By HANNA MORDOH
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
If you’ve noticed the size of your snacks getting smaller, you’re not alone. A familiar monster is now expressing his frustration with “shrinkflation.”
Cookie Monster took to social media this week saying he is fed up with snacks getting smaller. The famous blue monster shared in a post on X, “Me hate shrinkflation! Me cookies are getting smaller!”
Cookie Monster says his solution is to eat double the cookies.
The monster is not wrong. According to a December report from U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), goods ranging from foods to cleaning products are shrinking.
“Household paper products, like toilet paper and paper towels, are 34.9% more expensive per unit than they were in Jan. 2019. Of that total cost increase, 10.3% is due to producers shrinking the size of rolls and packages,” the report says.
Numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics confirm that American shoppers are paying more and getting less.
“As input costs increase and costs to create a product rise, companies can increase the list price of a good or they can offer a smaller amount of the product for the same price. So, a candy bar’s size might change from 1.6 ounces to 1.5 ounces, yet the price stays the same. In other words, the price per unit the consumer pays increases as the amount they purchase decreases, while the price they pay at the register remains the same.”
CNN found that OREO Double Stuff Chocolate Sandwich Cookies had a 6 percent decrease in size by weight from January 2019 to October 2023.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says snacks experienced the largest number of size changes for food items, with a total of 509, followed by sweet rolls, coffee cake and donuts and tea and pies, tarts, and turnovers. For food items, 2.9 percent of observed prices experienced downsizing and upsizing.
This story was originally published by WISH-TV at wishtv.com/news/local-news/me-hate-shrinkflation-even-cookie-monster-is-complaining-about-shrinking-snacks.