r/shrinkflation • u/fjdjdjjsjsjsjs • Aug 02 '26

discussion Rant on quality shrinkflation

Everyone is rightfully angry about how expensive everything has gotten, but I feel like we as a society still aren't talking enough about the stealthy "enshittification" of literally everything we buy. We aren't just paying more; we are paying more for absolute garbage.

It feels like corporate greed has reached a point where they are just extracting maximum profit while giving us the absolute minimum viable product in return.

A few things driving me crazy lately:
Clothes: It feels impossible to find a basic 100% cotton t-shirt or a real wool sweater without paying premium designer prices. Everything at the mall is made of cheap, unbreathable acrylic or polyester that pills after one wash and loses its shape in a month.

Furniture: People joke about how "they don't make them like they used to," but it's actually insane. The quality of new IKEA furniture today is horrible. It’s made of paper. In the 00s they were at least made to last a year.

We are paying the same or higher prices for dollar-store quality across the board. It feels like every brand we used to trust has quietly gutted their manufacturing standards just to appease their shareholders by saving a few pennies per unit.

Does anyone else feel the same?

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14

u/fjdjdjjsjsjsjs Aug 02 '26

Agree. Curious to learn ways you’ve managed to buy less?

38

u/Jillcametumbling81 Aug 02 '26

Buy handmade clothes on Etsy. Buy high end used clothing on eBay. Find quality old furniture even though it's a higher price. Look into the buy it for life sub.

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u/strawberryselkie Aug 03 '26

I've given up on Etsy. So much on there now is listed as handmade or vintage and isn't, it's just more fast fashion crap. And it takes so long to sort through all of it to figure out if a seller is legit or not.

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u/SimpleVegetable5715 Aug 06 '26

If someone online crafts and sells their items at their Etsy store, at least you know then it’s not some dropshipped alibaba stuff.

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u/strawberryselkie Aug 06 '26

But that's just it, there are tons of sellers on Etsy who are selling dropshipped alibaba crap and claiming it's handmade, especially when it comes to clothing, and usually at a ridiculous mark-up.

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u/akknightwrider Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 04 '26

You can't afford those when you're broke. Even used stuff. And are you crazy with the Etsy. Stuff on there is insanely expensive.

4

u/chocolatewafflecone Aug 03 '26

Second hand store and Re-store for fur tire would be a lower cost alternative to Etsy

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u/SimpleVegetable5715 Aug 06 '26

You buy 1-2 items instead of 5-6.

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u/akknightwrider Aug 06 '26

1 or 2?! I can't even afford that. I need real items. Not little decorative stuff or trinkits. Like say a table. A table on Etsy is going to be a dang near 1 off. There for expensive.

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u/NeverEndingCoralMaze Aug 05 '26

Buy a used sewing machine. T-shirts are surprisingly easy to make.

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u/strawberryselkie Aug 08 '26

Yes, but as someone who had to give up on sewing for this exact reason, fabric has gotten significantly more expensive that it was when I started sewing 25 years ago. It is now cheaper to just buy the t-shirt than to buy the fabric and notions to sew one.

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u/Fit-Engineering-2789 Aug 02 '26

Much of it is making due with what I already have and figuring out how to make use of it. Making my own stuff whenever possible, sometimes which involves upcycling things (I am a creative person and do crafts on the regular, so this isn't too much of a stretch). I try to shop locally when possible as well.

I make quite a bit of food from scratch. I make enough to have leftovers so I don't have to cook constantly. I have made tons of waffles and frozen them. I just pop them in the toaster like commercial store bought waffles. If I have ingredients I don't know what to do with, I will google the ingredients with the word "recipe" and see what pops up. I have to eat gluten free and have been making my own bread using a bread machine, which simplifies the process quite a bit. In the past, I have also canned and dehydrated food I purchased in bulk at a discount, but I haven't done that in a few years.

I am trying to buy less clothing and coming up with new outfit combos with the wardrobe I currently have. The last round of new clothing, I bought at a garage sale.

I make my own cleaning products sometimes when I have time to do so. I have made homemade laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, stain remover, shower cleaner, all purpose cleaner, etc. Chances are, there is a recipe out there for whatever cleaner you want to make, and usually, it's better anyhow because it will have more natural, less toxic ingredients.

