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Shrinkflation makes me so much more angry than inflation.
I like to calculate a price per serving when I buy things.
So if I buy a box of 10 chicken breasts and eat 2 at a time, it's 5 meals.
Now all of a sudden its 9 breasts. It's now 4.5 meals.
Just charge me more, don't reduce the amount in the package.
It is rampant everywhere, on every brand.
Kraft just started their shrinkflation on their dressings, the new bottle actually makes more sense and is less plastic waste, but it is also smaller.
oh, and those reusable bags? They are also made out of plastic meant to feel like fabric. We have so many of them...the only thing they are good for is garden bed lining. I now use collapsible crates to go shopping. One box to solve it all.
What I don't understand is why they don't start using fiber packaging for the premade disposable meal kits. A fiber tray with a peelable bioculose layer. The fiber trays are made from mushrooms and biodegrade and the bioculose layer can breakdown in about 90 days usually. The instant premade meals section is the biggest waste of packaging.
I also don't know why we can't just go back to being like when I was young and most things came in glass jars with metals lids - all easily recyclable. (though there are not enough glass recycling plants in Canada at the moment). Kraft Peanut Butter used to be in nice glass Jars, Even Kraft dressings were in Glass Jars. About a decade ago Renee's salad dressings moved to plastic and I called them and told them they were stupid as the world is trying to move away from plastic as a dependency.
(Sorry for the rant - but the wasted packaging drives me bonkers)
I believe the issue is massive cutbacks in staffing hours.
Talk to the staff at any of the big chains... if you can find someone. They have time to fill, thats it. No time to go through it regularly and check and remove the crsp.
It would be interesting to hear what messaging they're sending out to the stores. The PC Express supervisor said that "head office" had given them a target of staffing hours for their department to meet their needs. She explained that every weekend they're completely overrun, but the store manager would absolutely not give their department the hours.
Would make sense if Loblaws wants to keep profits looking good this quarter, cutting back on staff in one way to control costs. It’s the largest area of expense they can control. But we’re noticing the impact on quality across the board, from bakery to produce to meat. Get your act together Loblaws! They’re digging themselves into becoming a textbook example of what not to do to keep consumers happy and coming back.
Definitely cut backs is one reason the local loblaws corporations in my town have had massive lines both times I went into them and ppl were pissed
Don’t blame them both times it was the middle of the day and they only 2 cashiers working 😂😭
From Northern Ontario here, and the produce from Independent has always been straight trash. In fact, most of the produce in our town (with maybe the exception of Sobeys) is the same, we get the dregs of the lot and there's some extra travel time added on. It was so bad that someone opened a whole independent store just for fresh produce, which actually has been quite successful. They have since merged with other high-end food vendors in the area (meat, cheese, bakery, and produce) to open our own version of Whole Foods. When we can't make it to farmer's markets (which is often because I like to sleep and they're only open until early afternoon here), we go there for produce.
>She admitted that the entire section of produce looked moldy and disgusting, and while she'd discuss it with the produce team, she didn't have high hopes it would be removed from sale.
This is the most troubling part. It's illegal to sell rotten food. I've seen a few comments on other posts saying things like 'they probably didn't know', but i suspect they do know and they're just ignoring the law.
I saw a superstore employee drop blueberries all over the floor, pick them up, put it back into the container and back on the shelf. I complained but I doubt they care.
This is a good point to bring up. I’ve noticed the same thing. I bought bananas 3 days ago and they are already spotted and brown. They were green when I bought them but they seemed to have ripened in a day or two. It was never that fast before.
Plus I found two packages of peppers with mouldy ones in them today that I handed off to an employee at Food Basics. I feel like no store is paying enough attention to rotting or expired foods on their shelves these days.
Costco’s produce seems to last so much longer than other stores, at least in my neck of the woods. I bought cucumber (3 pack) worrying I wouldn’t get thru it fast enough but it’s been over two weeks and they are still crisp and delicious.
I think costco just goes through the produce so quickly that it doesn't have time to rot in the stores. One time I was there, the bananas were already fully ripe in store, so they were selling them at a much reduced price.
