Supermarket adds ‘shrinkflation’ warnings to over a dozen products

French supermarket chain Carrefour added price warnings on food products to pressure manufacturers to reduce their costs.

The warnings were already placed on 26 products that have shrunk in size but cost more despite raw materials prices cooling, according to Reuters. 

All of them come with the same label: “This product has seen its volume or weight fall and the effective price by the supplier rise.” 

INFLATION LEADS TO SHRINKFLATION

Carrefour said a bottle of sugar-free peach-flavored Lipton Ice Tea, produced by PepsiCo, shrank from 1.5 liters to 1.25 liters. Meanwhile, there was a 40% increase in the price per liter. 

This is an example of what’s become known as “shrinkflation.”

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“Obviously, the aim in stigmatizing these products is to be able to tell manufacturers to rethink their pricing policy,” said Stefen Bompais, Carrefour’s director of client communications, according to Reuters. 

The move to add such labels comes ahead of contract talks with major brands, which are subject to start soon. Those talks are slated to end on Oct. 15, Reuters reported. 

A spokesperson for Carrefour told Reuters that the company has made “a concerted effort to compensate for increased costs by increasing efficiency as much as possible.” 

The company also said it “only passed on the costs we could not absorb ourselves in the form of price increases to our customers.”

Carrefour did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.