Why Shrinking Portions and Downgrading Ingredients Is a Recipe for Losing Customers

In today’s economic climate, many food brands are feeling the pinch, rising costs for raw ingredients, energy, packaging, and transport have created serious challenges for producers of ready meals, cakes, loaves, and other convenience foods. 

But there’s one common response to these pressures that risks doing far more harm than good: quietly reducing portion sizes or downgrading the quality of ingredients.

At first glance, it might seem like a clever cost-cutting solution. Keep the product looking broadly the same, tweak a few details, and most consumers won’t notice, right? Wrong.

Your Customers Are Not Stupid

Let’s be clear—today’s customers are more informed than ever. They check labels, compare products, and share their opinions online. Whether it’s a smaller slice of cake, fewer vegetables in a ready meal, or a once-premium loaf that’s now dry and bland, people notice—and they talk. Social media is filled with side-by-side comparisons, angry rants, and disappointed reviews.

A once-loyal buyer who feels short-changed is far more likely to walk away from your brand than accept the decline as "just how it is."

Shrinkflation and Ingredient Swaps Break Trust

Reducing portion sizes while keeping prices the same, or worse, raising them, has become known as "shrinkflation." Add in the switch from quality ingredients to cheaper alternatives, and you’ve got a perfect storm of consumer resentment.

What these tactics really do is undermine trust. When a brand no longer delivers what it promised, whether it’s in taste, satisfaction, or value, customers feel betrayed. And in a crowded market, they have plenty of other options.

Short-Term Saving, Long-Term Damage

Sure, these changes might protect your profit margin in the short term. But the long-term cost is customer loyalty, and once that’s gone, it’s hard to win back. Reputation is everything in food. If consumers feel a brand has compromised on quality or honesty, they’ll move on, and they might never come back.

Instead of cutting corners, brands need to be transparent, innovative, and value-driven. If costs must go up, communicate it clearly and offer something in return, be it more sustainable packaging, better sourcing, or new product features.

Consumers Want Value, Not Just Cheapness

Let’s not confuse "cheap" with "value". A product that’s £1 cheaper but disappointing isn’t good value, it's just a bad buy. Customers are willing to pay more for food that satisfies, nourishes, and feels worth it. Whether it’s a microwave lasagne, a traybake cake, or a seeded loaf, the principles are the same: quality counts.

If your product no longer delivers the experience your customers expect, they will look elsewhere—and they won’t be shy about saying why.

Conclusion: Don't Alienate Your Customers

Businesses that think consumers are passive or easily fooled are writing their own downfall. Instead of quietly cutting back, brands should focus on honesty, quality, and consistency. Be the name that customers trust—even in tough times.

Because the truth is simple: if your ready meals are smaller, your cakes are drier, or your loaves are no longer satisfying, your customers will notice. And they’ll take their money elsewhere.

Aldi reduces prices of staple fruit and veg

Aldi supermarkets has revealed price cuts on fruit and veg products. The reason is to pass savings on to its customers during the current cost-of-living crisis.

Ten products are included in the price drop, from avocados, red peppers and easy peelers to staples such as  baking potatoes and sweetcorn. This is the latest of hundreds of prices Aldi has cut in recent times including household staples like milk and pasta.

Shoppers will see prices drop by up to 36%, with the reductions firm evidence of Aldi’s commitment to offering the best value products to all its customers. In recent weeks, it's taken the step of reducing the price of nearly 100 products.

Latest research from Which? revealed Aldi to be officially declared to be the cheapest UK supermarket in June for the 13th consecutive month. 

On a basket of goods, Aldi was the cheapest at £75.25, £7.42 cheaper than Tesco and £16.55 lower than Waitrose. On average, shoppers save 11% on a basket goods by shopping at Aldi compared against the Big Four.

Julie Ashfield, who is MD of Buying at Aldi UK, said: “We know shoppers are having to make hard choices at the moment, which is why we’re passing savings on to our customers anywhere we are able to.

“We know it can be very hard to access food that's both nutritious and affordable, so we recognise reducing the costs of healthy food and veg staples like these is so really important right now.

“We’re continuing to see high numbers of people switching to Aldi from all other supermarkets as shoppers look to save money and our promise remains that we will always offer straightforward, honest prices that we’ll keep low for our customers, every day.”

Full list of reduced items are listed here:-

• Sweetcorn (2pk)

• Iceberg Lettuce

• Baking Potatoes (4pk)

• Radish (240g)

• Watermelon

• Avocado

• Red Pepper

• Premium Easy Peelers (600g)

• Flat Peaches (4pk)

• Unwaxed Lemons (4pk)

These price cuts are in addition to Aldi’s Super 6 initiative which offers fruit and veg at great value prices.

Looking for bargains and value? Move to Stamford Street, with Sainsbury’s

Great value has a new address as Sainsbury’s moves all its entry price point brands to the name Stamford Street. 

Named after the previous home of Sainsbury’s, the brand will celebrate Sainsbury’s heritage of quality and value by assisting customers more easily find everyday staples at budget-friendly prices. 

Two thirds of Sainsbury's customers say they're concerned about the rising cost of groceries as inflation continues to bite and own brand ranges are increasingly popular as shoppers look for ways to cut back on their food spending. 

In the last three months alone, Sainsbury’s volume sales of own brand value products have grown by nearly 10%. This is why it's doing all it can to help keep prices lower and investing to refresh its value range, making it easier for customers to find fantastic prices on the staples they buy week in, week out. 

The Stamford Street range will consist of some 200 products and has already started hitting shelves, with products rolling out between now and Autumn. 

Customers will still be able to shop their favourite staples as all products from the original ranges including Mary Ann’s and J. James will be moved across. 

Over 20 new high-volume products have also been added to the range, including Soft Spread (99p), Beef & Onion pie (£2.90) and Cheese Tortelloni (£1.21). 

Stamford Street in London’s Blackfriars was the home of Sainsbury’s for over a century and the new branding reflects its commitment to combining the best possible quality with great value. To make it even easier to find the range, it features brand new packaging to give it a refreshed and distinctive look and feel. 

Products will also be grouped together on shelves and dedicated signage in stores, plus as a custom page on the website, will be set up. Sainsbury’s excellent colleagues will, as ever, be on hand to help customers find what they’re looking for. 

The launch is just one of the ways Sainsbury’s is continuing to help customers manage their budgets as summer approaches, following its record investment of more than £560 million in value over the last two years. It coincides with the latest instalment of the popular Aldi Price Match campaign which hit stores this week. 

A quarter of the products in the Stamford Street range are included in the campaign, which matches around 300 Sainsbury’s quality products to Aldi prices. New products have been added to the campaign including canned tuna, which has been reduced in price to 72p per tin. This week Sainsbury’s announced its move to 100% MSC certified pole and line caught canned tuna and it's the first of the big four supermarkets to do this.

Sainsbury’s customers will also be able to save money on their favourite branded products following the recent launch of Nectar Prices, which offers discounts to all supermarket and online customers using the Nectar app or card. It's already exceeding expectations and customers have saved over £34 million across discounts on over 1,300 products since launch.

Rhian Bartlett, who is the Food Commercial Director at Sainsbury’s, said: “Our own brand products are becoming more and more important to our customers as the cost of living crisis continues to impact so many households up and down the country.

"This is why we’ve worked to consolidate and rebrand the Stamford Street range to help our customers more easily find it in stores and online. Offering customers delicious food at affordable prices has been at the heart of Sainsbury’s for over 150 years and this is why I’m so proud to see these products now on shelves.”