'Downsizing is really a sneaky price increase,' Dworsky says. Downsizing and shrinkflation both refer to the same thing: companies reducing the size or quantity of their products while charging the same price or even more. He refers to it by its original name, downsizing, but economist Pippa Malmgren rechristened it 'shrinkflation' about a decade ago, and the term stuck. He has spent decades tracking instances of companies shrinking products on his website Mouseprint. It was an open-and-shut case: General Mills is yet another perpetrator of 'shrinkflation.'ĭownsizing and shrinkflation mean the same thingĭworsky is a former Massachusetts assistant attorney general and longtime consumer advocate. General Mills had downsized the contents of its 'family size' boxes from 19.3 ounces to 18.1 ounces.ĭworsky went to the checkout aisle, and both boxes - gasp! - were the same price. Aha! The tip he had received was right on the money. He grabbed an old box of Cocoa Puffs and put it side by side with the new one. Sure enough, old boxes of Cocoa Puffs and Apple Cinnamon Cheerios were stacked at the end of one of the aisles. Then Dworsky headed toward the back of the store. It was as though the suspect's fingerprints had been wiped clean.

The store had already replaced old General Mills cereal boxes - such as Cheerios and Cocoa Puffs - with newer ones.

He stepped into the cereal aisle, where he hoped to find the smoking gun. A couple of weeks ago, Edgar Dworsky walked into a Stop & Shop grocery store in Somerville, Mass., like a detective entering a murder scene.

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