It’s a thing…
One of America’s most popular restaurant chains has been accused of “shrinkflation” by some of its most loyal customers.
The Cheesecake Factory, famous for its large portion sizes, has 200-plus locations across the United States. The chain is well-known for having an expansive, calorie-packed menu of over 250 items across various cuisines.
But the restaurant is now being accused of shrinkflation, which is when companies make products smaller while keeping prices the same or raising them.
Full article, HERE from Fox News.
Actually, this is nothing new, it’s been going on for a while, most notably with packaged foods like cereal, chips, cookies, etc. A couple of years ago, I got a bag of chips on a flight (YAY NO PRETZELS), and it had eight, count ’em EIGHT chips in the bag… sigh… The next bag had fourteen!
But this is now also hitting the restaurant chains, and anywhere food is served, I believe. I think you will see the end of ‘endless’ things like breads, salads, and buffets. The rationale is saving money for the corporation as profits shrink due to lack of customers and higher salaries to keep staff. Contrary to what the left says, restaurants run on thin margins, and any cost increase can cause a successful restaurant to go in the red.
That is why we’ve seen a number of ‘high end’ restaurants close on the west coast, between the new wage requirements, fewer customers, and higher cost of ingredients.
What is coming down the road? Personally, I think we will continue to see higher prices for less product, and portion sizes decreasing meat, fish, poultry, and pork in the stores. I also think we will see a diminishing of product availability in things like chips, cereal, soft drinks, and possibly things like condiments as manufacturers look at bottom lines and what product sells and what doesn’t.
Of note, from what I’ve seen over the years, American portion sizes were larger than anywhere else in the world… FWIW…
Your thoughts?
I’ve noticed portion size reduction and quality going down across the board on many products , they think we won’t notice , whoever “they” are . I agree.
The issue you’re describing has been going on for years. From 1990 to 2000, I had a mobile dealership where minutes were dollars so I grabbed my lunch at fast foods, to the point, I became sick of them. After moving up, there was no need or want for fast foods. I couldn’t stomach them and avoided them for years.
But then came grandkids who wanted McDonald’s Happy Meal, Taco Bell, etc. I was shocked. The quarter pounder was no longer a quarter pounder, it was just the name, not quantity. The taco no longer had actual ground beef but what appeared to be some kind of a meat spread or sauce.
To your point on how the left calculates the profit margins of restaurants, or any other employer, my thoughts are, I don’t really care and be it large or small is contingent on multiple factors. For example, a Mom and Pop seeing a net profit of $10 or even $100 a day would likely shut it down and find other employment whereas a chain such as Dollar General with over 20k stores would be a totally different animal.
But here’s the kicker at profit margins verses employee pay that gripes my goat. If any employer, be it the Mom & Pop, DG, Walmart, Amazon, or whoever, has a full time employee that qualifies for food stamps, housing assistance, or any other government help, something’s not right here. And no, I don’t think it’s on the employee’s part because they are doing their part- showing up everyday and providing a day of service. So what’s happened is these employers have been using the working class to subsidize their payroll while they shrink or scale back on employee pay. And to that I say, leave me out of this. If you cannot pay your employees a livable wage, if you need to take money from me to provide funding for your employees in order for you to profit, close your doors because I’m as sick of subsidizing your employees as I am of your puny Big Macs.
Opened a “Party Size” bag of Utz chips yesterday and the bag was slightly less than half full. Chips have always been notorious for empty space, supposedly to protect the chips in transit, but I had a half bag missing AND crouton-size chips. Yeah, sold by weight, not by volume. Bullshit.
Edgar frequently has sections in the Mouse Print area of https://www.consumerworld.org/ on shrinkflation, published every Monday. Multiple products are usually featured in each article.
From what I have seen, there is an endless flow of very confident people who inherit money and are SURE they would be great at running a restaurant.
They get into the business and burn through money. They DON”T CHARGE HIGH ENOUGH PRICES because they suck at accounting and have no clue about their cost structure.
They wake up one morning about nine-months into the venture and the have 23 notices from their bank telling them that their checks bounced.
All of the “found money” pouring into the industry beats down prices and raises the expectations of customers which makes it almost impossible for “professional, for-profit” restaurants to compete. The only restaurants with notable longevity have liquor licenses.
The rising prices will result in “commodity” and “Boutique” restaurants in getting farther apart and the “Boutique” outlets crashing and burning in five months rather than nine.
American’s are pretty fat. When a single meal contains more calories than the RDA, you may be pushing things. Don’t get me wrong, love CFA, good food, they used to be a customer of mine, the kitchen was immaculate, staff top-notch…but their suppliers are raising their prices, something has to give. Portion size ain’t a bad thing. Vote with your wallet if you don’t like it.
Bagels of the same size have gone from $.75 to $2.20 in 15 years, most of the jump since 2020. 20 oz pop went from $1 to $2.75 2000-2025. And yes, other things have gotten a lot smaller per package. Two sleeves of round crackers used to fill the container at home, now it is four sleeves.
I don’t blame the bagel guy for raising prices, because he has to pay for the ingredients. I blame things like the feds dumping $$$ into the system, and the carbon-tax bushwa that raised the price of fertilizer and other things that then make wheat and everything else cost more. (I understand that hail, excess rain at the wrong time, drought and so on are not the .gov’s fault. Weather happens. Meddlin’ with prices for inputs is the feds fault.)
