What is this new label arriving in your stores on July 1st?

Brands have abused it, the government has decided to bang its fist on the table. Starting July 1, consumers will be warned when a brand practices “shrinkflation”, a contraction of the English word “shrink” which means to reduce, and inflation. This legal technique consists of increasing the price of a product while reducing its weight. Lay’s, Magnum, Lipton, Pampers, Kiri… Many have taken advantage of it. But if this practice could go unnoticed until now, it is now over.

The government published a decree at the beginning of May to regulate this principle. From now on, all stores over 400m2 are obliged to display next to all food or non-food items concerned a label bearing the following statement: “For this product, the quantity sold increased from X to Y and its price increased by X% or Y euros” This applies to all items whose quantity reduction is not linked to a change in composition or an innovation.

No items affected at Carrefour and Intermarché

But apparently, there should not be very few posters on store shelves. Contacted by CapitalCarrefour explains to us that it has “implemented a procedure that aims to identify the products affected by this practice and to correct their price upstream with our suppliers. Thanks to this work, there are currently no no cases of shrinkflation expected in store on July 1st“. On the other hand, the distributor specifies that if “a product sold in Carrefour stores was likely to be affected by the shrinkflationthe sign will of course respect the law and will proceed with the display” Same story at Intermarché. The brand tells us that “There will be very few, if any, products affected” While Système U mentions around ten products which could be singled out.

Have brands, fearing being caught out, fallen into line? Probably.We believe that this law, through its deterrent role, makes manufacturers responsible and helps prevent this type of practice.», indicates Carrefour. But consumers will still have to stay vigilant. Already because only stores of more than 400m2 are affected by this decree. Convenience stores and other small stores can therefore continue to operate as they wish. Furthermore, what about cheapflation, this phenomenon which consists of replacing a noble ingredient with another of lower quality? You will therefore need to continue to examine your product labels closely.