"My wife and I have two young children, and we don't want more. But, whenever the thought crosses my mind, I think of this paper, and how, because of car seat laws, we would have to ditch our teeny Prius and buy a much bigger and more expensive minivan. The researchers found that I'm not the only one facing this dilemma, and that car-seat laws and the stubbornly high prices of three-row cars has"
"Shrinkflation is when companies shrink the amount of stuff they provide in packages or meals, which effectively raises the per-unit cost of what they're selling. Skimpflation a term we coined in this newsletter is when companies skimp on what they sell by degrading its quality. Recently, the new Panera boss, Paul Carbone, seemed to admit that his company had basically resorted to both shrinkflation and skimplation, as well as standard price hikes."
Car-seat regulations coupled with high prices for three-row vehicles have discouraged families from buying larger cars and reduced U.S. births by roughly 145,000 since 1980. Shrinkflation—shrinking package or portion sizes to raise per-unit prices—and skimpflation—downgrading product quality—are tactics companies have used alongside ordinary price hikes. Panera Bread acknowledged shrinking portions, raising prices, and using lower-quality ingredients, which backfired. These examples show how regulatory costs, vehicle market structure, and corporate cost-saving measures can affect family planning decisions and everyday consumer experiences.
Read at www.npr.org
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]