Manufacturers face three choices when prices skyrocket due to rising inflation: either raise the product’s price, take no action, and hope that inflation declines, or reduce the product’s size while maintaining the same price. The point is, if you raise the price of something, your customers will undoubtedly notice.

However, if you just make it smaller and don’t change the price, your buyers probably won’t notice that they are losing money. Most manufacturers aim for number one or number three. Shrinkflation is the phenomenon in which prices remain constant despite product shrinkage. Many businesses take this action because they are aware that raising the price will probably result in fewer sales or complaints from customers. They employ shrinkflation because they know that their customers are likely to be unaware of the size shift and will likely purchase the same quantity even if they don’t notice it. Some instances of shrinkflation are as follows: Recently, Gatorade changed the shape of their bottles to make them smaller while maintaining the same height.

This resulted in a staggering 14% decrease in capacity from 32 to 28 ounces per bottle. From 168 sheets per roll to just 120, the Walmart “Great value” toilet paper rolls are no longer such a fantastic deal, are they? The “mega” pack from Hefty is no longer so huge because there are now 80 trash bags instead of 90. And the list of such instances is just too long.