Shrinkflation Index: 15 Everyday Products That Got Smaller

The Everything-PR Shrinkflation Index finds that 15 U.S. grocery and household packages, flagged by the consumer watchdog Mouse Print between January and October 2026, now hold a median 12.0% less than before. If shelf prices stayed flat, the median cost per unit would be 13.6% higher. Stop & Shop instant oatmeal fell furthest, from 10 packets to 8, a 20.0% cut.

Last updated: November 8, 2026.

• What are the key findings?
• Which 15 products got smaller?
• Which categories lost the most?
• Which five packages shrank the most?
• Did shelf prices stay the same?
• How does this compare with national data?
• Why does shrinkflation matter for brand trust?
• What can brand teams do?
• How was the index built?
• Frequently asked questions

What are the key findings?

The index covers 15 package comparisons from five Mouse Print roundups, and the median quantity cut across them is 12.0%. Mouse Print is the consumer investigation column written by Edgar Dworsky, the founder of Consumer World, who publishes before-and-after package photos sent in by shoppers.

• Median package reduction: 12.0%, ranging from 5.0% for Eight O'Clock coffee to 20.0% for Stop & Shop instant oatmeal.
• Median implied unit-cost increase at an unchanged shelf price: 13.6%.
• Ten of the 15 packages lost 10% or more of their contents, and three lost 15% or more.
• Only the Hershey's dark chocolate assortment has a reported identical shelf price before and after: $19.99.
• The sample spans candy, frozen treats, cereal, syrup, jam, coffee, paper goods, storage bags, detergent and deodorant.
• The 15 products were selected by Everything-PR, so the median describes this sample and not the U.S. grocery market.

Which 15 products got smaller?

Fifteen packages from Hershey's, Cheer, Ziploc and 12 other products appear below, ranked from the largest percentage cut to the smallest. Each row links to the Mouse Print report that documented the change.

*The implied unit-cost rise assumes the shelf price did not change. It is a calculation, not a measured price change, except for the Hershey's dark chocolate assortment, where Mouse Print reported $19.99 for both bags.

Which categories lost the most?

Everything-PR's calculation shows that pantry and breakfast items posted the highest median cut, 13.0%, across five products. Paper and plastic goods came next at 12.0%, followed by candy and frozen treats at 11.5% and household and personal care items at 10.5%.

Each category holds only two to five products, so these medians describe this sample and should not be read as category averages.

The cut also does not depend on the unit of measure. In Everything-PR's calculation, the six packages counted in packets, plates, sheets, bags or pops have a median cut of about 12%, and the nine packages sold by weight or volume have a median cut of 12.0%.

Which five packages shrank the most?

Stop & Shop instant oatmeal, Post Premier Protein cereal, Hershey's dark chocolate assortment, Dixie Ultra paper plates and Quilted Northern mega rolls had the five largest cuts in the index.

1. Stop & Shop instant oatmeal went from 10 packets to 8, a 20.0% cut. Mouse Print noted that store brands downsize just like national brands.
2. Post Premier Protein cereal went from 11 oz to 9 oz, an 18.2% cut. Mouse Print reported that the old and new boxes look the same size side by side.
3. Hershey's dark chocolate assortment went from 29 oz to 23.9 oz, a 17.6% cut, with both bags priced at $19.99.
4. Dixie Ultra paper plates went from 35 to 30, a 14.3% cut, or five plates fewer per package.
5. Quilted Northern mega rolls went from 295 to 255 sheets, a 13.6% cut that Mouse Print says removes almost a full roll from a six-pack.

The Quilted Northern case has a second step. Mouse Print reported that the same mega roll fell from 328 to 295 sheets about three years earlier, so Everything-PR's arithmetic on those two Mouse Print reports shows 22.3% fewer sheets per roll than the 328-sheet version.

Did shelf prices stay the same?

Only one of the 15 comparisons carries a reported shelf-price comparison: Mouse Print found that the Hershey's dark chocolate assortment sold for $19.99 in both the 29 oz bag and the 23.9 oz bag. Everything-PR's calculation puts that at about 69 cents per ounce before and about 84 cents per ounce after, a 21.3% increase.

For the other 14 products, the index calculates what would happen if the shelf price held and makes no claim that it did. A retailer may have changed a price at the same time, so the unit-cost column is a scenario and not a price tracker.

