Meet the Man on a Mission to Expose Sneaky Price Increases

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Edgar Dworsky has become the go-to expert on “shrinkflation,” when products or packaging are manipulated so people get less for their money.

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — A few weeks ago, Edgar Dworsky got a promising tip by email. “Diluted cough syrup,” read the message, accompanied by a photo of two packages of syrup with a curious difference: The new one appeared to be half the strength of the old one.

Mr. Dworsky gets emails like this frequently, alerting him to things like a bag of dog food that discreetly shrank from 50 pounds to 44 pounds. A cereal box that switched from “giant” to “family” size and grew about an inch taller — but a few ounces lighter. Bottles of detergent that look the same, but the newer ones come with less detergent.

The cough syrup message looked intriguing. Mr. Dworsky made plans to investigate.

He has dedicated much of his life to exposing what is one of the sneakier tricks in the modern consumer economy: “shrinkflation,” when products or packaging are subtly manipulated so that a person pays the same price, or even slightly more, for something but gets less of it. » | Clare Toeniskoetter | Saturday, November 26, 2022

Grande distribution : Lindt, Danone et Kiri accusés de « shrinkflation » sur les produits alimentaires

LE MONDE : L’ONG Foodwatch met en cause six marques qui ont modifié la taille de leurs produits-phares ces dernières années pour ne pas trop augmenter les prix.

Nestlé, Lindt & Sprüngli ou encore Danone ont trouvé la solution pour ne pas trop augmenter les prix en rayons et risquer de faire fuir des clients inquiets pour leur portefeuille : ils réduisent discrètement la quantité, voire la qualité, de certains de leurs produits, dénonce l’association Foodwatch dans une étude reprise par l’émission « Complément d’enquête », diffusée jeudi 1er septembre sur France 2. » | Le Monde avec AFP | vendredi 2 septembre 2022