Schau Essen Sausages Cut From 6 to 5 Per Pack — Why Did ‘We Won’t Lose to the Times’ Spark Backlash?

Background and Key Points of This Debate

Schau Essen has been Ito Ham’s flagship sausage since the 1980s, with a six-link pack long established as the standard. Keeping the price the same while quietly cutting the actual quantity — as happened here — is known as a “stealth price hike” or “shrinkflation,” a tactic that’s become increasingly common across the food industry amid rising raw material and import costs. What divided opinion in the thread wasn’t the price increase itself, but the contradiction between the slogan “We won’t lose to the times” and the reality that cutting the count is, in effect, a step backward. While the mismatch between a “we haven’t lost” tagline and an actual reduction in quantity drew plenty of mockery, a smaller number of commenters pointed to the structural backdrop of a weak yen and rising prices, arguing the real issue lies with monetary and pricing policy rather than with the company itself. Read in isolation, the quoted replies might look like simple backlash against a price hike, but the core of Shinohara’s argument is about “how it was communicated” — it’s worth noting that the main driver of the backlash wasn’t the change in quantity or price itself, but the discomfort caused by dressing it up in upbeat PR language.