“Shrinkflation”: Carrefour will label products whose quantities have been reduced “from Monday”

2023-09-07 21:40:28

He wants more transparency for consumers in times of rising prices. “From Monday”, the supermarkets of the Carrefour group will display labels on products affected by “shrinkflation”, announced the CEO of the brand, Alexandre Bompard, this Wednesday. The objective? Put pressure on manufacturers to lower prices, says Carrefour.

“I asked for there to be a label on products where there is “shrinkflation”, saying: this product has seen its container reduced and its price increased. This way, we will have the most reliable information possible for consumers, because it is unacceptable to do that,” he declared. in the C emission in the airon France 5, Wednesday evening.

#shrinkflation ⛔️
We said it, we do it.

From Monday in all Carrefours in France we will install 13cmx13cm posters to indicate one simple thing: this product has seen its weight reduced and the price charged by our supplier has increased. pic.twitter.com/K9zHbuZ48F

— David Reviriego (@DavidReviriego1) September 7, 2023

The labels, revealed by the brand this Thursday evening, will have an orange background, and will display the words “this product has seen its weight drop, and the price charged by our supplier increase”, specifies the brand. Who adds: “We are committed to renegotiating this price”.

“Shrinkflation” is a marketing practice which consists of masking the increase in product prices by reducing the quantities in similar packaging with an identical selling price. This practice is legal provided that the mention of the weight of the food is modified. But it can mislead consumers.

An “unacceptable” practice

For Alexandre Bompard, “it is a practice which is unacceptable when there is hyperinflation, which the French suffer”. The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, recently attacked industrialists who follow this practice, equating it with “scams”. “We will make it mandatory to display changes in weight or content in similar packaging, to stop misleading consumers,” he tweeted at the end of August.

Same container, less content: disguised inflation. Stop the scams!
We will make it mandatory to display changes in weight or content in similar packaging, to stop misleading consumers. #Shrinkflation

— Bruno Le Maire (@BrunoLeMaire) August 31, 2023

At the end of meetings with manufacturers and representatives of mass distribution, the minister announced on Thursday “a global agreement between manufacturers and distributors”, with the aim of “definitively breaking the spiral of food prices “.

This agreement provides in particular that until the end of the year, the prices of 5,000 references will stop increasing or even fall. A figure to compare with the number of references in stores: 3,000 to 5,000 in a supermarket, and between 20,000 and 35,000 in hypermarkets. Food prices jumped 11.1% year-on-year in August, a slower rise than in July (12.7%) but still significant.