Comment by pclowes
3 hours ago
RAM prices experiencing a spike due to a demand shock is not shrinkflation. Its a single COGS line item not a broad increase across all line items.
Note: some single item shocks can lead to broad inflation (eg: oil) but that effect takes awhile to play out.
The RAM/SSD price spikes are not shrinkflation, but the article gives examples of shrinkflation happening due to it:
* Google's upcoming folding phone is going to have less RAM than the current model.
* Motorola has both increased the price on their Razr flip phone and downsized the minimum storage
* Sony reduced storage on the PS5 Slim
...
All of those could also be classified as "they learned consumers didn't need that much."
I see.
So when the tub of ice cream decreases in size from 64 ounces to 60, 56, 52, and finally 48 ounces while the price stays the same (or even goes up), then:
That's not necessarily shrinkflation; that might instead be a result of having learned that consumers didn't need so much ice cream.
If this were true, they could have learned it at any time before now.
When the changes are done precisely during a time of huge increases in the prices of all kinds of memory devices, it is hard to believe that this is a random coincidence.
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I'm really appreciative of how much spin I learn on this site, should I ever want a career in PR or marketing