In this episode of The Missing Middle, Mike Moffatt and Sabrina Maddeaux dig into the rise of shrinkflation, from grocery store products like cereal and Kraft Dinner to Canada’s shrinking condos, and reveal how companies, developers, and government policies are quietly giving Canadians less for more. From deceptive packaging and behavioral economics tricks to the rise of shoebox condos and poor layouts, we explore how rising costs, investor-driven development, and flawed housing policies are reshaping everyday life. If you’ve ever wondered why your groceries don’t stretch as far or why today’s apartments feel more like closets than homes, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:08 Understanding shrinkflation

02:54 Sabrina’s a KD fangirl - who knew?

05:12 The economics behind shrinkflation

07:22 Price anchoring explained

08:25 The shrinking size of living spaces

11:52 Why are units getting so much smaller?

15:39 What’s driving bad design?

18:02 Generational perspectives on housing preferences

19:22 Constrained optimization explained

21:26 Is the investor condo market dead?

23:30 Policy changes to combat shrinkflation

research/links:

Working paper Mike refers to: 

Shrinkflation∗

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15tpbhBziggFL-RvjlVgjqBQcNXzcIrWh/view

Condo size data

https://www.mpac.ca/en/News/PressRelease/spacioushomescompactcondosMPACdatarevealsshiftinghousingtrendsacrossOntario 

The condo crash won’t fix our housing problem. In fact, it just might make it worse

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/the-condo-crash-wont-fix-our-housing-problem-in-fact-it-just-might-make-it/article_7c44519f-cdbe-4978-b575-ffc1ef9a76bd.html

Hosts: 

Sabrina Maddeaux https://x.com/SabrinaMaddeaux 

Mike Moffatt https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt https://bsky.app/profile/mikepmoffatt.bsky.social

Producer: Meredith Martin 

https://twitter.com/meredithmartin 

@meredithmartin.bsky.social

Editor: Sean Foreman

@seanegertonforeman

@seanforeman.bsky.social

Coop Student: Djeima Alicia Ramos

This podcast is funded by the Neptis Foundation https://neptis.org/

Brought to you by the Missing Middle Initiative https://www.missingmiddleinitiative.ca/

Hosted by Mike Moffatt & Cara Stern & Sabrina Maddeaux

Produced by Meredith Martin

This podcast is funded by the Neptis Foundation and brought to you by the Smart Prosperity Institute.