French grocery chain adds ‘shrinkflation’ labels to products in bid to shame supplier pricing

French grocery chain Carrefour has taken the weird step of including labels to its products which have just lately shrunk in measurement however have ramped up in value.

The transfer — each in shops and on its web site — appears to pile strain on its suppliers which have elevated costs for the chain, regardless of uncooked materials costs having just lately eased.

Carrefour added the “shrinkflation” warning stickers to a spread of products, from Lipton Iced Tea and Pepsi, to containers of Lindt sweets and child milk powder.

“Obviously, the purpose in stigmatizing these products is to find a way to inform producers to rethink their pricing coverage,” Stefen Bompais, a director of shopper communications at Carrefour, mentioned in an interview with Reuters.

Carrefour didn’t instantly reply to a CNBC request for remark.

Carrefour marked 26 products, in accordance to Reuters, with a label studying: “This product has seen its quantity or weight fall and the efficient value by the supplier rise,” as translated by the information company.

The transfer was taken as manufacturers are quickly to negotiate their place with sure retailers, Reuters mentioned.

Carrefour introduced a brand new strategic plan to deal with the present macroeconomic, geopolitical and local weather challenges in November 2022, which relies across the concept of creating its products accessible to its buyer base.

Cases of shrinkflation tend to increase in high inflation environments, Edgar Dworsky, founding father of Mouse Print, a web site that tracks cases of shrinkflation in groceries, instructed CNBC in April. But these modifications do not have a tendency to be introduced by producers, making it tough for customers to discover the modifications, he mentioned.

— CNBC’s Mike Winters contributed to this report.