The boldest deceptive packages in the supermarket: Financial expert reveals hidden price increases

The boldest deceptive packages in the supermarket: Financial expert reveals hidden price increases

According to a report by www.ruhr24.de,

Less content for the same price: deceptive packages infuriate supermarket customers. Five price increases are particularly bold, including an Aldi product.

The consumer advice center repeatedly uncovers so-called deceptive packages. Deceptive packages are products in which the contents shrink, but the price remains the same - and all of this goes unnoticed. Supermarket tricks reveal how you can recognize deceptive packaging.
Customers now have the choice themselves. You can choose the “scam package of the year 2023”. The Hamburg Consumer Center (VZHH) offers a choice of five products for which many complaints were received last year. Online voting runs until January 22nd, 4 p.m. The following products are available to choose from:

Yoghurt gums from Katjes: The bag is now filled with 175 grams rather than 200 grams. The price, however, remained the same, which means a hidden price increase of 14 percent.
TUC Bake Rolls Sea Salt from Mondelez: A brand swap from 7Days to TUC has caused the price to skyrocket. The virtually identical bread chips now have new packaging with 100 grams less content than before. Overall, they have become 127 percent more expensive.
Chocolat Amandas whole milk from Aldi: The total content of the chocolate shrank from 184 to 150 grams. That's a price increase of around 30 percent.
Listerine Total Care from Johnson & Johnson: Customers pay 33.5 percent more for a narrower bottle of the mouthwash. The change in packaging is hardly noticeable because the height of the bottle remains the same, but the capacity has shrunk.
Oreo ice cream sticks from Froneri: There are fewer ice cream sticks in the packaging than before. In addition, the individual ices are smaller. The manufacturer is reducing the amount of ice cream from 440 milliliters to 270 milliliters per carton while keeping the price the same.

The VZHH is reporting more fraudulent packaging in 2023 than ever before. Consumer advocates keep a list of hidden price increases that customers can use to find out about affected foods.
They have long been calling for politicians to take tougher action against manufacturers. This would not only protect consumers' wallets and ensure more price transparency, but would also benefit the environment. Because when the contents of the packaging shrink, more waste is created. But the current laws currently give producers too much leeway to continue tricking customers, reports the VZHH.

The brazen shrinkflation in supermarkets is having an impact on consumer spending habits. By developing hidden price increases in the form of smaller quantities of products at the same price, consumer trust in food manufacturers and supermarkets is being undermined. In the long term, declining trust can lead to a decline in customer loyalty and lost sales for the affected manufacturers. In addition, the environment is also burdened by the increased production of packaging waste due to shrinkflation. The demand for stricter laws and transparency regarding product quantities and prices from the consumer advice center shows that this problem also has political and social effects.