A growing number of customers are grumbling online about receiving smaller portions while dining as so-called “shrinkflation” takes hold at struggling businesses, according to data from review site Yelp.
Restaurants and other businesses are down on serving sizes due to the onset of decades-high inflation. Yelp users have started to take notice of the trend, with reviews containing “inflationary language” up 28% in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the same period last year.
“We saw reviewers use inflation-related language at record levels, particularly in the dining, arts and entertainment and travel categories,” said Pria Mudan, data science leader at Yelp. “And for the first time, reviewers are describing shrinkflation-related experiences where the size or quantity of goods are noticeably smaller.”
Shrinkflation “is most referenced at restaurants serving more affordable fare,” Mudan added. Reviews mentioning inflation-related experiences jumped 38% year-over-year at casual restaurants, 36% at food businesses and 30% at nightlife businesses.
Restaurants serving popular, traditionally low-cost items such as hot dogs, hamburgers and pizza generated the most “shrinkflation”-related complaints, according to Yelp’s report. Customers also grumbled about serving sizes at seafood spots and restaurants serving Italian or Chinese food.
...
It has been about 9 months since I made a batch of egg rolls. I was at the Asian grocery and noticed all veggies necessary to make egg rolls on the discount shelf as I had a leftover chicken breast in the fridge. With the veggies in my cart I got some egg role wrappers. My recipe is for 25 egg rolls as that is the count, plus or minus one, that comes in a package. I had cooked up the cabbage, celery leaves, green onions, and sweat onions with the appropriate amount of celery salt and salt and pepper. I roll out the first four and start the fry process. I ran out of wrappers when I had 19 egg rolls. I was 6 short but had the stuffing and chicken to make them. The excess went into the trash. Shrinkflation causes waist.
ReplyDelete