Simone Seymour: How NZ Consumers Are Being Ripped Off

Simone Seymour writes as a Guest Post on Goodoil.

All quite legally...and it’s not the government.

Shrinkflation, extortflation, ‘shrinkage’: words that refer to the evil phenomena of paying the same for less. All without realising you’re being deceived.

Bob Jones: Pot and kettle hypocrisy?

Stuff recently published an (accurate) article on a phenomenon they described as shrinkflation.

This is the practice of manufacturers combatting rising costs by maintaining their historic nominal prices and packaging but reducing the amount of contents.

They gave numerous examples, such as Beehive matches in which the unchanged matchbox now contains 45 matches instead of the traditional 50, or a Cadbury’s block of chocolate decreasing in size by 10%, and so it went.

Their one glaring omission however, was Stuff’s own product, namely daily newspapers. In the face not so much of increased production costs but instead a near collapsed demand thanks to electronic instant news, their newspapers today are at best half the size of 25 years ago.

This is not “shrinkflation” but instead dwarfism; unmatched in its degree by any other product.

I’m a newspaper addict and deeply regret this phenomenon but must resign myself to their inevitable and imminent disappearance, a world-wide phenomenon.

Sir Bob Jones is a renowned author, columnist , property investor, and former politician, who blogs at No Punches Pulled HERE.