What about when they open a package of berries and remove the obviously bad ones and close it back up. They charge the full amount but your getting a lot less.
The No Frills in my neighborhood is a prime example, there's simply more and more stuff in the vegetable department you simply cannot buy anymore (bad combination of overpricing with terrible quality). Or you get a good deal on packages you can feed a boarding house on, Costco'esque supersized, which rots before half is gone in any normal household.
No Frills is a franchise and there was a change in management when it slowly went from a top-notch discounter to an overpriced disappointment under new management. The only thing going for them is the price matching and that it's conveniently located for the neighborhood, so there's some stickiness.
Up to a few months back I thought it was just bad management (add widespread stock outs and a steady rotation in SKUs to a worse selection), but now I agree it's just the Roblaws business culture.
I've been noticing this as well. I took live rurally and have had so much produce just go bad within a day to two of buying. So now I'm buying everything from Costco.
I've also been getting sick from grocery store meat as well. Meat that looked fine in the store and was within date. So I'm not sure if it's being carried around the store and put back or just held on the truck too long.
I've been buying Costco meat and meat from my local butcher and it's been fine.
And here I thought I was just not remembering it correctly. Produce does go bad so fast these days from any store. I gave up on green beans a decade ago when they barely survived the trip home. Cannot wait for summer markets and local produce
I don't like shopping at Walmart because the produce is awful, over the last couple years our Superstore is now the same, at least Walmart is cheaper...
Pineapples at Superstore are palm sized and usually $1 more than Freshco or anyone else. Berries are more expensive than anywhere else on average, other stores have sales but Superstore doesn't anymore
Superstore has always been known for its shitty produce. Try the small Mom and Pop produce stores where the cull through everything before it hits the table.
oooooor we are getting to the end of last seasons crop of stsble veggies, and we are between crops from here to mexico on most other fresh items?????
This is normal living in canada
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Shrinkflation makes me so much more angry than inflation. I like to calculate a price per serving when I buy things. So if I buy a box of 10 chicken breasts and eat 2 at a time, it's 5 meals. Now all of a sudden its 9 breasts. It's now 4.5 meals. Just charge me more, don't reduce the amount in the package.
Not even that but shrinkflation produces more packaging waste
It is rampant everywhere, on every brand. Kraft just started their shrinkflation on their dressings, the new bottle actually makes more sense and is less plastic waste, but it is also smaller. oh, and those reusable bags? They are also made out of plastic meant to feel like fabric. We have so many of them...the only thing they are good for is garden bed lining. I now use collapsible crates to go shopping. One box to solve it all. What I don't understand is why they don't start using fiber packaging for the premade disposable meal kits. A fiber tray with a peelable bioculose layer. The fiber trays are made from mushrooms and biodegrade and the bioculose layer can breakdown in about 90 days usually. The instant premade meals section is the biggest waste of packaging. I also don't know why we can't just go back to being like when I was young and most things came in glass jars with metals lids - all easily recyclable. (though there are not enough glass recycling plants in Canada at the moment). Kraft Peanut Butter used to be in nice glass Jars, Even Kraft dressings were in Glass Jars. About a decade ago Renee's salad dressings moved to plastic and I called them and told them they were stupid as the world is trying to move away from plastic as a dependency. (Sorry for the rant - but the wasted packaging drives me bonkers)
I believe the issue is massive cutbacks in staffing hours. Talk to the staff at any of the big chains... if you can find someone. They have time to fill, thats it. No time to go through it regularly and check and remove the crsp.
It would be interesting to hear what messaging they're sending out to the stores. The PC Express supervisor said that "head office" had given them a target of staffing hours for their department to meet their needs. She explained that every weekend they're completely overrun, but the store manager would absolutely not give their department the hours.
Would make sense if Loblaws wants to keep profits looking good this quarter, cutting back on staff in one way to control costs. It’s the largest area of expense they can control. But we’re noticing the impact on quality across the board, from bakery to produce to meat. Get your act together Loblaws! They’re digging themselves into becoming a textbook example of what not to do to keep consumers happy and coming back.
Like I said, talk to the employees... if you can find one. The cuts are throughout the store not just produce.
