Shrinkflation...
It's a thing...
One of America's most popular restaurant chains has been accused of "shrinkflation" by some of its most loyal customers.
The Cheesecake Factory, famous for its large portion sizes, has 200-plus locations across the United States. The chain is well-known for having an expansive, calorie-packed menu of over 250 items across various cuisines.
But the restaurant is now being accused of shrinkflation, which is when companies make products smaller while keeping prices the same or raising them.
Full article, HERE from Fox News.
Actually, this is nothing new, it's been going on for a while, most notably with packaged foods like cereal, chips, cookies, etc. A couple of years ago, I got a bag of chips on a flight (YAY NO PRETZELS), and it had eight, count 'em EIGHT chips in the bag... sigh... The next bag had fourteen!
But this is now also hitting the restaurant chains, and anywhere food is served, I believe. I think you will see the end of 'endless' things like breads, salads, and buffets. The rationale is saving money for the corporation as profits shrink due to lack of customers and higher salaries to keep staff. Contrary to what the left says, restaurants run on thin margins, and any cost increase can cause a successful restaurant to go in the red.
That is why we've seen a number of 'high end' restaurants close on the west coast, between the new wage requirements, fewer customers, and higher cost of ingredients.
What is coming down the road? Personally, I think we will continue to see higher prices for less product, and portion sizes decreasing meat, fish, poultry, and pork in the stores. I also think we will see a diminishing of product availability in things like chips, cereal, soft drinks, and possibly things like condiments as manufacturers look at bottom lines and what product sells and what doesn't.
Of note, from what I've seen over the years, American portion sizes were larger than anywhere else in the world... FWIW...
Your thoughts?
The Left has always been an enemy of 'cheap' or 'inexpensive' food. That is why they have for decades done everything they can to put 'fast food' chains out of business. They hadn't been having any success until they hit upon the idea of the 30 dollar an hour minimum wage.
They KNOW that fast food restaurants operate on thin margins and over the last 20 years, California leftists have been experimenting with different ways to destroy those margins. When they got the idea that fast-food workers deserved to be paid the same as people who do actual skilled labor, that was when they finally started to get success.
The Left KNOWS that one of the things you need to do, to control people, is to take away their food. Fast-food the left hates like a vampire hates a cross, because it's cheap and nutritious and it allows poor people to eat well (Supersize Me was a propaganda movie and completely fictional).
We are also seeing ingredient substitution, specifically cheaper proteins for higher quality and / or tastier ones.
For one example, Mrs B noted that some of Panera Bread's sandwiches are now being made with chicken, not turkey. For another, I've noticed that microwave entrees are trending to use more soy and other plant proteins to get to the grams of protein advertised on the box.
(As to why I know the latter, I travel a lot and hitting a local grocery store makes it a lot easier to control both calories and cost, than eating at restaurants all the time... And I'm asocial, and after being on a plane for hours usually want some "nobody within 20 feet" time.)
Anyway I suspect this is a general trend and if food packaging came with ingredient weights as well as just a list, we'd find increasing quantities of cheaper grains, legumes, etc. as well as proteins.