This guy over at Mastodon conducted his own research about supermarket prices in Austria.
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@badlogic/111071396799790275
That’s some damning shit.
I can only imagine the shit going on in the US.
What this guy found in Austria is actually illegal under EU consumer protection law.
Misleading price reduction claims
Price reduction claims such as “was € 50, now € 25” can be misleading if the initial selling price (known as “anchor price”) has been inflated. In all EU countries traders are obliged, when offering a discount, to indicate the lowest price applied to the item at least 30 days before the announcement of the price reduction. This information allows you as a consumer to assess whether the discount is genuine or not.
Also, in the EU price tags in stores must also tell the price per standard unit of measurement, so you can compare different products regardless of package size.
You still need to notice the increase, hence Carrefour’s warning.
That’s extremely nice to have. I whish that this would apply to all product categories. Sometimes products from the same category are of different measurement units. E.g., one is in liter and one is in grams.
We’re so fucked.
How long until the Académie Française issues a “correct” French neologism to replace “shrinkflation”, the way they decreed, i.e., that email should be called “courriel”?
Don’t expect the Académie to act fast, act properly, or even act. Anyway, it’s already here, réduflation, from Québec. https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Réduflation
That’s a good translation
It was l’Office québécois de la langue française (https://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca) who decreed email should be courriel.
If memory serves, “courriel” was actually French Canadian (and I actually find it a smart translation). The Académie Française suggested “mél” at the time, which means even less of a thing and only sounds roughly close to “mail”.
I have nothing good to say about the Académie, but, to be fair, “mél” is meant as abbreviation. Like, for business cards or email signatures, where stuff like “Tél.” was written. Still ridiculously bad.
I suggest réducflation
It’s already here, réduflation, from Québec too. https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Réduflation
French supermarket Carrefour has put stickers on its shelves this week warning shoppers of “shrinkflation” - where packet contents are getting smaller while prices are not.
made by food giants including Nestle, PepsiCo and Unilever
Whaaaat? Big corporations with monopoly like positions do shady shit? No way! Our rules around capitalism work so well! /s
This is the best summary I could come up with:
French supermarket Carrefour has put stickers on its shelves this week warning shoppers of “shrinkflation” - where packet contents are getting smaller while prices are not.
“Obviously, the aim in stigmatising these products is to be able to tell manufacturers to rethink their pricing policy,” said Stefen Bompais, director of client communications at Carrefour.
Carrefour has identified 26 products that have shrunk, without a price reduction to match, made by food giants including Nestle, PepsiCo and Unilever.
In June, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire summoned 75 retailers and consumer groups to a meeting about prices, and has accused manufacturers of not toeing the line on inflation.
Supermarkets use the same “shrinkflation” tactic with their own-label products, he added, aiming to keep to a certain price point, for example £1, by introducing cheaper ingredients, or making portions smaller to manage rising costs.
A spokesperson for Lindt & Sprüngli, another brand identified by Carrefour for shrinking its products, said its prices had gone up on average by about 9.3% in line with rising raw material costs.
The original article contains 500 words, the summary contains 175 words. Saved 65%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
You love to see it.
