Tucker Carlson 'Radicalized' By Prices Of Russian Groceries In Latest Video As Biden Calls For Stop To Shrinkflation

The price of groceries is likely a talking point for nearly every American as they approach the checkout counter on their regular trip to the grocery store. Hot inflation means prices are slowly rising every month, and despite the rising prices, the portion sizes are getting smaller. Brands are great about packaging things in innovative ways to ensure consumers don't notice. Whether it's more air in a bag of chips or a fancy new bottle shape, the numbers don't lie.

Recently, President Joe Biden released a video on X addressing the issue on the eve of Super Bowl Sunday. 

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"When buying snacks for the game you might have noticed one thing: sports drinks bottles are smaller, bag of chips has fewer chips, but they're still charging just as much," Biden said. "What makes me the most angry is ice cream cartons have actually shrunk in size but not in price."

This phenomenon is known as shrinkflation and plays on economic principles of price elasticity. 

Companies use the concept of price elasticity to implement shrinkflation as a strategic response to maintain profitability in the face of rising costs or economic pressures without directly raising prices. Price elasticity measures how sensitive consumer demand is to changes in price. If a product is price elastic, a small price increase could lead to a significant drop in demand. 

To avoid this, companies opt for shrinkflation, reducing the size or quantity of their product while keeping the price constant. This approach allows businesses to effectively manage costs and maintain consumer demand by avoiding the negative consumer reactions often associated with visible price increases. Shrinkflation leverages the insight that consumers may not notice a size reduction as readily as a price hike, thus preserving sales volume and customer loyalty cost-effectively. Or at least that the extra ounce you lost in Gatorade is less likely to be a deal breaker than a 50-cent cost increase.

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On Wednesday, popular journalist Tucker Carlson released a video on the Tucker Carlson Network (TCN) which quickly became viral on X. The short video showed a common trip to the grocery store in Moscow, where Carlson initially took guesses on the costs of the groceries he was going to purchase. After estimating the purchase to be $400, he checked out and only spent a little over $100 on groceries. Carlson proceeded to note how much cheaper groceries are in Russia when compared to the U.S. He proceeded to say seeing how cheap groceries are at a Russian store will "radicalize" you.

Critics were quick to point out the disparity in this experiment. The U.S. dollar relative to the Russian ruble continues to grow in strength. After the initial invasion of Ukraine, the Russian ruble quickly devalued itself growing to an all-time high of over 124 rubles to $1. It eventually stabilized, but the Russian ruble continues to weaken relative to the dollar. It currently sits near $1 to 92 rubles, which is hovering around all-time highs outside of the initial collapse following the Russian invasion. 

According to Russia's state-run propaganda agency, over 60% of Russians spend half their salary on food. In the U.S., that number is roughly 11%, the highest it’s been since the 1980s but still much smaller than most poorer nations. 

The average wage in Russia is the equivalent of $14,771. 

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