A woman in Oregon noticed that her family seemed to be using more toothpaste than usual. So, she had a theory that the brand they used, Crest, was putting less product into the tubes than they used to. Once she told her daughter her theory, they decided to put it to the test and she was shocked by what she found.
In a TikTok video posted by @rissa_m_stone, the two explain why they’re taking the situation to social media. “My mom is convinced that we’ve had to buy toothpaste a lot faster,” the woman’s daughter tells the camera. “They’re not filling these up all the way like they used to,” her mom says as she holds an unopened tube of toothpaste. “I think we should cut it open,” she adds.
So, that’s exactly what they do. The Oregon mom grabs a pair of scissors and cuts the end off of the tube so that she can clearly look inside. When she sees that the tube is only about half full, she gasps. When her daughter takes a look she also has a shocked expression on her face.
Mom and Daughter Cut Open a Toothpaste Tube
The daughter then shows the camera the inside of the tube, where there is clearly a gap between the top of the container and the product inside. She then folds the tube over to show viewers just how much extra room there is inside the tube. “That’s wild,” the mother says. “I knew it!”
In the comment section of the post, the daughter revealed that she and mother also weighed the tube to see if the advertised amount was inside, but it wasn’t. “Also, we weighed it and it didn’t weigh 3 ounces like it said on the packaging,” she wrote. They even tagged Crest in their video, but the company has yet to respond.
What Is Shrinkflation?
“Shrinkflation,” one person stated in the comments. “We need to start suing these companies for false advertising,” suggested another. “They out here selling travel size in a full package,” a third person added. “Bags of chips too, like a handful now when you open the bag. Crazy,” a fourth person chimed in.
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, shrinkflation is when a manufacturer decreases the amount of product without a drop in price. A 2025 report reveals that household items such as paper towels, toilet paper, cereal, coffee, laundry detergent, toothpaste, and over-the-counter pain relief have been affected by shrinkflation the most.
For this Oregon mother and daughter, their at-home experiment seemed to confirm what many shoppers have suspected for a while.
