Shoppers are feeling concerned over the effects of ‘shrinkflation’ as the cost-of-living crisis continues to put pressure on UK household budgets.
Barclays latest survey found that two thirds of consumers had realised some food producers had been shrinking the size of products, while prices had remained the same or increased, The Guardian reported.
As a result, 20% of shoppers are switching to bulk buying and are no longer purchasing the downsized items.
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In the last two weeks many popular branded products have been reduced in size, including Hellmann’s mayonnaise jars which have been slimmed from 800g to 600g versions at Tesco.
Arla Foods butter brand Lurpak recently shrunk the size of a block of butter by 20% as it cut 250g packs to 200g across its salted, unsalted and ‘lighter’ block varieties.
This comes as Barclays found that consumer card spending grew by 3.6% year on year in May, which is less than half the latest rate of inflation at 8.7%.
“Consumers are still paying close attention to their everyday spending, and we are seeing growing concerns around shrinkflation in the weekly shop,” Barclays director Esme Harwood told The Guardian.
“Many are having to forgo discretionary purchases to offset rising food prices, with clothing and restaurants most impacted.”
