Investopedia defines shrinkflation as “the practice of reducing the size of a product while maintaining its sticker price.” On Feb. 11, President Joe Biden made a call for big corporations to stop shrinkflation in a video posted to YouTube on The White House channel.

“It’s a rip-off,” Biden said. “Some companies are trying to pull a fast one by shrinking the products little by little and hoping you won’t notice.”

Companies are shrinking products by redesigning and reorganizing the packaging so that there is less product in it while leaving the sticker price the same.

“That way the per-ounce price is higher,” social studies teacher John Deken said.

Deken teaches AP Economics, which goes over the AP curriculum for both Macroeconomics and Microeconomics.

The Rockwood curriculum covers “the principles that apply to an economic system as a whole” as well as “the principles of economics that apply to the functions of individual decision-makers, both consumers and producers, within the economic system.”

Through teaching AP Economics, Deken has learned more about the economy and economic terms. He said he’s specifically seen shrinkflation become an issue the past couple years.

“It’s common, especially in situations when overall prices are going up rapidly, and management is squeezed between their own desire to raise product prices and consumer frustration with the ballooning grocery bills,” Deken said.

U.S. Senator Bob Casey, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Children & Families, introduced the Shrinkflation Prevention Act of 2024 on Feb. 28. The act would give the Federal Trade Commission the authority to penalize companies that reduce the size of products while charging the same price. The bill, S.381, was introduced into the Senate, read twice and referred to a committee focusing on commerce.

While Casey works to get the bill passed, news sources such as U.S. News have found ways for consumers to work around shrinkflation.

One of the key takeaways from Investopedia’s article on shrinkflation is that “changes are minimal and limited to a small range of products, yet are still enough to make accurate measures of inflation more difficult to gauge.” They recommend consumers compare the price per unit to previous purchases in order to spot shrinkflation when shopping.