导读:通货膨胀，保持盈利，原料上涨…，吃货们，巧克力囤起来吧。
Confectionery firm Mars is shrinking the pack size of favourite sweets including Maltesers, M and M’s and Minstrels by up to 15% in the latest example of an industry trend that is shortchanging shoppers.
玛氏食品减少了畅销糖果的包装量高达15%，包括麦提莎、M and M’s和麦丽素。
It is the second time within a year that Mars has reduced the number of Maltesers in its sharing bags, which now weigh in at just 93g. Last autumn packs of Maltesers, billed as the lighter way to enjoy chocolate, shrank from 121g to 103g.
这已经是玛氏公司第二次减少麦提莎分享包的重量了，去年秋天，麦提莎从121g成功“减重”至103g，如今却只有93g了。
The American food giant appears to have taken action across its bestselling brands: family packs of M and M’s are now 25g lighter at 140g, while bags of Minstrels and Revels are also almost 10% lighter. Prices are unchanged.
美国食品巨头似乎已经对最畅销的品牌采取行动：价格不变的情况下，M and M’s家庭包减重25g，麦丽素和Revels减重10%。
Food manufacturers are either increasing prices or shrinking pack sizes – described as “shrinkflation” – as ingredient and transport costs rise and then presumably hoping that consumers don’t notice the difference.
由于原料或运输成本的上升，食品生产厂家小心翼翼地要么提高价格要么缩小包装尺寸的行为被描述为“shrinkflation”。
Mars said: “We have been absorbing rising raw material and operational costs for some time, but the growing pressures mean that we can’t keep things as they are. Reducing the size of our products is not a decision that we take easily.”
玛氏公司说：“我们一直尝试独自承担原材料价格和运营成本的上升，但并非长久之计，于是我们做出了艰难的决定—缩小包装尺寸。”
Steve Dresser, a supermarket analyst and author of industry blog Grocery Insight, said manufacturers were shrinking packs to preserve profit margins as they tried to hit the keen price points required for popular supermarket promotions. “Shoppers are losing out because they are getting less for their money,” he said, adding that the trend was likely to continue. “Manufacturers are trying to protect their profit margins but it seems excessive to move a pack size down twice inside a year.”
超市分析师兼行业博主史蒂夫德雷瑟说，制造商们正通过缩小包装尺寸以保持利润，他们试图达到热门超市促销所需的价格。“由于消费者买到的东西越来越少，于是客户丢失是必然的。”他补充说，这一趋势可能继续下去。“保持盈利是目的，但在一年内缩小包装尺寸两次似乎太过了。”
Shrinkflation started during the last recession and in recent years chocolate-lovers have been regularly targeted. Last year Mondelēz, the American food giant that owns Cadbury, caused a furore after it cut the weight of Toblerone bars by widening the gaps between the chocolate “peaks”.
Shrinkflation始于上一次经济衰退。去年，拥有吉百利的美国食品巨头亿滋，因通过加宽巧克力块间的的连接，减少三角巧克力的重量而轰动一时。
After a benign period where inflation was close to zero, living costs started rising again last summer thanks to a combination of higher oil prices and the Brexit vote’s blow to the value of the pound, which has made imports to the UK more expensive. Last week official figures showed inflation had jumped to 2.3% in February, the highest rate for more than three years. The bigger-than-expected rise will intensify fears over people’s living standards being squeezed this year by higher living costs. While inflation has been going up, wage growth has been slowing, leaving households worse off.
经过了一个良性时期之后，生活成本再次上升。去年夏天，石油价格上涨和英国脱欧导致英镑贬值。根据上周发布的官方数据显示，二月通胀率已升至2.3%，创三年来最高水平。高于预期的通货膨胀增长将加剧人们的担忧—工资增长速度远不及通货膨胀，生活质量将恶化。
