On Sunday, Pres. Joe Biden said he’s angry that ice cream makers have shrunk the size of cartons – which they did to hide the effect of inflation on their costs.
“I’ve had enough of what they call ‘Shrinkflation.’ It’s a rip-off,” Biden says in a video posted to social media prior to the Super Bowl, blasting snack companies for keeping prices the same while shrinking their products.
While Biden bemoaned the shrinking size of sports drink and chip containers, he said he was most furious at companies that sell ice cream:
“As an ice cream lover, what makes me the most angry is that ice cream cartons have actually shrunk in size, but not in price.”
Breyers and Turkey Hill ice cream cartons are shown in the video, along with packages of snacks, such as Tostitos, Oreos, Gatorade and Wheat Thins.
While you were Super Bowl shopping, did you notice smaller-than-usual products where the price stays the same?
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 11, 2024
Folks are calling it Shrinkflation and it means companies are giving you less for every dollar you spend.
I’m calling on the big consumer brands to put a stop to it. pic.twitter.com/wL1NsEh78F
“I’m calling on companies to put a stop to this,” Biden says. “Let’s make sure that businesses do the right thing; NOW.” Biden did not say what he believes the “right thing” to do is.
Biden also did not explain that “Shrinkflation” is a way of masking inflation.
As Investopedia explains, Shrinkflation is an alternative to raising prices and “is rarely captured” by Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures:
“Shrinkflation is a hidden component of overall inflation that is rarely captured by traditional CPI measures. Faced with a need to raise prices, companies sometimes reduce package sizes instead. A bag of potato chips costs $1, the same as last year, but the bag now contains 10 ounces instead of 12 ounces of chips.”
On Tuesday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the CPI rose at the fastest rate since last September and the cost of food rose at the fastest monthly rate in 12 months.
“Don’t let President Biden gaslight you. ‘Shrinkflation’ is not the problem, Bidenomics is,” the Heritage Foundation responded to Biden’s social media post, referring readers to a Dec. 15, 2023 article by Research Fellow EJ Antoni.
Antoni explains that companies’ costs have skyrocketed during the Biden Administration:
“The producer price index is used to measure inflation on the products and services businesses buy—sometimes called wholesale inflation—and that index has risen 17.5% since Biden took office.”
….
“Businesses have actually been sheltering consumers from some cost increases in an effort to maintain market share and not lose customers.”
“In not a single month of Biden’s presidency have the cumulative cost increases to consumers caught up to the cumulative cost increases faced by businesses,” Antoni writes, calling out Biden for trying to blame companies for the inflation his policies have caused:
“And yet, Biden has the gall to demand ‘greedy’ corporations stop ‘price gouging.’”
