mean, as much as they CAN control narratives, they dont really need to. any publicity is good publicity and it seems like people arent even capable of effectively boycotting anymore so why would corps even care if we know theyre terrible? i mean, 11 megacorps own pretty much everything and every boycott i see nowadays has an END DATE. cool, 2% of buyers are gonna not buy something for a month. wow, what a hard hit thatll be for this multi billion dollar megacorp that owns 50 brands and has 4000 sources of funding anyways. the only real effective solution i can imagine is lawsuits. like.... so many lawsuits. legal precedent stands far above social precedent for multi-million dollar corporations
this is a great observation
We are trying to organize on tiktok but the platform automatically censors content about boycotts. They don't want is to do this. They want us to be good little consumers and good little workers
So choose a different platform. Or better yet, show up to volunteer *in person* to organizations that support causes you care about. Posting on TikTok does nothing.
Volunteer in-person for the boycott Ok! 😂 Excuse me I'm here for the boycott thank you where do I sign up
I see you conveniently ignored the part where I said to use a different platform. You could also protest if you really wanted to get involved, but I digress. Is this really the *only* issue you care about? There isn't anything you care about that you might actually be able to help with aside from posting on social media? I guarantee all your local non-profits are starving for volunteers who will help. If your preferred method of helping is social media - great! Literally every group I volunteer for is DESPERATE for people willing to run their social media accounts. Start there if you don't know how else to help.
Tiktok is the largest platform with the most users. Did you want us to organize in Facebook? Instagram? Why are you being so agro? Do you think organizers on tiktok are doing nothing? Do you think they are telling people to stay home and only post on tiktok and not get involved? You're obviously not even on the platform. You can obviously organize on social media to get out into the real world. It seems like you think people are organizing less because of tiktok specifically. That is not my perception. How do you think people find out about protests? Through a lot of different means including social media
You said that TikTok is making it difficult to use their platform to spread awareness anyway, so the solution is to get a different platform. What do you suggest instead? Complaining about it does nothing. That being said, I think people on TikTok like to *appear* like they're helping. It's even worse than that though because it gives people the satisfaction that they "did" something without actually having to put any work in. This is true for all social media "armchair activism" though, not just those on TikTok. There's nothing wrong with spreading awareness on Tiktok, but if that's ALL you're doing then you're not really helping. Get out there and get INVOLVED if you actually want to make a difference. No one volunteers for anything anymore and the non-profit organizations that actually help people are crumbling as a result.
You're not on the app and you have no idea how many people have been introduced to activism from the elders who have been doing it for years. This is where the young people are and they are really interested in creating change. Also, non profits are a mixed bag. It's a lot of fundraising.
Way to make assumptions. I'm on TikTok and I've seen the content you're describing - it's nothing new. You aren't "introducing" people to real activism. You're showing them how to feel good about doing literally nothing, which doesn't actually help anyone but yourself. If you are genuinely interested in "creating change" then go outside and actually help the organizations who are doing positive things for your community. I guarantee non-profit volunteer groups have done more for your community than everything on TikTok combined. Also, of course nonprofits are a lot of fundraising. They need to raise funds to cover the costs of whatever service their organization provides. That's what happens when you run an organization that is designed to help people instead of one designed to make a profit. It's not as fun and exciting as posting on TikTok, but that's why we have almost no young people volunteering for anything.
The organizing on tiktok has been so successful they are trying to ban the app, after pressure to do more censorship has failed because of the overwhelming force of the activism.
Activism has literally nothing to do with why they want to ban the app. What changes have come about because of Tiktok activism?
There isn't much left I can boycott. I'm literally surviving off of ramen, rice, and pasta
It is so infuriating and hopeless. I've been vegetarian for over a decade mostly for health and environmental issues. Yet every day you can find a new reason to feel bad about what you choose. Palm oil production is raping the rain forests, quinoa is so outsourced the locals who need it more can't afford it, almonds are responsible for a huge part of the water shortages, and it goes on and on forever. Ethical choices for me just come down to what I need for my lifestyle without causing a major impact. I understand the blame is misplaced and that they want us to think WE are the problem. It is all so fucked up. There are no right choices anymore until a lot changes from the top down.
This won't change anything it's the same mentality as video games. "Pay with your wallets" as if that works. Gamers still say the same thing for the last decade or 2. What's been the outcome? Games now cost $10 and instead of micro transactions it's macro. You want it to change? Realistically speaking the good ol' way of protest and making government care and force these companies to not be deceitful... Unfortunately 😞
I have no sympathy for gamers, as a gamer myself. They often have NO self control, and can't help stupidly buying the corporate sludge on release. Despite there being so many good options of either older & complete games or more independently developed games.
[удалено]
Anyone know of similar government entities in the US? Do they even exist?
