French
supermarket Carrefour has put stickers on its shelves this week warning
shoppers of "shrinkflation" - where packet contents are getting
smaller while prices are not.
Lipton Ice Tea, Lindt
chocolate, and Viennetta ice cream are among the products being named and
shamed.
Shoppers are being told if
bottles are smaller or pack contents lighter.
Carrefour said it wanted to
put pressure on the firms making the products to keep prices down.
"Obviously, the aim in
stigmatizing these products is to be able to tell manufacturers to rethink
their pricing policy," said Stefen Bompais, director of client
communications at Carrefour.
Carrefour has identified 26
products that have shrunk, without a price reduction to match, made by food
giants including Nestle, PepsiCo, and Unilever.
Carrefour said Guigoz
infant milk formula produced by Nestle had gone from a pack size of 900g to
830g, for example.
A bottle of sugar-free
peach-flavored Lipton Ice Tea, produced by PepsiCo, shrank to 1.25 liters from
1.5 liters, the supermarket said.
Viennetta, made by
Unilever, has shrunk from 350g to 320g.
Carrefour, France's second-largest grocer, is highlighting the products in question with signs on the
shelves reading: "This product has seen its volume/weight fall and the
effective price charged by the supplier rise."
Unilever, Pepsico, and
Nestle have not commented on Carrefour's move.
French retailers and food
manufacturers have come under pressure to reduce prices, just as in the UK, as
shoppers struggle with sharply rising prices.
In June French Finance
Minister Bruno Le Maire summoned 75 retailers and consumer groups to a meeting
about prices, and has accused manufacturers of not toeing the line on inflation.
British consumer groups have also warned of
"shrinkflation" affecting the value of common
items from cat food to chocolate biscuits.
But it is unlikely that UK
supermarkets would follow in Carrefour's footsteps, according to retail expert
Ged Futter, because the strategy risks "poisoning" relationships
between retailers and food firms.
"This is a very blunt
way of trying to compete," he said. "To do that with your
manufacturers, it won't help."
Supermarkets use the same
"shrinkflation" tactic with their own-label products, he added,
aiming to keep to a certain price point, for example, £1, by introducing cheaper
ingredients or making portions smaller to manage rising costs.
Given that, calling out
brands for doing the same thing would be "people in glass houses throwing
stones", he said and would risk accusations of hypocrisy
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