Iconic Canadian cookie packaging strikes shrinkflation nerve

The packaging of one of Canada’s favourite grocery store cookies has some shoppers levelling shrinkflation allegations, though the company said it hasn’t changed the presentation in nearly a decade.

Leclerc Celebration cookies contain a plastic tray with six pots of cookies inside the box. The first and last rows contain three cookies, but the middle row contains only two — thanks to the elevated bottom of the plastic tray.

Several shoppers have recently taken to social media to express their disappointment at the lack of a third cookie in the middle row.

Leclerc celebration has a groove in the middle to cheat 2 biscuits. smh

byu/baconisnotyummy inshrinkflation

“Leclerc Celebration has a groove in the middle to cheat two cookies,” one person said in September.

“I haven’t bought these since the first time I discovered this garbage,” a second person said. “All the extra plastic in the ocean just to trick consumers,” said a third.

But it turns out complaints about the middle pot of cookies aren’t new — people have been posting about it for years.

“Celebration cookies added an extra piece of plastic to middle row so only two cookies fit instead of 3 like the front and back,” one person said two years ago in a subreddit dedicated to shrinkflation.

Celebration cookies added an extra piece of plastic to middle row so only two cookies fit instead of 3 like the front and back.

byu/WhiteopsUnitedx inshrinkflation

Shrinkflation has been making headlines since the COVID-19 pandemic, with grocery shoppers sharing their outrage at finding smaller packages at higher prices. The phenomenon even pushed one of Canada’s federal political parties to introduce a bill to combat shrinkflation.

Leclerc last updated cookie packaging in 2015

As for Leclerc, the Quebec-based cookie manufacturer said it made the switch from putting 18 cookies in a box to 16 back in 2015.

“Back then, with rising costs, we had to make that change to keep the price competitive and be able to maintain this product with the same quality with real chocolate and butter,” customer service coordinator Linda Moisan told Daily Hive.

The company added that it couldn’t change the dimensions of the trays due to the automation involved in production and instead decided to remove two cookies in the middle. The same tray is used for Leclerc’s rectangular cookies and round truffle cookies.

“Nothing else has changed since 2015, and we are still proudly offering the same quality cookies made with butter and real chocolate at the best possible price,” Moisan said.

So Leclerc’s cookies aren’t part of the current wave of shrinkflation, but the packaging is still angering consumers who are noticing it for the first time.