Cheer shows why the scenario needs care. Mouse Print reported that the 92 oz jug dropped to 81 oz, yet the bottle is good for only three fewer loads, and the dosing instructions and cap did not change. The cost per load therefore moves less than the 13.6% cost per ounce in the table.

Mouse Print's January 26 roundup also reported unchanged prices for two products outside this index: Krusteaz pancake mix, cut by over 20%, and Flamingo Estate shampoo, a $50 bottle that fell from almost 17 oz to 12 oz. Those cuts are larger than the 20.0% maximum here, which is why the oatmeal cut is the largest in this selection and not the largest Mouse Print reported in 2026.

How does this compare with national data?

The U.S. Government Accountability Office found in July 2025 that downsizing accounted for less than one tenth of a percentage point of the 34.5% rise in consumer prices from 2019 to 2024, according to its report on shrinking product sizes. GAO also found that fewer than 5% of items in each of seven product categories were downsized in its 2021 to 2023 purchase data.

Among downsized products, GAO reported in a GAO blog post on shrinkflation that the average per-unit price increase ran from 12% for paper towels to 32% for coffee.

The two studies measure different things. GAO sized shrinkflation across the whole shopping basket and across several years, while this index sizes one reported cut inside packages that did shrink. The index sample is hand-picked and nonrandom, so it cannot say how common shrinkflation is.

Why does shrinkflation matter for brand trust?

Shrinkflation matters for brand trust because shoppers judge a familiar package against what they remember, and the facts that change are often the ones printed in small type. Mouse Print reported that Post Premier cereal boxes look the same size side by side after a cut from 11 oz to 9 oz, and that Cheer kept its cap and dosing instructions after losing 11 oz.

Mouse Print also says manufacturers often keep size names such as family size while giving shoppers less in each version, a pattern it described in its October 26 roundup on Lucky Charms cereal.

None of this shows intent. The index does not assess whether a brand announced a change, whether it meant to hide one, or whether prices stayed constant, except where a cited report says so. Brand representatives can send corrections and packaging documentation through the Everything-PR corrections policy, and substantive responses will be added to the article.

Hershey's appears three times in the index. Everything-PR's account of Hershey's 2014 Cadbury lawsuit covers an earlier case where winning in court still cost the company fans.

What can brand teams do when a package shrinks?

Brand teams can protect trust by putting the new quantity where shoppers compare products: the front of the pack, the size name and the shelf tag. Three steps respond to the gaps that Mouse Print points to.

• Print the new count or net weight on the front of the pack, so the comparison happens at the shelf and not in a consumer investigation column.
• State the new count beside size names such as family, mega or share, because those names are the first thing a shopper reads and they carry the old size in memory.
• Update load, serving and sheet claims to match the new contents, as the Cheer case shows that a bottle can lose 11 oz while the dosing line stays the same.

Shoppers have their own tool. Dworsky wrote in a reply to a reader that unit pricing is a good way to compare sizes and brands, but it works less well as an alert that a familiar product shrank unless the shopper remembers the old unit price. Brand teams that keep unit prices accurate and visible with retail partners make that comparison easier. Everything-PR's 12 grocery and CPG campaigns and its analysis of where CPG brands fall short on PR show what clear consumer communication looks like in the same aisles. Related coverage sits in the Consumer Brands & Retail section, and more original studies are in the Everything-PR research library.

How was the index built?

The index is a secondary analysis of consumer-investigator observations, built in five steps from Mouse Print's 2026 shrinkflation roundups. Everything-PR did not buy the packages or obtain manufacturer confirmations.

1. Everything-PR started from five Mouse Print roundups published on January 19, January 26, June 1, October 17 and October 26, 2026.
2. Everything-PR selected 15 products with a reported before and after quantity in the same pack format. Other products in those roundups, including some larger cuts, were not selected.
3. Everything-PR re-read each Mouse Print post on November 8, 2026 and checked the before and after figures against each post.
4. Everything-PR calculated the percentage cut and the implied unit-cost rise for each product.
5. Everything-PR compared products only within the same pack format. Counts, weights, volumes and sheets are never combined into one quantity.

The report date is not the manufacturer's change date. Mouse Print described its January roundups as covering reductions from the second half of 2025, so four of the 15 changes (Viva, Post Premier, Hungry Jack and Hershey's snack size) took place in 2025, according to Mouse Print.