Snickers refutes President Joe Biden’s allegation that the company is covertly cutting back on the size of its candy bars.
During his State of the Union speech on Thursday, Joe Biden charged snack firms with shrinkflation—a practice in which a producer packs less food while maintaining the same price.
“Let’s face it, a lot of businesses increase their pricing in an attempt to boost their profits by charging more for less. For this reason, from food to health care to housing, we’re taking tough measures against companies that participate in price-gouging and misleading pricingg.” In fact, the snack producers believe you won’t notice if they alter the bag’s size and add far fewer chips—the bag stays the same size—to it. No, I’m not making this up. We refer to it as shelfflation.”
Then Biden went straight after Snickers.
“I’m sure everyone saw the Snickers bar commercial. You spend the same amount and receive, what, maybe 10% less Snickers?” he asserted.
Nevertheless, in a statement, Mars Inc., the confectionery company that makes Snickers bars, accused Biden of lying.
The text of the statement said:
“We haven’t lowered the Snickers single or share sizes in the United States. Like many other businesses, we still deal with severe inflation and material cost surges, but we try to absorb these additional expenses wherever we can to offer the highest value and reasonably priced sweets. Retailers always have the last say on prices, however, we work hard to keep expenses as low as possible while still offering a wide selection of delectable goods.”
As his latest economic foe, Biden is focusing on shrinkflation because his line of reasoning on inflation—that it is constantly getting better and the crisis is over—collapses when examined closely.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed on Tuesday that the state of inflation is not getting better.
In actuality, the BLS reported that inflation increased by 3.2% during the previous 12 months and by 0.4% in February. Concurrently, there was a 3.8% rise in core inflation, which is the inflation rate less food and energy.
The pinch on Americans’ finances is still evident in both measures. Yes, compared to two years ago, inflation was not at 9%. But regardless of what the president says, the cost of products is still rising.
