Shrinkflation
Lesson plan overview
This Business English lesson introduces the concepts of shrinkflation and skimpflation, helping students understand how companies respond to rising costs without increasing prices outright. Students will explore useful economic and consumer-related vocabulary, watch an informative video, and discuss inflation, pricing strategies, and tricks companies use to hide shrinkflation. Other lessons you might like are “Inflation and young people“, “Buying a home“, “Phrasal verbs: money”, and “Idioms: financial trouble”
Speaking: The lesson begins with discussion questions about rising prices, consumer value, and whether higher cost always means better quality. Students share personal experiences and opinions to set the context for the topic of shrinkflation.
Vocabulary: Students match bolded expressions (e.g., to get ripped off, to rake in profits, to follow suit, to get less bang for your buck) to their definitions. These expressions help students describe economic trends, consumer frustration, and corporate strategies. They complete sentence-based practice using the new vocabulary and discuss the conversation questions given.
Listening: Students watch a video called “How we are getting ripped off by hidden inflation.” In the first part, they learn the definitions of shrinkflation and skimpflation. In the second, they answer comprehension questions. Then, they fill in missing information from an audio transcript. In the final part, they explore the psychological tactics companies use to disguise product changes.
Speaking: Students debate two opposing views of shrinkflation—whether it’s a necessary business strategy or a deceptive tactic. They share personal or company-related experiences with product changes and consider consumer fairness and transparency.
Vocabulary: Students review the confusing word pair rise (intransitive) and raise (transitive). They complete a sentence gap-fill and then discuss several conversation questions.
For more speaking practice, you can use the conversation cards.
Who Is This Lesson Suitable For?
Upper-intermediate to advanced Business English learners interested in economics, marketing, retail strategy, and consumer rights.
Professionals working in product development, pricing strategy, retail, or customer service.
University students studying business, marketing, or economics.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
Pre-class activities
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In-class activities
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Additional resources
Each video-based lesson plan includes links to additional resources (videos and articles), which are FREE can be found online (in the pre-class activities page. These links aim to extend the learning experience, enabling students to connect classroom knowledge with real-world applications.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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