As of August 2022, the U.S. economy is going through its worse period of inflation in over 40 years, leading to a recent phenomenon known as "shrinkflation." Some companies, including food and drink purveyors, are "shrinking" their packaging so that it sneakily contains less product, while still retaining the same price as before.

One Redditor has posted about shrinkflation at Dunkin', writing "Smaller volume from the bottom up" alongside a photo that shows a larger-than-normal gap between the outer rim of their Duckin' cup and the actual bottom of the cup. The user noticed the change because “my pinky finger [...] didn't touch the bottom, prompting me to look underneath”.

Some users wondered if Dunkin’ had officially changed its size offerings, but other netizens concluded that the chain hadn’t made any changes to the menu. Some commenters expressed skepticism, saying “OP did not provide any evidence of the old cup volume” and “could be a defective cup,” but shrinkflation is not an unlikely possibility.