Cookie Monster has had it and isn't about to crumble quietly!
His beloved treats are shrinking faster than his willpower around a plate of cookies, and even the White House agrees.
Just like the rest of us, the "Sesame Street" blue Muppet has reached his breaking point with shrinkflation, which refers to companies making things smaller while keeping the price of the item the same or a bit higher.
On Monday, Cookie Monster complained about the state of the U.S. economy with one single X post: “Me hate shrinkflation! Me cookies are getting smaller. 😔” and the beloved fluff ball caught the attention of the White House and Capitol Hill politicians with his complaints.
@scrippsnews Cookie Monster took to social media to say he’s upset about #shrinkflation and its impact on #cookies. 🍪 The White House agrees. #CookieMonster ♬ original sound - Scripps News
“C is for consumers getting ripped off. President Biden is calling on companies to put a stop to shrinkflation,” the White House re-tweeted his post.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio felt the same way and said, “Me too, Cookie Monster. Big corporations shrink the size of their products without shrinking their prices, all to pay for CEO bonuses. People in my state of Ohio are fed up — they should get all the cookie they pay for.”
But the news gets even more blue; it turns out Cookie is right.
According to a recent report released by the office of Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, since Jan. 2019, snacks like Oreos and Doritos have increased in price by 26.4%, with 9.8% of that due to consumers getting fewer or smaller snacks for their money.
The report reveals that Double Stuf Oreos, a crowd favorite, have shrunk by 6% in weight. Family-size packages were once 1 pound 4 ounces but are now 1 pound 2.71 ounces. However, experts on the matter say this is nothing new.
“Shrinkflation is a response of the companies to a high cost and high prices by just shrinking the size of the product. Companies have been doing this for a while, it’s not really a new phenomenon,” said Kishore Kulkarni, a professor of economics at MSU Denver.
He said higher costs, supply-chain mismanagement, and labor shortages could lead to shrinkflation.
“In order to keep the same profitability or even positive profitability they probably need to adjust and one way to do that is to make the product shrink,” Kulkarni said.
Overall, food prices in general are going up by 2.9% to 5.3%, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Price Outlook for 2024, and it's no surprise — I'm so sorry, Cookie Monster — that the dessert aisle will experience the largest price increase, with sugar and sweets rising by 5.3%.
Anyway, Cookie, we believe it's time to have a sit-down with "Sesame Street" and let them know you now require double the cookies in pay to count for shrinkflation.
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