We all know gas and grocery prices have climbed substantially since this time last year.

What you may not have noticed is that even though some products are still being sold at the same price, the sizes are shrinking.

For instance, you likely remember Gatorade selling large 32-ounce drinks. Now their slimmed-down bottles are just 28 ounces.

UCF business professor Anand Krishnamoorthy says it’s called “Shrinkflation” and says it is here to stay.

To make sure their customers don’t feel too bad about it, Krishnamoorthy says companies often pass it off as “product innovation.”

“Gatorade in this case, PepsiCo. argued that the size of the packaging decreased not because they wanted to provide less of the item, but because these containers are becoming less easy to hold so what they did is they introduced a groove in the middle of the packaging which makes a product easier to hold, so this is positioned less as shrinkage, more as product innovation,” said Krishnamoorthy.

Krishnamoorthy says something similar happened with bar soap as well. He says soap was originally square. Then, over time manufacturers put a groove in the soap so it would be easier to hold. Then, he says the groove got deeper and deeper, meaning less product for consumers, even though the prices remained the same.

But, Krishnamoorthy says companies are not always working to fool customers, sometimes they do just make valid changes. For instance, “There might be cases where there is actual innovation going on because Bounty for a long time has claimed that their paper towels are more absorbent today, as a result of which you don’t need as much paper towel.”

Krishnamoorthy says chocolate bars also used to be a lot longer 15 years ago. But, changing the size of the sugary snack could be a part of trying to reduce the number of calories people are consuming.

With costs rising, Krishnamoorthy says many companies are struggling to stay profitable and even after the market stabilizes package sizes likely won’t go back to their original sizes.

You can learn more about shrinkflation on Florida’s Fourth Estate.

In this episode, you can also learn more about this year’s Fireworks at The Fountain returning to Lake Eola.

You can check out Florida’s Fourth Estate with Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden wherever you enjoy listening to podcasts.

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