President Joe Biden on Sunday called on snack companies to stop shrinkflation, which is when businesses cut product sizes but keep prices the identical, describing the practice as “a rip-off.”
“Some companies are attempting to pull a quick one by shrinking the products little by little and hoping you won’t notice,” Biden said in a video posted on X, formerly often called Twitter, ahead of Super Bowl LVIII.
“Give me a break. The American public is uninterested in being played for suckers. I’m calling on companies to put a stop to this. Let’s make certain businesses do the fitting thing now,” he said.
Biden, who offered no solutions or policies to address the practice, didn’t name any specific companies but several brands were shown within the video, including Gatorade, Doritos, Breyers and Tostitos.
“We appreciate that the President has to deflect attention away from inflation that has lingered during his administration,” said David Chavern, president and CEO of the Consumer Brands Association, in an announcement.
Chavern added that the group would really like to work with Biden on “real solutions that profit consumers.”
PepsiCo, whose brands include Gatorade, Doritos and Tostitos, and Unilever, which makes Breyers ice cream, weren’t immediately available for comment outside normal business hours. Reuters could also not immediately reach Mondelez, maker of Oreos, and Campbell Soup, which owns Goldfish crackers.
Senator Bob Casey in December released a report that showed the impact of smaller product sizes on every thing from toilet paper to Oreos.
The report noted that household paper products were 34.9% dearer per unit than they were in January 2019, with about 10.3% of the rise due to producers shrinking the sizes of rolls and packages.
It said the value of snacks like Oreos and Doritos had gone up 26.4% over the identical period, with shrinking portions accounting for 9.8% percent of the rise.
Although inflation appears to be slowing, the economy stays Americans’ overall top concern, cited by 22% of poll respondents, as they’ve struggled with inflation and other aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released last month.
Since taking office, Biden has made a pitch for lower supermarket prices, pushed drug makers to lower insulin costs, hotel chains to reduce fees and tried to diversify the meat-packing industry after beef prices skyrocketed within the aftermath of the pandemic.