During Super Bowl Sunday, President Joe Biden made a pointed statement aimed at snack companies, urging them to address “shrinkflation” – a message that may become more common from the White House.
Seated next to familiar snacks like Oreos, Doritos, and Goldfish in a 48-second video posted on X, Biden highlighted the trend of products becoming smaller in size while prices remain the same or even increase.
“When buying snacks for the game, you might have noticed one thing: Sports drink bottles are smaller, a bag of chips has fewer chips, but they’re still charging you just as much,” Biden remarked.
Shrinkflation, as it is known, occurs when consumer goods decrease in weight, size, or quantity, but their prices do not reflect these changes.
Biden went on to declare his dissatisfaction with this practice, stating, “I’ve had enough of what they call ‘shrinkflation.’ It’s a rip off. … I’m calling on companies to put a stop to this.”
Reacting to Biden’s message, former presidential candidate Andrew Yang remarked, “That’s a message that the average consumer will nod their heads and say ‘sure, I hate it when that happens.’ The question is whether that’s actually going to change corporate practices.”
Furthermore, White House National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard raised similar concerns about higher consumer prices being attributed to “shrinkflation” during an interview on CNBC’s “Money Movers.”
“They’re gonna have to keep making this case around the country because the Biden administration is underwater with independents who are going to decide this November’s election,” Yang, who currently serves as the co-chair of the Forward Party, emphasized. “They’re going to be trying anything they can to say, at least, ‘we’re on your side.’
