We must fight shrinkflation – but let’s get the maths right first

While the pound remains weak and pay fails to rise in line with inflation, we can expect more shrinkflation as companies seek to part us from our increasingly stretched budgets by stealth, writes Kit Yates

I am confident that there is almost nothing for which the imperial system is better than the metric system (Getty)

Have you noticed how chocolate bars don’t seem to be as big as they were when you were a kid? Perhaps, as some companies suggest, it’s just that they feel smaller now that you’re bigger. But no, in fact, things really are getting smaller.

Previously, as prices for commodities like oil and wheat have surged, producers have been faced with a difficult choice to maintain their profit margins – hike the price of their product, or shrink its size (or sometimes both at once). Increasing the price is often seen as an unattractive option – consumers notice all too readily the increase in their shopping bill. Reducing the size of the product itself is more subtle and perhaps goes unnoticed – at least at the check-out.

Famously in 2016, Toblerone resected some of its famous ridges – increasing spacing between the remaining triangles – citing higher ingredient costs and a desire to maintain their signature product’s price for the consumer. With the box size staying the same, unwitting customers didn’t discover the missing triangles until after opening the prismatic cardboard container. But when they did, many were furious. One consumer described the new-look bars as “obscene” while another suggested Toblerone now resembled “a weird knock-off of itself”.