{"id":386929,"date":"2025-11-18T06:12:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T06:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/386929\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T06:12:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T06:12:19","slug":"how-to-spot-hidden-inflation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/386929\/","title":{"rendered":"How to spot hidden inflation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Holiday shopping lists are coming with heftier price tags this year, and not just because of obvious price hikes.<\/p>\n<p>Companies are also using sneaky tactics to charge more while keeping sticker prices the same.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have noticed a size change in some of the things \u2014 for a higher price,&#8221; said shopper Debbie Ostling.<\/p>\n<p><b>WATCH:  A financial expert shows us the hidden inflation you may not notice at first:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Hidden Inflation: Shrinkflation, Skimpflation, and Sneakflation<\/p>\n<p><b>Types of Hidden Inflation<\/b> <\/p>\n<p>Paul Ricci, CEO of the financial services company <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bestegg.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Best Egg,<\/a> said traditional inflationary price hikes are obvious and easy to spot.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s a little harder to track is when prices are staying the same, but you&#8217;re getting less product, you&#8217;re getting worse quality, you are getting less service,&#8221; Ricci said.<\/p>\n<p>Customers don\u2019t like seeing higher prices, which is why companies turn to hidden forms of inflation:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"rte2-style-ul\">\n<li>Shrinkflation: Paying the same price for a smaller size or smaller amount\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Skimpflation: Paying the same price for lower quality \u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Sneakflation: Paying the same price with fewer perks, such as airlines charging extra for seat selection and carry-on bags.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Research from <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/capitaloneshopping.com\/research\/shrinkflation-statistics\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Capital One Shopping<\/a> found shrinkflation, which increases the cost per unit, averaged more than 16% among national grocery brands in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The study revealed significant size reductions across popular products. For example:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"rte2-style-ul\">\n<li>Peanut butter shrank 36% or 3.2 ounces\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Boxes of protein bars shrank 20% or two bars\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Toilet paper shrank by 13% or 37 sheets.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Spotting hidden inflation<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Ricci suggests shoppers read reviews to see if what they&#8217;re paying matches their expectations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you\u2019re not getting the product for your dollar today as you were before, that should affect your decision to buy their product,&#8221; Ricci said.<\/p>\n<p>To combat hidden inflation, Ricci urges shoppers to look at product labels and unit sizes and prepare their finances for higher costs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Make sure you have a plan to manage the debt that you have, not add to that debt, and work within the budget with those constraints,&#8221; Ricci said.<\/p>\n<p>Shopper Larissa England is noticing higher costs during her holiday shopping.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Especially those high-end toys, way overpriced,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>She adopted a practical money-saving approach for her family.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Make sure we cut down on what we do buy, let the kids know it is a different type of year, different type of time,&#8221; England said.<\/p>\n<p>That way, you don\u2019t waste your money.<\/p>\n<p>______________________________<\/p>\n<p>This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>______________________________<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t Waste Your Money&#8221; is a registered trademark of Scripps Media, Inc. (&#8220;Scripps&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>Follow John:<\/p>\n<p>For more consumer news and money saving advice, go to <a class=\"Link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dontwasteyourmoney.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.dontwasteyourmoney.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>More Don&#8217;t Waste Your Money news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Holiday shopping lists are coming with heftier price tags this year, and not just because of obvious price&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":386930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,79,184606,184607,184608,184609,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-386929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-hidden-inflation","11":"tag-shrinkflation","12":"tag-skimpflation","13":"tag-sneakflation","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115569226116940312","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}