Hopefully you don’t receive a heart-shaped box of air and plastic today

Many people are not feeling the love today as they feel like companies are essentially trying to take them for a ride when it comes to their Valentine’s Day purchases. Consumers have had enough with what’s known as ‘slack-filling’ where the boxes are deceptively large but the contents are a little disappointing, like going on a date only to realize he stuffed a sock down his trousers.

Across the globe, many are struggling with the cost of living soaring, with issues in the United States, and Europe, all the way to Japan. We are seeing a markup in prices for all of our basic necessities from electricity to gas and water as well as a rise in food costs. The United Kingdom has come to an almost shutdown as workers head out on strike to protest these hikes in prices whilst their wages remain stagnant.

Now, on a holiday that is meant to leave us feeling warm and fuzzy inside (less so for the singles, we’re afraid), consumers are finding that they are feeling a little scammed on their Valentine’s Day purchases. According to a report by the Washington Post, candy prices have increased by nearly 10% but that increase in price does not mean you’ll be getting more bang for your buck. Consumers have reported that the boxes are nowhere near as filled as the packaging would let on.

This practice has been given the name ‘slack-filling’ which is even used by federal regulations in the U.S. to name the practice of over-packaging goods. The Department of Health and Human Services regulations state, “slack-fill is the difference between the actual capacity of a container and the volume of product contained therein.” This is not quite the same as the ‘shrink-flation’ as many of us have come to know, where the price for a product remains the same but the quantity is reduced, though it runs very much parallel to this.

According to the Post, consumers have complained that boxes of candy from well-known brands such as Russell Stover and Whitman, contain a lot more empty space than the packaging would have you believe. Other companies, like Ghirardelli and Russell Stover, which operate under the same parent company, have already been fined for doing exactly this in the past, having to pay $750,000 back in 2019 for deceiving consumers. The practice continues to occur despite being prohibited by federal regulations, with the Department of Health and Human Services stating,

“A container that does not allow the consumer to fully view its contents shall be considered to be filled as to be misleading if it contains nonfunctional slack-fill. Slack-fill is the difference between the actual capacity of a container and the volume of product contained therein.”

Basically, companies want to continue making the same profits they always have whilst providing less. They have marked up the cost of their product and made it seem as if we will be getting more as a result only to be full of hot air. So no, consumers are not feeling the love today, and we aren’t sure when we will again at this rate.