Shrinkflation is the fad diet no one needs

by



[ad_1]

In today’s business news: Yes, your cereal boxes are shrinking; $ 30 billion insurance merger canceled; and Philip Morris wants to ban cigarettes in the UK.

Forget intermittent fasting and keto. Shrinkflation is here to help you lose your midlife weight.

Here’s how it works: You don’t have to do anything, just keep buying the same groceries and let the food manufacturers control the portions for you. Because even if you will always spend the same amount, you will just get a little less than before.

Shrinkflation, of course, is not a fad scheme – it’s a sneaky little tactic used by companies when their production costs rise (and the recent spike in inflation has done just that). Rather than changing the price of a can of Cocoa Puffs, General Mills can simply reduce the number of puffs in the can by about one ounce. You pay the same price because of course, and the business can then offset the increased expenses.

Yeah, it’s legal, and no, I don’t know why – it’s capitalism, baby, do it with. My colleague Nathaniel Meyersohn has more on current shrinkage.

NUMBER OF THE DAY

$ 30 billion

A $ 30 billion insurance industry merger plan was called off just a month after Department of Justice antitrust regulators filed a lawsuit to block it. The deal between Aon and Willis Towers Watson reportedly created an industry giant, and the DOJ argued the merger would lead to higher prices and less innovation. Its disbandment is a major victory for the Biden administration, which has taken a much more aggressive stance towards antitrust matters than its predecessors.

TALES OF CRYPTO

The cryptocurrency buzz has gone from a low hum to a swarm of 2021-style cicadas. The reason this has less to do with the viability of cryptos as a mainstream offering but more to the fact that Amazon, apparently, is paying attention.

WHAT HAPPENED

Amazon has listed a job posting for a “digital currency and blockchain product manager.” The announcement, which rose on Friday, says the company is looking for someone with a “deep understanding” of “the cryptocurrency ecosystem and related technologies.” (Translation: We’ve heard a lot about this crypto thing and we’re honestly so confused, so please come work here and make sure we don’t sound like dum-dums.)

The role would be part of Amazon’s payment acceptance and experience team, per the job description, which might imply that Amazon wants to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. This would take the nascent market digital currency sector deeper into mainstream commerce and give it the legitimacy that its advocates say is lagging behind.

Bitcoin hit a high of almost $ 39,043 in six weeks. As of Monday afternoon, bitcoin and dogecoin had climbed more than 14% in the previous 24 hours, according to Coinbase. Ethereum has grown almost 12% during this time.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“With the right measures in place, [Philip Morris] may stop selling cigarettes in the UK in 10 years. “

– Moira Gilchrist, Head of Strategic and Scientific Communications at Philip Morris International

Philip Morris International – yes, this Philip Morris – wants the UK to treat cigarettes like gasoline cars, the sale of which should be banned from 2030. The company, which makes Marlboro cigarettes and whose name was once synonymous with Big Tobacco, added Monday that she “can see a world without cigarettes.” CNN Business’s Hanna Ziady has more.

WHAT ELSE HAPPENS

  • Tesla reported a record second quarter net profit of $ 1.1 billion, more than 10 times more than a year ago.
  • In the United States, only 17 million people watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics on television, down 36% from the Rio Games. But streaming numbers rose 72%.
  • Chip giant Nvidia is the ninth most valued company in the S&P 500. There is now a strong case for it to join the Dow Jones.
Do you like the nightcap? register here and you’ll get all of that, plus some fun stuff we loved about the internet, right in your inbox every night. (OK, most nights – we believe in a four-day week here.)

[ad_2]

Source link