If you keep your receipts, it relatively easy to follow price increases for grocery items you buy again and again. Doing this for 2021 to 2023 at Aldi I find the average price increase is 40.31% with a median of 33.56% median. Quite a bit larger than official govt data.
Thanks, Mark. Yes, I know that can happen and usually that makes the numbers worse. With canned goods i think that is less of a problem. I noted the change in ice cream before for 48 oz to 46 oz. I notice deodorant stick got smaller. Easy to squeeze a few ounces out of a bag of chips or a box of snacks.
Can sizes don’t change much but Aldi has lots of tricks. Water down the product. Short fill some times. Let sliced pickles float on more liquid. Or reformulate with cheaper ingredients.
Yes, and of course Trader Joe’s is the other Aldi.
Its a German company. Is it Aldrich? The company split into north and south companies in a family conflict. Both have operations in the US. But they are separate companies.
Canned tuna is an egregious example. Went from 7 oz/can to 6 oz/can to 5.5 oz/can and there are specialty ones now that may be even lower. There’s even a story about recipes that don’t work anymore because they specified “2 cans of tuna” back 20 years ago, and now that isn’t enough and the recipe doesn’t hold together properly.
Aldi used to have two potato chip bag weights: 10 oz and 15.25 oz. The prices were roughly $2.00-$2.10 (10 oz) and $2.89 for the 15.25 oz. The 10 oz is now the only size they sell for $2.45.
Remember the “half gallon” of ice cream, that went to 1.75 quarts, then 1.5 quarts. I saw something recently that one company has now gone to 1.4 quarts.
Remember when potato chips came in a 14 or 16 oz bag? A few years ago, I had not had a bag of chips in years, so decided to get one, for the halibut. How big was the bag? 7.7oz
Notice the spindle on the toilet roll holder in your bathroom is longer than the roll? TP squares used to be 4.5", now they are 4".
Actually, the really bad part is the larger sizes of things - either because the manufacturer doesn’t want to make the smaller size or the stores don’t want to carry the smaller size. I live alone; I feed one person! I can’t buy small cans of this or that or smaller packages of whatever - everything is “family size”!!! I would be happy buy a smaller size and pay the same as the larger size; at least I’m not throwing stuff away!
Me too. So I get package sizes that are one meal or multiple meals I can prepare the package and put any extras into separate containers and reheat later. Been doing that for years.
I get a few items from Costco due to value. They are all multi-meal/serving sizes. Hot dogs can be frozen (each package)–good value. Plus, other items are already frozen–so already pre-packed for individual servings. Plus, a friend has my second card in his name, so a two-fer. He does the same for me as he gets a Sam’s Club membership. Works for me. There is also a Costco Business here, and they have additional items not sold at the warehouse (and a much smaller selection of items that are specific to Costco. No fresh bakery items, no fresh pizza, no rotisserie chicken. More resale items due to orientation to small business resellers.
There’s a new(ish) trick. Forget “shrinkflation”, now it’s “skimpflation”, where companies change the ingredients to make your favorite foods cheaper, by ditching the original recipes and ingredients without changing the packaging.
