{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://dean.house.gov/2024/10/dean-warren-press-cocacola-pepsico-and-general-mills-on-shrinkflation", "Dean, Warren Press CocaCola, PepsiCo, and General Mills on \u201cShrinkflation\u201d", "2024-10-07", "2024", "2024-10", "Democrat", "House", "PA", "Madeleine Dean", "D000631", "dean.house.gov", "dean", "https://dean.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (PA-04) and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to the CEOs of Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and General Mills, pressing their executives on the companies\u2019 pattern of profiteering off consumers, both through \u201cshrinkflation\u201d and tax dodging.\n\nAll three of these companies have shrunk the size of their packaging to squeeze profits out of their customers \u2014 a practice known as \u201cshrinkflation.\u201d Then, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and General Mills paid a very slim federal income tax on their billions of dollars in profits made from price gouging. In other words, American families are paying more for less, while those same companies are paying less than their fair share in taxes.\n\n\u201cShrinking the size of a product in order to gouge consumers on the price per ounce is not innovation, it is exploitation,\u201d the lawmakers wrote. \u201cUnfortunately, this price gouging is a widespread problem, with corporate profits driving over half of inflation.\u201d\n\nReporting indicates that one of the key reasons that General Mills\u2019 profits continue to grow is because they\u2019ve shrunk some of their packaging. For example, the \u201cFamily Size\u201d box of Cocoa Puffs went from 19.3 ounces to 18.1 ounces while charging the same price, at least initially. Similarly, PepsiCo replaced its 32 oz Gatorade bottle with a 28 oz bottle for the same price. And Coca-Cola has openly told its shareholders that it had \u201cearn[ed] the right\u201d to hike prices for consumers because of their company\u2019s market power.\n\nWhile these companies continue to profit off consumers, the companies are also turning around and paying less of those profits in taxes than the families they price gouge.\n\nAccording to a recent report by the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, from 2018 to 2022, Coca-Cola made $13.4 billion but paid an average effective tax rate of just 13.5 percent, General Mills made $12 billion but paid an average effective tax rate of just 14.8 percent, and PepsiCo made $22.4 billion but paid an average effective tax rate of just 15 percent. These tax rates are even lower than the corporate tax rate that was reduced from 35 to 21 percent by former President Trump and Congressional Republicans in 2017.\n\n\u201cWe strongly oppose these corporate tax giveaways, and have fought to pass tax increases on big corporations, including the 15 percent minimum tax on billion-dollar corporations,\u201d the lawmakers wrote. \u201cNo corporation should pay a lower tax rate than working Americans \u2013 especially when that same corporation turns around and gouges consumers on the other end through shrinkflation.\u201d\n\nRead the letters here.\n\nRep. Madeleine Dean is a mother, grandmother, attorney, professor, former four-term member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and U.S. Representative for the Fourth District of Pennsylvania.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:57:20Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://dean.house.gov/2024/10/dean-warren-press-cocacola-pepsico-and-general-mills-on-shrinkflation"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.387741882354021, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}