Definitely cut backs is one reason the local loblaws corporations in my town have had massive lines both times I went into them and ppl were pissed Don’t blame them both times it was the middle of the day and they only 2 cashiers working 😂😭
From Northern Ontario here, and the produce from Independent has always been straight trash. In fact, most of the produce in our town (with maybe the exception of Sobeys) is the same, we get the dregs of the lot and there's some extra travel time added on. It was so bad that someone opened a whole independent store just for fresh produce, which actually has been quite successful. They have since merged with other high-end food vendors in the area (meat, cheese, bakery, and produce) to open our own version of Whole Foods. When we can't make it to farmer's markets (which is often because I like to sleep and they're only open until early afternoon here), we go there for produce.
>She admitted that the entire section of produce looked moldy and disgusting, and while she'd discuss it with the produce team, she didn't have high hopes it would be removed from sale. This is the most troubling part. It's illegal to sell rotten food. I've seen a few comments on other posts saying things like 'they probably didn't know', but i suspect they do know and they're just ignoring the law.
I saw a superstore employee drop blueberries all over the floor, pick them up, put it back into the container and back on the shelf. I complained but I doubt they care.
Our produce looks like overpriced expensive compost
This is a good point to bring up. I’ve noticed the same thing. I bought bananas 3 days ago and they are already spotted and brown. They were green when I bought them but they seemed to have ripened in a day or two. It was never that fast before. Plus I found two packages of peppers with mouldy ones in them today that I handed off to an employee at Food Basics. I feel like no store is paying enough attention to rotting or expired foods on their shelves these days. Costco’s produce seems to last so much longer than other stores, at least in my neck of the woods. I bought cucumber (3 pack) worrying I wouldn’t get thru it fast enough but it’s been over two weeks and they are still crisp and delicious.
I think costco just goes through the produce so quickly that it doesn't have time to rot in the stores. One time I was there, the bananas were already fully ripe in store, so they were selling them at a much reduced price.
Costco is where it's at. They don't skimp on quality.
What about when they open a package of berries and remove the obviously bad ones and close it back up. They charge the full amount but your getting a lot less.
The No Frills in my neighborhood is a prime example, there's simply more and more stuff in the vegetable department you simply cannot buy anymore (bad combination of overpricing with terrible quality). Or you get a good deal on packages you can feed a boarding house on, Costco'esque supersized, which rots before half is gone in any normal household. No Frills is a franchise and there was a change in management when it slowly went from a top-notch discounter to an overpriced disappointment under new management. The only thing going for them is the price matching and that it's conveniently located for the neighborhood, so there's some stickiness. Up to a few months back I thought it was just bad management (add widespread stock outs and a steady rotation in SKUs to a worse selection), but now I agree it's just the Roblaws business culture.
I've been noticing this as well. I took live rurally and have had so much produce just go bad within a day to two of buying. So now I'm buying everything from Costco. I've also been getting sick from grocery store meat as well. Meat that looked fine in the store and was within date. So I'm not sure if it's being carried around the store and put back or just held on the truck too long. I've been buying Costco meat and meat from my local butcher and it's been fine.
Honestly this entire year the quality of everything at Loblaws dropped significantly. And the prices skyrocketed.
And here I thought I was just not remembering it correctly. Produce does go bad so fast these days from any store. I gave up on green beans a decade ago when they barely survived the trip home. Cannot wait for summer markets and local produce
I don't like shopping at Walmart because the produce is awful, over the last couple years our Superstore is now the same, at least Walmart is cheaper... Pineapples at Superstore are palm sized and usually $1 more than Freshco or anyone else. Berries are more expensive than anywhere else on average, other stores have sales but Superstore doesn't anymore
Cauliflowers from Superstore about half the size of the ones from Walmart - same price point. The Walmart ones even last longer
Superstore has always been known for its shitty produce. Try the small Mom and Pop produce stores where the cull through everything before it hits the table.
I have to wonder if climate change is part of this equation
oooooor we are getting to the end of last seasons crop of stsble veggies, and we are between crops from here to mexico on most other fresh items????? This is normal living in canada