Regardless of who or what is to blame, Canadians are feeling 'worn down' when it comes to covering costs for essentials<\/p>\n
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There are a lot of angry shoppers wandering the aisles of Canada\u2019s grocery stores, turned off by shrinkflation and brands that they think are unfairly using inflation to justify price increases, according to a new survey by marketing company UAB Omnisend.<\/p>\n
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Omnisend said 72 per cent of respondents said shrinkflation \u2014 the practice of reducing the size of a product but charging the same price \u2014 was especially evident in groceries, while 92 per cent said they had noticed instances of shrinkflation.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsumers understand that costs change, but they want those changes to make sense,\u201d Marty Bauer, an e-commerce expert at Omnisend, said in the report. \u201cShrinkflation creates the opposite impression: that a company is hoping customers will pay the same and notice less. In many cases, it can definitely feel like an insult.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Almost 90 per cent of respondents said they think brands are using inflation as a crutch to \u201cunnecessarily\u201d hike prices, changing how they view products they used to trust and causing around a third to stop buying go-to names.<\/p>\n
Shrinkflation reared its head during the worst of the recent inflation crisis when Canada\u2019s consumer price index accelerated to 8.1 per cent in mid-2022, forcing the Bank of Canada to hike interest rates.<\/p>\n
Retail analyst Bruce Winder said consumer packaged goods companies used shrinkflation to try to protect margins and price points for their products.<\/p>\n