Women and girls are facing a double whammy of price rises on period products and “devious” shrinkflation tactics on tampons and sanitary towels.
An investigation by the Sunday Mirror as part of our End Period Poverty campaign has found that not only has inflation pushed up prices, but packs are getting smaller.
According to the MySupermarket Compare website, boxes of 18 Tampax Pearl Compak Super Plus tampons were on sale at Tesco for £1.95 earlier this month. But now, only a 16-pack version is available for £2.60 – that’s 65p more for two fewer tampons, or 50% more per tampon.
Meanwhile, packs of nine Always Ultra Secure Night sanitary towels sold for £1.50 at Asda and Tesco earlier this year. But while they are still advertised on the Always website, the product is now unavailable in stores, with an eight-pack on offer for the same price instead.
Always’ own website shows sanitary towels were previously available in packs of nine, 12, 14 and 16. While the products cannot be bought via the site, it directs shoppers to online supermarkets and stores, where the towels are sold in smaller packs of eight, 11, 13 or 15 with no reduction in price.
Meanwhile, the Tampax website shows boxes containing 18 tampons were available, but only packs of 16 are sold in supermarkets for the same price.
Prof Ratula Chakraborty, a retail specialist at the University of East Anglia, said: “Producers may shrink the size while increasing the price so consumers face a double whammy.
“As period products are bought intermittently, consumers might not notice pack sizes have shrunk so the extent of inflation may not be immediately clear. It’s a sneaky and devious practice.”
Our campaign to End Period Poverty is calling for England and Wales to be brought in line with Scotland by making sanitary products free.
Rotherham MP Sarah Champion, who is backing our End Period Poverty campaign, said it was “appalling” that women and girls were having to “spend more than ever on essential period products” as the cost of living crisis bites.
And Spice Girl Mel B, who also supports our campaign, said sanitary products should not become “one more thing parents can’t afford”.
Procter & Gamble, the manufacturer of Tampax and Always, were contacted for a comment.
