The news: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pennsylvania) sent letters to General Mills, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo that accuse the consumer packaged goods (CPG) giants of “profiteering” through shrinkflation, per NBC News.
- The letters included several examples, such as General Mills reducing the sizes of many cereal boxes in 2021, then hiking prices five times between mid-2021 and mid-2022. It also noted PepsiCo “replaced its 32 oz Gatorade bottle with a 28 oz bottle for the same price.”
- “Shrinking the size of a product in order to gouge consumers on the price per ounce is not innovation, it is exploitation,” the letter to PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta read.