Watch Out For “Shrinkflation” In These Washington Stores

President Biden took to X, formerly known as Twitter on Super Bowl Sunday to blame the practice of "Shrinkflation" on greedy consumer product manufacturers and retailers for offering smaller sized items for the same or higher prices.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA.) has put out a report that claims common grocery and household items decreased in size between 2019 and 2023 and the price per unit increased 20%.

The shrinkflation is more prevalent at retailers like Dollar Tree and Dollar General according to Forbes which reports many of it's shoppers are hyper sensitive to price hikes.  As a result, the dollar stores will demand a smaller sized product from manufacturers so they can hold the line on prices they charge customers.  After all, they are "dollar stores" although Dollar Tree prices were increased to $1.25 in 2023 and some items are priced at $5.

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For many dollar store shoppers, it is their only option for many purchases.  A recent government survey has shown 75% of US consumers are concerned with shrinkflation.

While dollar stores are trying to hold a price point by having manufacturers provide smaller quantities in their packaging, that does not explain the underlying reasons why the product costs more in the first place, like transportation and shipping costs.

And the dollar store retailers are doing well in light of the shrinkflation environment  according to a report by Forbes cited in Supermarket News  Both Dollar General and Dollar Tree had profit margins of around 31.5% in 2023, which is 7% higher than Walmart and 10% more than Kroger.