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According to Merriam-Webster as of right now, today:

: the practice of reducing a product’s amount or volume per unit while continuing to offer it at the same price

Shrinkflation occurs when companies keep their prices the same, but give you less of their products.

It’s the inflation you’re not supposed to see. From toilet paper to yogurt and coffee to corn chips, manufacturers are quietly shrinking package sizes without lowering prices. It’s dubbed “shrinkflation,” and it’s accelerating worldwide.

The Fed’s decision comes in response to record-high inflation and shrinkflation which has crippled the nation’s economy for months.

First Known Use of shrinkflation 2013, in the meaning defined above.

Yes, that is correct, Merriam-Webster, the people with all the words, announced last week that the word shrinkflation is one of 320 new words added to the Dictionary for the year 2022.

We’ve all seen it. 

We’ve all experienced it. 

I couldn’t pinpoint the exact date, but at some point in the not so distant past, in years that is, I was changing the toilet paper roll and noticed that it didn’t quite fit on the holder like it previously had. It seems the roll needs changing more often too.

Same goes with buying a five pound bag of sugar. I grew up in the A&P Grocery Store and we sold sugar in five and ten pound bags. The five pound size was a frequent sale item, especially around the holidays. Today sugar is sold in four pound packages and the sale price, even around the holidays, isn’t really a sale price.

I’m not sure what the old size of those plastic tubs of Maxwell House French Roast coffee were, but the new size is considerably smaller and certainly makes fewer pots of coffee, and, it is over ten dollars most of the time to boot.

As a point of reference, in my 1979 edition of Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary — I still have it on the shelf in my office — that Mrs. Ann Easom gave me as a high school graduation gift, the word shrinkflation would fall between shrink-wrap (to wrap in tough clear plastic film that is then shrunk to form a tightly fitting package), and shrive (to administer the sacrament of penance, or to free from guilt, to confess one’s sins).

I’m confessing. I don’t like shrinkflation and I like potato chips, so for me the biggest shrinkflation sin of all is found in the form of Lays Potato Chips, Barbecue flavor or Dill Pickle to be more precise.

I have never had a problem knocking off a large bag of those chips, any chips really, but these days the bag is emptied more quickly than ever. Fact is that a single serve size bag never served the purpose for me to begin with and those lunch box size ones...well that’s just a bite.

These days a bag of chips looks like a bag of chips on the grocery store shelf, and a bag of chips feels like a bag of chips when you take it off of the grocery store shelf,  but when it is opened — if you can get it opened — it ain’t a bag of chips at all. It’s a big ole bag of air.

Coming soon via Merriam-Webster...Airflation.

: the practice of reducing a product’s amount or volume per unit while continuing to offer it at the same price by pumping the bag full of air.

Airflation occurs when companies keep their prices the same, or even raise them, while selling plain ole air in place of their products.

I think I dislike airflation more than shrinkflation. There is more deception involved. And, of course, you know how I feel about my chips!

Oh, and by the way, airflation is not a real word, I just made it up on Monday. It’s not a real word yet, anyway!

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