You are correct, Sir! on all counts EXCEPT, (((They))) DO modify the weather. (((They))) call it Geoengineering. To stop Glow Bull warming, doncha know?.
I used to be a die hard Conspiracy Skeptic, then I was taken out of my comfortable bubble and subjected to never ending discovery, red pills. Once you know they are there, you can’t stop finding them, or, maybe some can.
My basic view is that renewables are an accounting fraud, in a situation where almost no one understands what correct accounting procedure would be. (IE, tracking food(important but maybe impossible to do numerically), energy, and fiat money currency.) If we use this, we can see that the renewable subsidies are potentially enough accounting malpractice that renewables are a net cost on energy translating to economic wealth generation. (IE, renewables are a net waste paid for by fossil fuels.)
Then, the combinations of taxes, renewables, and regulations would extract and sink wealth from the economy, and would be expected to increase uninflated costs for food.
This before considering, as I do, that federal pressures on the reserve banks could easily do a lot of stuff to cause inflation by imagining currency numbers into the system.
The inflation tax is very real, even if it’s rate of increase is slowing. Shrink-flation, as you note, is also very real. It’s been going on for decades, but has become far more pronounced in the last couple years. Ice cream is no longer ‘Half a gallon’ but 46 ounces. Hot dogs no longer come in 1 lb packages, but 12-14 ounces. Fast food has always been crap, but now it’s very expensive crap in smaller packages and the franchises are failing for lack of customers.
Some grocery stores and restaurants are pricing themselves right out of business, as all their costs rise but all their customers have less money to spend.
I don’t have any answers, beyond plant a bigger garden and and do what we must to keep home and family in one piece.
We had a local Popeye’s close. It’s one of many fast food restaurants that can’t make a profit for the franchise owners. Two closed unexpectantly, and employees found out about their loss of employment while arriving for work.
Our local Dairy Queen closed too. The quality decreased, the building needed maintenance, and you never knew if the air condition was working. There isn’t much enjoyment in a frozen treat, when it melts as you’re paying your bill. Customers were available, but refused to spend money for high prices that didn’t reflect the product. The owner gave up, closed the restaurants, and counted their losses.
The fast food chains have been doing it for years.
Not all – In N Out portions seem unchanged, and their price increases have stayed within reason. But Popeye’s? We’ve given up on them. Sure, you get the same number of pieces, but they’re closer to Cornish game hen size.
For the CF, shrinking portions isn’t entirely a bad thing – I’m a fairly big guy and often had trouble cleaning my plate, much less leaving room for dessert. That’s far from the case at most of its fast food and casual dining rivals, though.
Folgers Coffee used to come in a proper #10 can, now it comes in a plastic container. The volume provided has been reduced twice since the switch from the can.
Oh, and the price is skyrocketing too. Did I mention I’m drinking far less coffee these days?
I went to a Red Robin for the first time in years. The burger seemed much smaller than what I remembered.
I don’t think my memory was faulty.
It’s all part of (((Their))) Program.
The Narrative should calm you.
obligatory: sarc, but just for the “Narrative” part.
Boats- But we do!
RJ- Agreed! Wally world is notorious for that…
Bob- Thanks for the link!
ERJ- Good point, and no question the time to failure is shrinking.
Joe- I am. I’ve given up on most fast food places, not only for the price, but the lack of quality anymore.
TXRed- Yes! There are ‘reasons’, but damn… and .gov sticking their oar in is NOT helping!
Art- I would have a garden if I didn’t have a black thumb. And agree with all.
Jess- I’ve seen that with quite a few franchises. They got in it to make money, but aren’t so they just give it up with no warning. The ones that get hurt are the employees.
Java- We don’t have In N Out, but Whataburger is doing about the same thing. Agreed on Popeyes…I used to like them. Haven’t been to a CF in 20 years.
Some examples of shrinkflation. Going thru the pictures, it’s worse than I had remembered
The original shrinkers were the Hagen Daz commies with their 14oz pint.
So what you’re telling me is that I won’t be branded a hawg if I order two entres at dinner. Cool.
Paying more to get less is like death and taxes…an inevitability.
Ag- Yeah, no more ‘pound’ of coffee in a can…sigh
Kevin- That doesn’t surprise me.
Steve- Ouch!
0007- I could never afford it, so I didn’t realize that, thanks!
LL- Sure, why not! 🙂
Dan- Sigh…you’re not wrong.
ONFO – I really couldn’t afford it either, BUT it was(and still is) the closest thing to “real” ice cream with a minimum of weird chemical in their flavors.
I resist the only way I have to resist. I vote my wallet. A group meets on Sunday for breakfast. Most weeks, that is the only time I eat out. I don’t buy convenience food. The meals I make are simple and nutritious.
Do I miss eating out? Sometimes.
A Reese’s peanut butter cup is the size of a half dollar. I bought a cheesesteak and 2 slices of pizza yesterday, and I was stunned when it cost $19! It’s crazy.
The first time this really became obvious was during Obama’s reign. Cerealboxes stayed the same size, but the contents shrank to about 10-12 ozs to keep the price the same. Quaker Oats dropped the quality to where it was identical to store brand versions, so no need to pay the premium.
I went to buy another batch of socks from WigWam, and the prices seemed ok, but the quality was trash, and I have never considered them since then. Producers should keep that in mind, that playing games with the product quality is generally stupid.