alt Hacker NewsShrinkflation is all over. Burger buns at fast food places were more dense 20 years ago. The small burgers had 1/8th pound patties instead of the current 1/10th pound. It's hard to find a product that hasn't gotten worse or more expensive, even adjusted for inflation.
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> It's hard to find a product that hasn't gotten worse or more expensive, even adjusted for inflation.
computers i think are more affordable now than even 20 years ago, in bang for buck
Companies hate raising prices, or more specifically customers hate it when prices are raised so companies don't like to do it. especially in foods. As such the go-to dance to keep up with inflation is to reduce the size while keeping the price the same as long as possible, when this becomes too noticeable the size is returned to original the price is increased and a big 20% more is added to the package. Repeat as needed.
Note that this is the most charitable interpretation where the customer deception is fairly minor(inflation happens, gotta sneak that price increase in there some how) Stuff like deceptive packaging(make it look like there is more than is actually present) punts it into the outright evil category.
Ice cream is 1.5 qt not 1/2 gallon. I don't know what they put into pizza "dough" but it's not real flour.
Everything has been spreadsheeted to death.
I'd be curious to know, with the reduction in size, if calorie density went up.
Because that would fit a lot of people's perception of how food is going: you get less, but what you do get is worse for you.
This is never more apparent than when you start making your own stuff from scratch. The comparison is stark.
Technology in the form of computers, cell phones, and AI have been getting cheaper and better. Access to information is another one but that requires agency to take advantage of and get the benefits. This could be personal health, starting/running your own business, using ai to help create ads for your business, etc.
> It's hard to find a product that hasn't gotten worse or more expensive, even adjusted for inflation.
Hmm. I think it's just as easy to find products that haven't gotten worse or more expensive as it is to find ones that have. For every mars bar, there's a video game.
Its not just shrinkflation for these mars bars. Its sugar tax to reduce obesity
There's also 'Drinkflation', the ABV of beers being reduced. (Maybe it's mostly a UK thing due to the tax system, weaker beer = less tax)
Pretty sad state of things when simple pleasures like beer or chocolate are hit so hard by enshittification.
> Shrinkflation is all over. Burger buns at fast food places were more dense 20 years ago. The small burgers had 1/8th pound patties instead of the current 1/10th pound. It's hard to find a product that hasn't gotten worse or more expensive, even adjusted for inflation.
Isn't capitalism great? The common pattern with everything seems to be large companies degrading size, quality, and features of products in user-hostile ways.
IMHO, we need pretty strict regulation specifying standard product sizes and minimum quality. It would kill shrinkflation and also make alternatives more comparable.
On a related note: I recently listened to this (very good) podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hidden-supply-chai..., https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-25/the-hidde...) that stated pretty bluntly that food in the US is also more expensive and lower quality than food in Europe.
Televisions are clearly an exception to this rule and I would like to know why.
They're a 1/10th of a pound now?! In 2009, I worked at McDonalds and they were definitely 1/8th pound patties! Holy moly.
The burger patties were absolutely not 1/8 pound. I can assure you from experience as a Professional McDonald's Worker in 2003 that those were 10:1 patties then as well. I can also vouch for the same from another major burger chain circa 2001. I'm sure they shrink everything possible, but interestingly they haven't been shaving down the beef quantities for some reason.