She Picked Up the Same Cereal Box She Buys Every Week. It Lost an Ounce.

Inspiration Quote for the Day

· · · Partner Message · · ·

Something strange is happening to your money.

It wasn’t voted on. It wasn’t debated in the Senate. And most Americans have no idea it’s even taking place but…

Not with crypto. Not with a digital currency. Something far bigger than that – and it’s already been signed and sealed in the back rooms of D.C., ready to be issued by the U.S. Treasury.

Bypassing every legal and political channel under the guise of “national security,” Trump has enacted this total money reset using a landmark executive order (1421).

Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, whether you support this new money or not, it doesn’t matter.

Soon, every U.S. citizen will be forced to use Trump’s New Dollar to fill their gas tank, buy groceries, and pay medical bills.

Which is why I’ve produced a critical new documentary laying out exactly what Trump’s New Dollar means for your savings, your investments, and your family’s financial future.

Detailing three important steps you can take today to prepare – including the name of a core band of assets connected to Trump’s initiative that could surge as a result.

As you’ll see in my briefing, the last time America reset its money like this – under Richard Nixon’s presidency in the 1970s – it created one of the greatest wealth divides in the history of our nation.

On one side, it minted an average of 1,300 new millionaires a day for over half a century. And on the other… the folks left behind, drowning in debt, with no idea how to use America’s new money to create wealth.

As Trump rolls out his new dollar, the question is:

Good investing,
Porter Stansberry

PS. If you’re wondering what Trump’s new money will look like, when it will be issued, what it means for your investments – all of those questions are answered in my briefing.

In One Sip

Why It Matters for Your Money

Start with what Ruth found on that cereal aisle. The box lost 1.2 ounces. At the same price, her cost per ounce went up 6.6% without the register showing a single penny of increase. She would never have caught it without reading the fine print on the side of the box.

Now walk the rest of the store with her. Doritos went from 15.5 ounces in 2021 to 14.4 ounces today. The price went from $4.79 to $6.69. That is a price hike and a size cut at the same time. Paper towels lost 12 sheets per mega roll. Toilet paper lost close to 100 sheets per package. The wrapper looks the same. The number inside does not.

Ruth buys groceries for four people. If she buys the same brands at the same frequency, she is getting roughly $741 less value per year than she got in 2020. That is not because she changed her habits. It is because the products changed around her.

The Wealth Angle

Here is what makes shrinkflation different from regular inflation. When gas goes up, you see it on the sign. When rent goes up, you see it in the letter. When a cereal box loses an ounce, the shelf tag shows the same number. Your brain reads “same price” and moves on. That is the design.

A peer-reviewed study in Marketing Science confirmed the math behind the strategy: consumers are roughly twice as likely to switch brands over a price hike as they are over an equivalent size reduction. Companies know this. So they cut the product and keep the price. After a shrink, sales go up 6%. The tactic is not just tolerated. It is rewarded.

And here is the part that should bother you most: not a single brand that shrank its package in recent years has reversed it. The Doritos bag is still 14.4 ounces. The cereal box is still 18.1 ounces. Prices went up on top of the smaller sizes. You are now paying more for less, and the “less” is permanent.

Ruth stood in the cereal aisle last Saturday holding a box that weighed less than it did a year ago. She paid the same price. The company called it efficiency. I would call it something else.

☕ Key Insight:
Shrinkflation does not show up on the price tag. It shows up on the nutrition label. A family buying the same brands at the same prices is getting $741 less value per year than in 2020. The packages shrank. None of them grew back.

Coffee Break Move

At the store today: Flip one product you buy every week and check the ounces. Compare it to what you remember or what is listed on the store’s shelf tag as “unit price.” Most stores print the price per ounce in small type on the lower left corner of the label. That number is the only honest number on the shelf.

The bigger move: Switch your top five shrinkflation-hit items to the store brand. Kroger, Walmart Great Value, Costco Kirkland, and Aldi house brands have held their sizes more consistently than name brands, and they cost 20% to 40% less per ounce. On a weekly grocery run of $200, swapping five items could save you $15 to $25 a week. That is $780 to $1,300 a year.

Ruth switched her cereal, her chips, and her paper towels to store brand last Saturday. Same cart. Same family. $11 less at the register. That is not couponing. That is reading the fine print the brands hoped you would skip.