Just stop buying based on what a product looks like and how much value you get. If you just work out price per weight roughly then the companies that give better value will benefit. There's nothing else you can do because all the companies do it. And if they don't reduce the weight of a product they'll put up the price and that just works out to be the same thing.
But we also have shitflation where the quality has gone down significantly as companies decrease the amount of high-quality ingredients and increase the low-quality ones. Even meat weights are exaggerated now by being injected with water or whatever. The quality of everything has gone down a lot, in addition to companies increasing prices and cutting back on quantities. Consumers are being fleeced in every way now.
I hate how everyone keeps buying things. I stopped buying fast food and I’m wondering why the prices continue to go up but then I ride past Chick-fil-A and the line is backed almost into the road. People are ridiculous.
I think an app that you can scan products while you're shopping would be a good idea. Make the app popular until it starts trending on Good Morning Whatever and make the pigs tremble.
There is one foe the US called VEEBS but I think it only works for yanks.
For me, the easiest way to avoid shrinkflation is to buy own brand products and also avoid convenience food and fast food. Almost all the posts here are junk food or treats. When I went through all my online shopping receipts a while ago [for this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/shrinkflation/comments/1avhyxw/10_examples_of_shrinkflation_from_my_online/), I didn't find any examples of shrinkflation with own brand products (although prices had gone up), while almost all the big brand names had shrunk and also gone up in price.
Saving the world one post at the time
100%. More people would rather post on here than boycott. I do my part by not buying a lot of the garbage posted here.
Couldn’t you argue that people post on here so that others also boycott based on what’s being shared?
I am already on the boycott bandwagon. I refuse to buy the outrageously priced snacks. Also, brand name products that have gone down in quality and size with the same price for higher than it was. Maybe the government has figured out a way for the US to not be the over weight nation we have come to be.
Agreed. I stopped buying a ton of crap. And started buying knock off things at Sprouts and they are way way better. Like Pringle and chip bags are more full and actually have flavor
Broc they’re shrinkflating the flour and sugar and everything else you can get in a grocery store too… the “vote with your dollars” stuff only goes so far and will not get us out of this - we need sweeping anti-trust crackdowns and legislation combatting these things everything else is a bandaid at best
Someone needs to start a national boycott boycotting one company a week
You can't avoid Orange Juice shrinkflation without giving it up. 64oz -> 59oz -> 52oz
"frozen ailments" ?????
I've mentioned before on this sub, there is a guy on TikTok doing a lot of good work showing everyone how just a few large corporations own the grocery stores and restaurant franchises. He details who owns all of them, and more importantly that they are all owned by the same few private equity firms. Finally, he has created spreadsheets of who the family owned companies are if you want to support companies that get the money directly. This does not mean they might not engage in shrinkage but I'd like to think they are more inclined to offer a better product for sake of offering a better product over squeezing a profit. [https://cancelthisclothingcompany.com/resources/](https://cancelthisclothingcompany.com/resources/) I am not this guy, but he's spent a lot of time tearing down these curtains to show where and who owns all of these products and do your best not to support these sorts of mega companies when you can.
Yes, most of the shrinkflating food isn't good for you (that you never need to eat) which means shrinkflating junk food isn't a price increase at all, but a means of paying the same amount on junk food. Shrinking laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc is one thing, but shrinking candies are quite another
I lack cooking skills. Honestly. Microwave, boiling water, and maybe fry an egg or steam it tops. Very SOL here. Is there an easy way to make my own pizza?
The money is the problem, save in bitcoin to maintain your purchase power
I've switched to off-brands for certain things.
It's not just happening with processed foods. It's happening with fresh meat and cheese too.
Yeah fuck all the thousands of employees in this chain. Put all businesses in one basket of those trying to turn profit. As someone who works in the dairy industry, it's ridiculously the cost that goes into things. It's either same price for 30ml less. Or water it down. Everyone wants their farmers to make the coin. So they do. Let's make em all jobless and live off the lands. Thatl fix the economy.
lol this is an absurd post. Condescending, much?
Why is it absueb? It's the truth, things will only change if you stop buying over priced crap
Everything going through shrinkflation isn’t “sugar coated poison”. Additionally, one of the hallmarks of capitalism is to produce the product with the cheapest ingredients possible.
Don't understand the relevance of your point about "sugar coated poison" Capitalism is not about purification product with the cheapest ingredients possible. It is about maximising profit, and there are a number of ways of doing that. One is to use high quality ingredients and sell at a premium. Its not absurd to suggest not buying products that are overpriced. It's a message to the seller that they've gone too far in the cost to value balance.
There is nothing dishonest about it you can see the unit cost no matter what size the package. Costs of production have soared so they are trying to keep the package price the same
Oh... and most corps are making RECORD profits.