Hong Kong’s Consumer Council has found that shrinkflation — the practice of reducing a product’s size while maintaining its retail price — is prevalent in the city. The council used a database of retail product prices, called the Online Price Watch, to survey 62 products that had weight or volume changes from January 2021 through July 2024 and found that 93.5% of them had been downsized by 1.3%-30%.
The council’s report revealed that the most common types of goods that experienced shrinkflation were confectionery, biscuits, and snacks, with content reductions ranging from 2.3%-17.5%. In addition, the watchdog found that 16 products saw a de facto price rise of over 10%, if calculated based on the per unit recommended retail prices of the goods. For instance, the contents of a McVitie’s Club Orange biscuits bar went from eight to seven pieces per package, thereby reducing its weight from 176 grams to 154 grams. But its recommended retail price went from HK$33.50 to HK$37, resulting in a unit price per 10g increase of 26.6%, compared to that before the weight change.
The council also stated the biggest downsizing in the was seen in a pack of cornflakes had been reduced from 250 grams to 175 grams in weight, followed by Tulip’s 10 hot dog skinless sausages going from 250g to 200g, making it 20% lighter. It also said that three products — including two Oreo cookie packs and a Friskies cat food product — had been downsized twice during the survey period.
While the council recommends that consumers should be “attentive to the volume or weight of goods, and whether there are changes in packaging design or description, paying special heed to compare the unit price”, it also says that retailers could follow overseas practices by setting out the unit price of products to allow consumers to compare those of different sizes. Stores and websites should also have clear displays about changes in product size, citing similar practices in countries such as France and South Korea.
However, in the latest edition of its Consumer Price Index, the Census and Statistics Department said that overall consumer prices rose by 2.2% in September 2024 over the same month a year earlier. This was smaller than the corresponding increase of 2.5% in August 2024. The year-on-year rate of increase in the underlying inflation rate (Composite Consumer Price Index) in September 2024 was 0.9%, also smaller than that in August 2024 (1.2%), which the department says was mainly due to the “higher base of comparison resulting from the significant increases in food prices in September 2023”.
Header image credits: Norswaiu HFAUDNC via WikiCommons
