What are Skimpflation, Shrinkflation and Greedflation?

Economist, bureaucrat and writer Mahfi Eğilmez, attracted attention with the three concepts he used in his articles and X shares. One of these concepts skimpflation, someone shrinkflation the other is greedflation happened. So what are these three concepts? How is it different from inflation as we know it?

Mahfi Eğilmez’s posts were as follows:

You can access Eğilmez’s article here.

First, let’s start with skimlifting.

Skimpflation, in fact those who are nostalgic It is a concept that he mentions without even realizing it. In essence “sell inferior product for the same priceIn skimpflation, which can be defined as “, the content of the products changes and their quality decreases. For example, second-class cheese begins to be used instead of first-class cheese. As the old people often say, “Where are those old smelly tomatoes?” The answer to the question can be partially explained by this phenomenon: As Turkey’s purchasing power decreases, better products are produced. when selling abroad We are left with tasteless, odorless, vitamin-free tomatoes. These tomatoes are also used in products containing tomatoes.

The second issue is greedflation.

Greed word, English greed It means. Opportunists who think “They have to buy it anyway” cause greedflation by making price increases that cannot be explained by inflation or the exchange rate. “Laissez-faire, economic progress occurs when the individual maximizes his own interest.” founder of philosophy Adam Smith even If he sees these peopleWe didn’t say that much!” he used to say. Products where we see price increases twice the inflation rate because people have to buy them and will buy them anyway, are affected by greedflation.

There is also the concept of Shrinkflation

Here too, the price of the product remains the same, of course, this price constancy when we look at the details It is not valid. When the 100 gram product decreases to 80 grams and the price remains the same, the price per kilo of the product actually increases by 25%. In this case, the price increase is hidden behind the decreasing grammage. This situation is especially noticeable in products such as bread. In packaged products, first the weight decreases, and then maxi lengths appear on the market. If the market improves, the word “maxi” will be removed from maxi packages and the maxi size will become standard. In the next economic downturn, these packages will also shrink.

So what is our current situation?

The quality of the products is decreasing Both their weights are decreasing and their prices are increasing. In this case, the declared inflation and the inflation we perceive are different. Therefore, the pressure created by economic difficulties affects our daily lives more than can be expressed in numbers.

So in summary, everything is lower quality and smaller, but we still can’t afford to buy anything.