Will shrinkflation play a role in PepsiCo price cuts?

 

Top headline:  New York Times, 2/3/2026

Bottom headline:  New York Times, 3/1//2024

Jeanna Smialek reports on shrinkflation and how consumers will never get what they pay for:

Grocery store shoppers are noticing something amiss. Air-filled bags of chips. Shrunken soup cans. Diminished detergent packages. 

Companies are downsizing products without downsizing prices, and consumer posts from Reddit to TikTok to the New York Times comments section drip with indignation at the trend, widely known as “shrinkflation.” The practice isn’t new. Sellers have been quietly shrinking products to avoid raising prices for centuries, and experts think it has been an obvious corporate strategy since at least 1988, when Chock Full o’Nuts cut its one-pound coffee canister to 13 ounces and its competitors followed suit.

 

According to Merriam-Webster, the first known use of 'shrinkflation', defined as the practice of reducing a product's amount or volume per unit while continuing to offer it at the same price, occurred in 1991.

Other coinages from the same year include:

1. Arnold Palmer
2. brain freeze
3. buy-in
4. go bag
5. superjumbo