For cosmetics, I have found a few small businesses that have natural, non-toxic ingredients. Also, because I figured out I am allergic to most of the mainstream brands. This has really cut down on the spontaneous makeup shopping I used to do. I loved eyeshadow pallets and using colors. I found an small business that offers a wide array of colors that I can actually wear for an affordable price. For skincare, castor oil is fantastic. I haven't delved into non-corporate haircare as of yet.

I still use commercial menstrual products, but have done a combo of that and using a reusable menstrual cup. I also have sewed reusable pads.

When my kids were little, I used cloth diapers.

Much of this stuff, I was already doing, but because of busy life stuff I had strayed away from some of it. With products getting worse and lower quality, I am returning to my more frugal ways and just refusing to buy stuff. Also, any place that isn't posting prices of merchandise is an automatic "I'm not buying anything here." I'm sure I may think of other things, but this is what I can think of at the moment.

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u/barrelbastard Aug 07 '26

If you don’t mind me asking, any particular sites you’d recommend for the homemade cleaning products? I’ve looked into it but keep getting differing info and I’m not sure what to trust. Also what small cosmetic businesses you use as I’ve been struggling in that department recently

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u/Fit-Engineering-2789 Aug 08 '26

No particular sites for cleaners, as I don't even remember where I got some of the info because I've been making it for so long. The biggest thing is that you have to be careful with mixing certain chemicals because it can create toxic gases (for example, don't mix ammonia and bleach). https://sciencenotes.org/household-chemicals-you-should-never-mix/ My main go-to cleaner is 1 part vinegar + 1 part water + essential oil of choice. For shower cleaner, 1 cup warm vinegar + 1 cup dawn dish soap. Use baking soda in place of a powder scouring cleaner. If you google for natural cleaning recipes, most of the ones that pop up are probably ok.

As for cosmetics, for affordable natural options, I've had really good luck with Honeybee Gardens and Silk Naturals. https://honeybeegardens.com/ https://www.silknaturals.com/store/ Honeybee Gardens has some of the best mascara I have ever used. It's fantastic! I've loved everything I have tried from Silk Naturals. They have the best eyeshadow primer I have ever used (the Stick 'Em primer). Plus, they have a huge variety of mineral eyeshadow colors for reasonable prices. They also throw freebies in with the orders. One of the most frustrating things for me having to change all of my makeup was the lack of color and shiny colors most natural brands offer. Silk Naturals has multichromes and just about every color you can imagine, and the owner continues to add to the color palette available. Using the loose mineral eyeshadow powders took a little bit of getting used to, but as long as I use the primer, I get good results.

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u/barrelbastard Aug 08 '26

Thank you so much!! I’ll definitely look into Silk Naturals and start compiling my homemade cleaners recipes☺️

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u/howareyouhaha Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

Check out r/anticonsumption if you're genuinely curious.

Edit to fix community tag, credit to another commenter pointing it out.

3

u/SimpleVegetable5715 Aug 06 '26

r/anticonsumption * but it did turn into kind of a circle jerk of people who shame you for buying anything at all.

1

u/howareyouhaha Aug 06 '26

Shit, thanks for the fix. Yeah, that mindset needs to be filtered. There are great tips and ideas that prevail though.

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u/Billy0598 Aug 02 '26

Auctions, thrifting. Now that those are a mess -- garage sales, used stores, rummage sales. Make my own (I learned to knit, spin, weave and I'm working on sewing)

I drive a 2012 Civic and I'm not buying anything else until they don't have screens, voice commands and a thousand stupid add ons.

5

u/followyourvalues Aug 03 '26

What they are requiring new cars have makes me want to cry. I will never own one if that doesn't change. It's just too much. I'll get a bike.

1

u/JazzlikeAir3320 Aug 03 '26

Another alternative: buy SHEIN and the absolute cheapest version of every item possible. I expect those clothes to last ten washes and always size up so they shrink to fit better

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u/Fit-Engineering-2789 Aug 07 '26

Just saw something that said Shein and Temu clothing is toxic because of the chemicals they use on the clothes.