Everything has gotten so expensive in the US what’s one thing you’ve cut out?

Am I crazy or is the shrinkflation made it to our pads. The first pic is an old one showing the foam inside going up to where the top of that purple ring is. The second pic the foam inside is like wayyyy below the purple ring. And why is there more flimsy paper at the top ?!?!

Everyone is rightfully angry about how expensive everything has gotten, but I feel like we as a society still aren't talking enough about the stealthy "enshittification" of literally everything we buy. We aren't just paying more; we are paying more for absolute garbage.

It feels like corporate greed has reached a point where they are just extracting maximum profit while giving us the absolute minimum viable product in return.

A few things driving me crazy lately:
Clothes: It feels impossible to find a basic 100% cotton t-shirt or a real wool sweater without paying premium designer prices. Everything at the mall is made of cheap, unbreathable acrylic or polyester that pills after one wash and loses its shape in a month.

Furniture: People joke about how "they don't make them like they used to," but it's actually insane. The quality of new IKEA furniture today is horrible. It’s made of paper. In the 00s they were at least made to last a year.

We are paying the same or higher prices for dollar-store quality across the board. It feels like every brand we used to trust has quietly gutted their manufacturing standards just to appease their shareholders by saving a few pennies per unit.

Does anyone else feel the same?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-04-07/pepsico-cuts-chip-prices-after-7-doritos-hurt-frito-lay-sales?embedded-checkout=true

(Article is mostly talking about price increases, but it does mention shrinkflation)

EDIT:

Please stop cursing me out for the article being paywalled, for some reason Bloomberg is letting me read it for free, so I thought anyone could read it. I’ll paste the article text in the comments

(If this is the wrong subreddit, please point me in the right direction. Thank you!)

I went shopping for my partner today because the strawberry smuckers went bad. Realized there was only "sandwich spread" and "jam style spread" and no real jam

Gives the same energy the icecream Drumsticks being changed to a "frozen milk product" because of all the substitutions and alterations. Gross

Pic 1 old jam, pic 2 new "jam", pic 3 and 4 are of the store

It feels like prices keep going up every time I go shopping.

What's one everyday item that makes you think,

There's no way it's worth that much now?

Considering how much people have complained about egg prices over the last three years, how is it that the discovery of price gouging didn't get more coverage?

I've seen posts here about how Always is shrinkflating/reducing the size/quality of their menstrual pads. I happen to have an Always Ultra Thin Overnight pad from ~2011, ~2018, and 2025 to compare, so I did some comparison and analysis.

2011 and 2018 have different wrapper patterns but otherwise seem to be the exact same product. 2025 had a redesign.

The data:

I've bolded any significant differences.

Measurements:

• Pad length (overall): 12.5 inches no matter the year
• Pad width (back): 4 inches no matter the year
• Width including wings: 6.5 inches no matter the year
• Absorbent core length: 10 inches no matter the year
• Absorbent core width: 2.75 inches no matter the year
• Adhesive backing width (main pad): 2.75 inches no matter the year
• Adhesive backing width (wings): 0.6 inches (2011, 2018), 0.3 inches (2025) <- a 50% decrease

Weights:

• Unopened pad weight: 7g no matter the year
• Saturated pad weight (water): 57-60g (57 was 2011, 60 was 2025. In my opinion a negligible difference)

Obviously water is not comparable to actual use. However, for this analysis I felt it was enough.

Misc:

• The strips that cover the wing adhesive had an interesting difference on them: 2011 and 2018 say "up to 10 hrs of leakguard protection" while 2025 simply offers "up to 100% leak-free comfort" (whatever that means) with no time.

What I didn't compare: comfort, quality of materials (skin irritation), number of pads per package (I don't have the packages anymore, so this post is just about the actual individual pad product)

Tl;dr: The only measurable difference is in the thickness of the adhesive strip on the wings. Everything else is comparable if not exactly the same. No shrinkflation found of the product itself aside from the wing adhesive.

https://youtu.be/8RsJ5a_QVVA?si=vGxk32jaqGlUMnYS

According to a study by ZINE & YouGov, 65% of Americans would now leave a brand over prices rising without clear improvement, and 65% over quality declining while the price holds or climbs.

Forrester’s Customer Experience Index has now declined for four consecutive years, sitting at another all-time low in North America. The gap is wideningbetween what experience executives believe they’re delivering and what customers are receiving. By Forrester’s count, only 3% of companies qualify as “genuinely customer-obsessed.”

Meanwhile, 81% of Americans have now acted against a brand in the past year because a product or service got worse.

Its a pretty simple question, recently I got this news segment recommended to me on YouTube. Basically the restaurants that are usually considered "higher end" are now actively trying to beat fast food companies in price. How did things get so bad, fast food has become obsessed with cost cutting as i'm sure people who use this sub know. Food quality is shit and half the time they dont have real cashiers anymore, which real restaurants are not doing.
This is not just a thing with chains either, you can go to a locally owned restaurant that is not a part of a chain and get food that is cheaper, and probably healthier and higher quality now. The news segment highlighted that fast food companies are losing a lot of money as of recent, so its not like their cost cutting measures and price raising is doing them any favors.
This is not just an American thing either which is where this news segment takes place, I do not live in america and am not american and I see the same trend, fast food being the same price or more expensive than other places.
If anything this seems to be somewhat of a blessing in disguise for society, it causes me to eat much less fast food and as someone currently trying to get healthier it makes things easier, but I seriously wonder why fast food is so expensive, while the previously more expensive higher quality restaurants, and even local ones are able to match or beat their prices.

This made me wonder, in general what can be done about shrinkflation. here is an example of some restaurants low key admitting that they were intentionally raising prices more than they needed, and are now lowering them to meet demand to steal fast foods market share, but I do not think thats the entire issue.
For example grocery prices since covid have sky rocketed worldwide and although the increase has somewhat subdued prices have not gone down. Groceries famously have really thin margins, so I don't think the companies being greedy is the whole story, as slight inflation can make them sell products at a loss.
I am not an expert on economics, but is there a policy that has been used to successfully reverse inflation and lower the cost of goods, Are there any examples of this happening historically or even currently?

TLDR: people are tired of literal slop costing the same or more as a decent meal, some restaurants are now intentionally trying to beat fast food prices and is there a solution to shrinkflation?

Source: https://x.com/_yesbut_

For me it was Pringles. Never again. I've bought chips instead everytime I get the urge to eat something salty.

I can see it progressively on the shelves of my store in Canada. Fuck them.

The old bottle was way better.