Day 157 of 160

Day 157: The Shrinking Bag of Chips

At a supermarket in Mazatlán, Tristán (A), a young boy, shows his father Arnoldo (B) something odd about his favorite chips.

How to study this lesson 3 steps
  1. Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
  2. Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Spanish word to see what it means.
  3. Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Spanish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.

Dialogue

Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.

Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning

  1. A

    Papá, fíjate: estas papas ahora cuestan 22 pesos y traen 42 gramos. ¿No costaban 20 y la bolsa era de 50?

    Dad, look: these chips cost 22 pesos now and they're 42 grams. Didn't they cost 20, and wasn't the bag 50?

  2. B

    Sí, y fuiste tú quien se dio cuenta, no yo: la empresa redujo el contenido para disimular el aumento de precio.

    Yes, and it was you who noticed, not me: the company cut the contents to disguise the price increase.

  3. A

    Pero entonces no subieron dos pesos: si lo sacas por gramo, ¡subieron como treinta por ciento!

    But then they didn't go up by two pesos: if you figure it out per gram, they went up about thirty percent!

  4. B

    Tal cual, y hasta tiene nombre: reduflación. Es una estrategia muy astuta, porque casi nadie se fija en los gramos, solo en el precio.

    Exactly, and it even has a name: shrinkflation. It's a very crafty strategy, because hardly anyone looks at the grams, only at the price.

  5. A

    ¿Y cuánto costaba una bolsa cuando tú tenías mi edad? ¿Un peso?

    And how much did a bag cost when you were my age? One peso?

  6. B

    Serían como dos pesos, pero venía llena, no como ahora, que la mitad es aire. Bueno, nitrógeno, para que no se rompan.

    It must have been about two pesos, but it came full, not like now, when half of it is air. Well, nitrogen, so they don't break.

  7. A

    Pues voy a hacer mi propio experimento: cada semana peso una bolsa en la báscula de la cocina y lo apunto en una bitácora.

    Well, I'm going to do my own experiment: every week I'll weigh a bag on the kitchen scale and write it down in a logbook.

  8. B

    Muy científico, Tristán. Qué casualidad que tu experimento necesite una bolsa de papas por semana, ¿no?

    Very scientific, Tristán. Funny how your experiment needs a bag of chips a week, isn't it?

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