This week I have encountered what appear to be inflation and shrinkflation. I’m curious what others have encountered recently.
Inflation:
We finished a package of what we call emergency bakeable bread. The package contains 4 individually wrapped baguettes for a price of 1.95 (the sale price is on the package). The same exact brand and size of bread is on sale this week at Coop. 4 baguettes now cost 2.10. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but percentage-wise it is a hefty price hike.
Shrinkflation and inflation together?
I use the nasal spray “neo spirig” once in a while. The bottle I just finished contained 15 ml. The new bottle I just purchased contains 10 ml. The price seemed a bit higher too. A search online shows someone complained about the same thing several months ago on Reddit. According to that post, the old price was 6.85/15 ml. The new price is 8.20/10 ml, which is what I paid.
We keep hearing that Switzerland has 0.0% inflation. So what’s really behind the higher prices and shrinking packages?
So the normal price for 4 baguettes was Fr. 1.95 and now the on-sale price for the same amount is Fr. 2.10, did I get that right?
I started to wonder about these “Aktionen” myself lately. And for example I noticed one for ice-cream at Migros where they offer me 2 boxes at 4 pieces each for a very strange price when a box normally contains 6 pieces. To be honest I am now waiting for the normal price to come back, having made a print screen of the “offer”. I will report when I get results
Your neo spirig example seems to be a in-shrink-flation. Efficiency at the wrong place imo.
Not much we can do against general shrinkflation I suspect but fake “on-offers” should be publicly named and shamed. I only buy stuff on offer which I buy on daily basis anyway - so why not “on Aktion” but I often wondered lately when I heard adverts about 40%-offer - 40% of what?? Of who elses price?? I mean they can tell us anything, right?
I understood it to mean that the previous time she bought them they were on offer for 1.95 and now they’re on offer again for 2.10.
Either the % reduction is less or the base price has increased.
The ‘shrinkflation’ was known already more than 25 years ago… that was one of the campaigns that I was in charge of, for a HDL product – same secondary packaging, but smaller primary packaging, with a 10% product content reduction, for the same price…PMR showed that >90% of the consumers would not notice it…
I don’t think either of those is correct. Neither “sale price” nor “on sale for chf1.95” imply a special offer, so I think it’s just the normal selling price she’s talking about.
Just one of those oddities of English, using the exact same word to refer to goods on sale and Goods On Sale! Context is all.
I was on holiday in Como for 8 days in June and it was noticeable prices were higher in Italy. At the moment I’m in Scotland and am stunned by how cheap everything is
Sorry, I wasn’t very clear. What Belgianmum says is what I meant. The last time we bought the baguettes, they were on “sale” as buy one get one free - so 2x2 = 4 baguettes for 1.95. Now they’re on “sale” as buy one get one free - 4 for 2.10.
You’re not alone in being skeptical of some of these so-called offers. I can’t recall whether it was ktipp, blick or 20min that did some kind of investigation and found that certain things had never been priced at the supposed price before discount. I’ll see if I can find it again.
Wow, so they prefer to throw it away now! They can not even donate it anymore after the expiring date (although we all heard that Coop doesn’t mind just relabelling it and put it back as fresh).
Coop has the better produce around here, and when they put the 50% off stickers on everything one can get a fair amount of food for not much money. Also, they take 50% off any discounted/sale price. The Migros by us only takes 50% off the original price.
The rules changed recently, this year or last if memory serves. Now it’s something like: the base price the sale is based off of must have been in place for at least 30 days and the sale can’t be for more than half the duration the base price was in force. Something along those lines.
Produce offered for 50% isn’t fresh, it needs to go and you’re bound to incur significantly more waste.
Looks like you’re falling victim to the rebating strategy. I’d rather pay 50% from the get-go than “profit” from a 50% rebate off an inflated base price that may well be more than double of what’s fair. See axa’s complaint on minced beef above and Lidl/Aldi’s current prices.
Not really. When I’m talking about 50% off, I’m talking about the stickers that they put on the last day they can sell a fresh food item. The stickers go on within a few hours of closing time. We buy a lot of fresh meats/poultry that way and freeze it to use later. Yogurt, milk, eggs, bread, salad - all of that lasts a few days past the “best by” date too, so is perfectly fine to buy on the last day.
Keep in mind not all of the country lives close to an Aldi or Lidl or a border. Some of us have to live with the big 3, so we do the best we can with what’s nearby.
