‘Greedflation’: NYC woman sues popular fast food chain over portioning

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A New York woman has a beef with Arby’s and is suing the fast food chain for “downsizing” portions while not lowering prices.

Melissa Nelson, of Ridgewood, filed the class action suit in Queens County Supreme Court accusing the eatery of not alerting customers or adjusting prices as it allegedly shrunk the portion sizes of its French fries and drinks, the New York Post reported.

“Arby’s deceptively continues to sell its fries and beverages in smaller sizes which are now substantially smaller than the old sizes,” the filing states. “The increase in prices may never be noticed by Arby’s purchasers, who may be left only with a strange feeling, short of satiety, even though this was due to … downsizing,” it continues.

Lawyers for Nelson reportedly compared nutritional information of different sizes of fries and “found that Arby’s phased out its kids’ sized fries, made that portion the new small, the prior small the new medium, and the old medium the new large,” according to the Post.

The same switch was allegedly made with Arby’s drinks and the changes happened “without any corresponding reduction in price … or disclosure to its customers.”

“Crinkle fries at Arby’s now cost $3.74 for a small, $4.49 for a medium and $4.99 for a large,” the outlet reported. “And a recent fast food run by The Post found all three sizes had nearly the same amount of fries inside.”

“The move comes amid increasing instances of ‘shrinkflation,’ when companies reduce quantities — often without changing package size — and only sometimes lower prices, and ‘greedflation,’ when companies charge more for less in the face of rising inflation, the suit argues,” according to the Post.

The lawsuit claimed Nelson and other customers have counted on Arby’s “consistent sizes” at “relatively consistent prices over time.” However, the company has allegedly violated business law by misleading customers into paying more for less. The class action suit is seeking unspecified damages.

Last year, Arby’s faced a class action lawsuit for allegedly overstating how much meat was in their sandwiches.

“Arby’s actions are especially concerning now that inflation, food, and meat prices are very high and many consumers, especially lower-income consumers, are struggling financially,” the complaint read.

“Arby’s advertises larger portions of food to steer consumers to its restaurants for their meals and away from competitors that more fairly advertise the size of their menu items, unfairly diverting millions of dollars in sales that would have gone to competitors,” the 2023 filing read.

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.