From Kraft Dinner to Condos: The Great Shrinkage

In this episode of The Missing Middle, Mike Moffatt and Sabrina Maddeaux dig into the rise of shrinkflation, from grocery store products like cereal and Kraft Dinner to Canada’s shrinking condos, and reveal how companies, developers, and government policies are quietly giving Canadians less for more. From deceptive packaging and behavioral economics tricks to the rise of shoebox condos and poor layouts, we explore how rising costs, investor-driven development, and flawed housing policies are reshaping everyday life. If you’ve ever wondered why your groceries don’t stretch as far or why today’s apartments feel more like closets than homes, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.Chapters00:00 Introduction01:08 Understanding shrinkflation02:54 Sabrina’s a KD fangirl - who knew?05:12 The economics behind shrinkflation07:22 Price anchoring explained08:25 The shrinking size of living spaces11:52 Why are units getting so much smaller?15:39 What’s driving bad design?18:02 Generational perspectives on housing preferences19:22 Constrained optimization explained21:26 Is the investor condo market dead?23:30 Policy changes to combat shrinkflationresearch/links:Working paper Mike refers to: Shrinkflation∗https://drive.google.com/file/d/15tpbhBziggFL-RvjlVgjqBQcNXzcIrWh/viewCondo size datahttps://www.mpac.ca/en/News/PressRelease/spacioushomescompactcondosMPACdatarevealsshiftinghousingtrendsacrossOntario The condo crash won’t fix our housing problem. In fact, it just might make it worsehttps://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/the-condo-crash-wont-fix-our-housing-problem-in-fact-it-just-might-make-it/article_7c44519f-cdbe-4978-b575-ffc1ef9a76bd.htmlHosts: Sabrina Maddeaux https://x.com/SabrinaMaddeaux Mike Moffatt https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt https://bsky.app/profile/mikepmoffatt.bsky.socialProducer: Meredith Martin https://twitter.com/meredithmartin @meredithmartin.bsky.socialEditor: Sean Foreman@[email protected] Student: Djeima Alicia RamosThis podcast is funded by the Neptis Foundation https://neptis.org/Brought to you by the Missing Middle Initiative https://www.missingmiddleinitiative.ca/Hosted by Mike Moffatt & Cara Stern & Sabrina MaddeauxProduced by Meredith MartinFunded by the Neptis Foundation https://neptis.org/