Downsizing fun: A lesson in ‘shrinkflation’ at the California State Fair | Opinion
Last year at the California State Fair, I got the best cup.
Wait, let me back up.
I have loved the State Fair ever since I was a little girl growing up in Sacramento County. I love the wine slushies and I love the footsie wootsies. I love the stinky animal stalls and I love the midway. I love getting my palm read and I even love the exposition halls. Every year, it seems like I find something new to love.
And last year, I fell in love with the fair’s giant lemonade cups.
You know the ones I’m talking about, right? They’re available at almost every food stand at the fair; a white, green and yellow, plastic 32-ounce cup that is packed to the brim with ice and sweet lemonade.
I have kept that cup all year and use it pretty much every day. Could I go buy any ol’ 32-ounce cup at a store or from Daddy Bezos? Sure. But this one was from the State Fair and that’s why I loved it.
So this year, I got my lemonade cup early. Even though it cost the same as last year… something was off about this cup. It just didn’t feel right. The plastic walls seemed thinner, the size felt smaller. No matter what stall I went to, it was the same.
“That’s shrinkflation for you,” my annoying cousin said. And darn it, he was right.
Shrinkflation, also known as downsizing, is the practice of reducing the size or quantity of a product while maintaining (or even increasing) the price, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It means paying more for less.
The phenomenon is difficult for most consumers to pick up on — unless you’re like me and have an unnatural affinity for the quality of deeply mundane household items.
According to a 2024 study conducted by LendingTree, nearly 7 in 10 consumers reported noticing at least one incident of shrinkflation within the previous year.
“It’s a troubling thing,” LendingTree chief credit analyst Matt Schulz told CBS MoneyWatch in October. “Nobody loves high prices, but people would prefer to pay a little bit more if the alternative is paying the same and getting less, and not really being told about it.”
Other things about the fair felt smaller this year, too.
My family makes the same circuit around the fair every year: First the animal stalls, then the shopping halls, then the food court, the expos and the midway. From the moment we entered the barns at the far left of the main entrance, we were walking through a nearly empty hall. There were less animals and entrants than last year. (We couldn’t even find the cows or sheep, just the goats.) I swear there were two Ferris wheels on the midway last year compared to just the one this year? Then, in the shopping halls, half of the second hall was just… space.
Let’s be honest: Part of the issue is President Donald Trump’s ridiculous tariffs on key American trading partners such as China, Canada and Mexico. As the administration levies new import taxes on these countries, American manufacturers and business owners are feeling the pinch of increased import fees. In turn, that cost is being passed on to consumers in subtle, sneaky ways.
But many business owners just can’t keep up with the cost of doing business any more, and are worried about consumers cutting down on their spending. No wonder the fair’s shopping hall was half-empty this year.
Cal Expo, the host of the California State Fair, has faced a series of challenges in recent years, not the least of which was surviving the pandemic era. That caused a serious revenue decline that many businesses are still struggling to recover from, no matter their size.
The fair’s horse races ended this year, due in large part to rising public consciousness over animal safety, and even though Cal Expo had a three-year contract with the X Games, the competition has been “placed on strategic pause” for the foreseeable future, whatever that means. And just like that, two of the fair’s largest attractions are off the table.
Then, the reopening of Cal Expo’s water park — which I will always and forever call “Waterworld,” regardless of its official name — got delayed again until at least 2027. And the city’s soccer club, Sacramento Republic FC, is moving out of Cal Expo’s stadium venue at some point.
According to reporting in The Bee, Cal Expo reported losses of roughly $2.6 million in 2024 and a $1.9 million loss midway through 2025, raising questions about the financial viability of the capital city’s fair venue.
Cal Expo general manager Tom Martinez told The Bee that he’s focused on three strategic areas for investment at the State Fair: Improved security through more police presence; investing in big-name artists and performers for the main concert stage; and reaching future generations of fairgoers with children’s attractions.
I understand the California State Fair will never be as glamorous or as seemingly large as it was when I was a child. The fair’s all-time attendance record happened in 2001, when I was just 11 years old — a prime memory-making age. Time has a nasty way of dulling the sheer childlike wonder of a visit to the fair.
But this year’s fair outing was a stark reminder of the real-life consequences of our votes last November, and a look into the nation’s bleak economic future.
It may have started with a cup, but who knows where shrinkflation will strike next?
Will the one-two whammy of rising tariffs and falling attendance snuff out the best parts of the State Fair? Worst of all, will we even notice it happening?
This story was originally published July 25, 2025 at 8:50 AM.
