High costs of energy, raw materials, salaries, interrupted supply chains... Consumers can see that their wallets are getting thinner, because companies are shifting all costs onto their backs.
When something goes up in price, we talk about inflation. But there are other "tricks" to get money out of people's pockets.
The Hamburg Consumer Council awarded Rama margarine the championship title for "deceptive packaging" last year. Namely, its price remained 2,19 euros, but the packaging was reduced from 500 to 400 grams. This means that the price of margarine has increased by 25 percent, although the price of the package has not changed.
This phenomenon is called shrinkflation, a word coined from "inflation" and the English "shrink", which means to shrink.
Now the quality also suffers
Although the period of strong price increases has passed - although there are no indications that they will return to the old way - now consumer advocates are watching the latest phenomenon that they have called skimpflation. "Skimp" in English means to skimp or to do something of insufficient quality.
The term was coined by the American media network NPR two years ago. "The phenomenon is also spreading in Great Britain and Germany," says Sabine Hibner, an expert in service quality and author.
For example, after the start of the war in Ukraine, French fries manufacturers replaced sunflower oil with palm oil, because a huge amount of the world's sunflower production is located in Russia and Ukraine. There was simply no oil.
"Palm oil was introduced out of necessity, and now it's pretty much established," Hibner says.
Although sunflower oil has long been available in sufficient quantities, according to data from the consumer protection agency, only one of the surveyed producers returned to a higher quality product. Others still use palm oil.
Changes in ingredients are not listed
To make the circus complete, many manufacturers even dare not to indicate the change in ingredients on the packaging. The nutritional values no longer corresponded to what was advertised. Palm oil is far cheaper and less healthy than sunflower oil due to its higher content of saturated fatty acids.
According to Sabine Hibner, companies were granted extraordinary permits to do so, because it was not easy to make new packaging quickly.
Instead of changing the list of ingredients and nutritional value, they just stated: "Contains palm oil instead of sunflower", and that in the field provided for writing the expiration date. However, this has gone unnoticed by many consumers.
The Consumer Advisory Center from Hamburg cites the example of chocolate from the large supermarket chain Aldi Nord. There, their brand chocolates with marzipan lost their quality - instead of 45 percent marzipan, only 38 percent is used. In other varieties, there are less pistachios and nougat. Even though the price of chocolates went up by twenty cents to 1,69 euros.
Deteriorating quality of services
But the phenomenon of skimpflation is not only seen in goods, but also in services. As Hibner says, there is a labor shortage everywhere. As a result, companies save on wages, and consumers face a worse service.
Let's say, you can wait for hours when you call a call center. Or, fewer and fewer bank branches and ATMs, although the consumer still regularly pays the same or higher amount to the bank. Crowds at airports, because there is a lack of staff or less and less luggage that is included in the regular ticket price. Longer waiting at the cash register in the supermarket, or for the waiter in the restaurant.
"This means that customers receive worse service, and at the same time, employees often have to work more," criticizes Hibner.
She somewhat understands when costs are passed on to customers, but thinks increasing profits at their expense is a short-sighted tactic. "It's presumptuous to think that people don't see that. Anyone who feels cheated will turn their back on a company or brand."
She advises people to become more familiar with the products they buy - especially since many find it difficult to bear the ever-increasing costs of ever-increasing (inferior) goods. Hibner adds that, thanks to social media, people can now initiate criticism of a company: "They should use that power."
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