How Did We Get Here?

Yesterday I was holding a bar of chocolate 🍫 in my hand and was thinking back how it started and was wondering where it's going to end. The chocolate bar looked normal, but if you turn it, on the back it says 80g.

Photo by Finn on Unsplash

How did we get here? How did we get from 100g chocolate bars to 80g bars?

I still can remember when the first change in this regard hit my country and the shock people had seeing what was happening. After the regime change in 1990, life got a bit wild on every level, inflation got to unimaginable levels and many companies tried to stay above the water by taking drastic measures, one of which was shrinkflation.

Up until then, packages were of 0.5kg, 1kg or 5kg, always a round number, but as something had to be done, many chose to keep prices at approximately the same level and reduce quantity. For people who have never been exposed to changes of such nature, this move was shocking and many got fooled. Seeing the same price or less doesn't mean the product is cheaper, you need to do the math as well and if you're not good at it, you pay.

Photo by Krisztina Papp on Unsplash

Since then, companies got smarter, there are other ways to make money, by using the same tricks of course, just in a different way. Now you see packages of different size and you think buying the bigger one is cheaper when you calculate the price per piece, but that's not always the case. I kind of feel sorry for those that are not mastering math at the required level and the elderly as well as it's difficult for them to pay attention to everything and avoid these traps and this is just the beginning.

Yesterday I was thinking how we got from 100g per bar of chocolate 🍫, to 95g, then 90g, then 85g and now 80g. The next step is 75g, which would be three quarters of the original quantity and it's going to happen this year, mark my words. You would say it is what it is, as there's not much you can do, but reality says otherwise. You can still find 100g, 95g and 85g bars and the larger the variety, the higher the chance you get fooled. Obviously we all have our preferences, brands and so on, but as there are new products coming in every day, trying out new ones has its advantage, but it puts you to the test as well. Quality-price ratio is important to me, so I'm always looking at the best option, except when I want my favorite brand and am willing to pay, whatever it is needed.

Photo by Pix Tresa on Unsplash

There's a sandwich shop nearby, a very popular one and yesterday I stepped in to see what's going on there as with my diet, this type of temptation is out of the question. It was around noon, so I thought it would be packed, tables occupied and queue in front of the counter, to find 5 people inside and order ready was number 32, while other times they easily hit 100 till that hour. Shocking does not describe what I felt seeing the place in that state.

I had a look at the sandwiches and the price and came another shock. price was double of what I remembered and the size shrank considerably. That sandwich was so big once, you could hardly eat it. Now? I assure you, even me, with my diet could eat it without any problems (if we don't count the calories of course).

Earlier this week I had a snap in this regard and I'm convinced we're going to feel the bitter taste of these events later this year. Even if the Hormuz strait is freed now, that won't mean things get back to what they were a month ago and we're going to pay the bill for sure.

Photo by Jonathan Ford on Unsplash

These are things we can't control, we have no say in how the situation is managed, or at least not now, but we have full control of how we manage our own finances and this is where making smart decisions can save you from overpaying. I think shopping is going to get more difficult, but more important is how you manage your bills, subscriptions and services. Financial illiteracy is not going to be cheap for sure.

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At least it's still chocolate. Here, in addition to the shrinkflation we've got enshittification, where they keep watering it down and replacing stuff with cheaper ingredients.

That is the next step and even worse. Imagine using low quality, crap ingredients and pay even more. I think shopping is going to be more difficult from now on.

You tell me, Easter chocolate eggs are slowly getting smaller and price increased, expecially this year despite cocoa price gone down... 4€ more than 2 years ago

Magnum ice creams are becoming smaller year by year... We won't buy anything anymore, what can I tell you

I haven't bought those lately but today I bought an ice cream and was shocked how small it was, compared to the package 😆

I guess we're not going to get fat in the future.

Handmade ice cream are even worse, 3€ for 2 tastes on a cone...

Well… I had thought about this, but I didn’t know that term was used. I identify myself with the group of deceived elders. Terrible, Erikah… here that phenomenon doesn’t happen sneakily, but blatantly.

And, five by five, soon they’ll be selling you the empty wrapper. 😟

Yes, that term is used, and it's real unfortunately. I suppose it's affecting you even more and the harder period is yet to come.

It wouldn't be so bad if the price came down too. My wife and I got some take out the other day from a local Mexican restaurant and our final bill came close to $100. It was enough food for us to get two or three meals out of it, but still, that same amount used to cost about $40.

It wouldn't be so bad if the price came down too.

Yeah, it's just it's not going to happen. Even if raw materials, production costs will go lower, they are going to keep the difference for themselves.

From $40 to $100? That's quite a lot and means 2.5x.

Yeah, it's ridiculous!