Eh, can we talk about this whole “prices never go up” nonsense? Every time I read the news or see some official statement saying inflation is “stabilizing,” I feel like I’m being gaslighted by the entire retail industry.
I just came back from the supermarket and I’m genuinely pebuak. My family has this tradition where we buy those boxes of potong ice cream—the red bean and durian ones—every single week. I opened one just now and I thought I bought a sample pack by mistake. The stick is so skinny! It’s like the ice cream went on a keto diet without telling me. It used to be a solid, chunky block; now it looks like a bookmark.
And don’t even get me started on my favorite cookies. I happened to have an old pack in the pantry and compared it with the new one I just bought. The packaging looks exactly the same—same bright colors, same “Value Pack” wording—but when I checked the back, the new one is 20 grams lighter. 20 grams! That’s like three whole cookies missing.
This is the ultimate ninja move. They keep the price at $4.50 or whatever so they can claim they “haven’t increased prices,” but they’re giving us 15% less product. It’s called shrinkflation, but honestly, in Singapore, we should just call it “Sian-flation.”
I notice this happening to everything. The dishsoap bottle looks more “ergonomic” (read: thinner), the potato chip bags are 70% Tuas air, and the canned peanuts feel like they have more gravy than nuts now.
Are we just supposed to accept that we’re paying the same amount of money for a “diet” version of our groceries? I feel like by next year, I’ll be buying a box of ice cream and just getting the wooden sticks. Seriously, if you want to charge me more, just be honest and do it. Don’t try to sneakily shrink my snacks and hope I don’t notice. My stomach notices, okay!
Anyone else seeing this or am I just becoming a Grumpy Uncle?
TL;DR: Prices stay same, but products shrinking faster than my bank account. Potong ice cream now looks like a toothpick. GG.