Meet skimpflation
Skimpflation is a form of inflation.
To start, skimp is a verb meaning: to try to spend less time, money, etc. on something than is really needed.
Skimping has a derogatory connotation. There are businesses skimping for greedy reasons. Some smaller businesses do not have the wherewithal to pay the new inflated prices for goods, thereby forcing them to skimp on goods.
Then there is the somewhat less mentioned skimping in little noticed ways. As an example, Papa John’s Pizza has a half price offer, for any pizza, if your hometown football team wins. Sounds great, right? Hmmm, not so great. To whit, we ordered a medium veggie pizza. The veggie is supposed to have black olives, mushrooms, peppers, onions and diced Roma tomatoes. On the entire pizza, there were approximately six olives, two-three mushrooms, a tiny bit of green pepper per slice, one piece of onion and half dozen diced tomatoes. My thought was new person not sure how much to put on, or other such excuses. That lasted until the second order with less veggies. Fooled me twice, no third chance.
Skimping is not new. Think about your canned goods. Across the board, the quantity has decreased. The price has not. The same is applicable to frozen foods. Again, quantity has decreased but not the price. I know for a fact bath soap bars have become smaller. Washing behind our ears may have to go away to save on soap.
I have not investigated paper products; however, am not going to be surprised to see less toilet paper squares per roll; less sheets on paper towel rolls, and a smaller number of tissues per box. Beware if you have a case of diarrhea!
Bottom line, we are being impacted by more inflation than they want to be in the news.