Sneaking Inflation Past People
Does it seem like food gets consumed more quickly? Are you wondering if someone in the family is sneaking some midnight snacks?
It may actually be "sneakflation." Faced with price resistance, especially on non-essentials, companies try to slide inflation past consumers by shrinking package sizes. A one-pound bag of veggies becomes twelve ounces, then ten. The half-gallon of ice cream becomes a quart and a half.
Of course it's nothing new -- way back in 1977, Harlan Ellison had the narrator of his short story "Jeffty is Five" musing about how the candy he remembers from his childhood having become both smaller and less satisfying (suggesting a substitution of inferior ingredients).
It may actually be "sneakflation." Faced with price resistance, especially on non-essentials, companies try to slide inflation past consumers by shrinking package sizes. A one-pound bag of veggies becomes twelve ounces, then ten. The half-gallon of ice cream becomes a quart and a half.
Of course it's nothing new -- way back in 1977, Harlan Ellison had the narrator of his short story "Jeffty is Five" musing about how the candy he remembers from his childhood having become both smaller and less satisfying (suggesting a substitution of inferior ingredients).