These days, "shrinkflation" — when a company — is everywhere. Its slightly lesser known brother, "skimpflation," a more subtle change for the worse in the quality of a product or its ingredients, is on the rise, and this has been nowhere more apparent than in the recent controversy about Whole Foods ( ). You see, it changed the recipe of its beloved Berry Chantilly Cake, for what many customers considered the worst — and social media put the grocery store chain on notice.
The cake, which is sold in individual slices and features mascarpone and cream, used to also include fresh berries stuffed between the layers. It was changed to instead include a thin layer of berry jam, with fruit on the side. One TikTok user, @culturework, also claimed that the slice of cake was much smaller than it had been, and their video, which has over 300,000 views, inspired many comments echoing @culturework's complaints over both the quality and the size of the cake.
Whole Foods' response to the controversy Normally when a business shrinkflates or skimpflates an item, that's it — customers are , because the business gets the last say. And Whole Foods' initial response was along those lines, with the company stating on September 30 it had "aligned the flavor profile, size, packaging, and price so customers will have the same high-quality experience in each of our stores," per . But then, after the furor on social media reached a fever pitch, the company actually reversed their course on Octo.
