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Cadbury's chocolate shrinkflation

Ho3n3r

Ho3n3r

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#21
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Apr 5, 2012
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16,523
#21
newby_investor said:
AFAIK, the tax just applies to beverages. Sweets aren't included. I stand under correction here.

I remember reading an article where they talked to Cadbury at one point, a couple of years ago now, and they basically said what has been said here - due to general inflation costs go up, so they shave a bit off the chocolate so as to avoid increasing the price.

I've noticed it on ice cream as well - forget which brand now but a box which is cunningly disguised as 2L is actually 1.8L or 1.5L.
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Country Fresh went from 2.0 to 1.8 a few years ago, and then some of the more "exclusive" ones were brought down to 1.5, so there was a period where they had both 1.5 and 1.8 litre variants. Now it seems to be all 1.5 litres.

Ola Rich 'n Creamy used to be 2.0, and have recently gone down to 1.8 litres as well - just after the start of this year.

Gino Ginelli went from 1.5 to 1.4 litres recently.
 
W

WaxLyrical

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#22
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Oct 20, 2011
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15,994
#22
wizardofid said:
You are aware it isn't a result of shrinkflation, but the fact that there has been cacao shortage in recent years as a result of it being much harder to grow the cacao tree, as the tree can only grow in humid rainforest conditions.This means supply has been strained.Weather conditions in recent years haven't assisted at all.There is a possibility of serious shortage by 2020, with entire crops decimated and extinct by 2050.

It's more about protecting the supply then shrinkflation. Worse still it's only going to cost more in future as the shortage increases.
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You're talking complete cacao now. Shrinkflation is a corporate concept which is why were also seeing it in crisps and soft drinks among other things.
My beloved Tumbles raisins is now R50 a pack and its mostly raisins.

Ironically Nestle can still offer the 80g slab at R9.00 as a special at PnP and Checkers.
 
W

WaxLyrical

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#23
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#23
lived666 said:
Cadbury's reduce the amount of cacao by adding other ingredients in so called limited edition types such as astros or nuts or crunchie or the PS slab with 0 cacao solids.
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I've seen those and they actually cost more than the standard variety. Basically replacing the chocolate with more sugar, calling it a Limited edition and inflating the price. Bastards.
 
R

rodga

Executive Member
#24
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
8,328
#24
newby_investor said:
AFAIK, the tax just applies to beverages. Sweets aren't included. I stand under correction here.

I remember reading an article where they talked to Cadbury at one point, a couple of years ago now, and they basically said what has been said here - due to general inflation costs go up, so they shave a bit off the chocolate so as to avoid increasing the price.

I've noticed it on ice cream as well - forget which brand now but a box which is cunningly disguised as 2L is actually 1.8L or 1.5L.
Click to expand...
That would be nestle. I actually took a photo when they changed and the old 2l had the size clearly printed on the top of the lid. The new smaller sizer was printed on the rearside too make it as difficult as possible to spot.
Ola has recently also changed the packaging and sizing of their ice creams.
 
Lupus

Lupus

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#25
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#25
newby_investor said:
It's not just Cadbury's, take a look at a packet of Simba chips next time you're in the grocery shop. They used to be ~200g IIRC, but now 125g or so.

No potato shortage to account for that AFAIK.
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Nope they actually used to be 100 grams, then went up to 150 grams for the party pack. It's the Pringles you should look at, 200g,160g,120 and now 110.
 
C

Currantly

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#26
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Dec 24, 2014
Messages
84
#26
Lupus said:
Nope they actually used to be 100 grams, then went up to 150 grams for the party pack.
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You're both wrong about Simba. The big packets were 150g, then shrank to 125g. Frimax still have 150g potato chips in some of the old Simba flavours.
 
Grant

Grant

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#27
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Mar 27, 2007
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42,781
#27
Ellis Brown coffee creamer

"new 800g box" they advertise

reality = they shrank it from 1kg
 
Lupus

Lupus

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#28
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#28
HTH new 8kg value bucket, reality it was 10kg a few months ago. Still got some of those buckets.
 
SeRpEnT

SeRpEnT

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#29
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#29
Ouma Rusks also went down recently from 500g to 450g.
At the same time they had loads of specials of Ouma rusks in stores...

It's all smoke and mirrors to phuk with the customer in order to deceive them. Many times when they reduce and shrink their products look out for new packaging tricks or their old favorite "new improved recipe" while in fact they are either reducing the size or reducing the amount of of a vital (and costly to them!) ingredient such as chocolate in Kit Kat bars (where they increased the size of the biscuit wafer) etc.

In the end it's all just down to corporate thugs sitting in board rooms thinking of schemes to keep their profit margins up at the expense of the customer...
 
Lupus

Lupus

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#30
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Apr 25, 2006
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11,203
#30
SeRpEnT said:
Ouma Rusks also went down recently from 500g to 450g.
At the same time they had loads of specials of Ouma rusks in stores...

It's all smoke and mirrors to phuk with the customer in order to deceive them. Many times when they reduce and shrink their products look out for new packaging tricks or their old favorite "new improved recipe" while in fact they are either reducing the size or reducing the amount of of a vital (and costly to them!) ingredient such as chocolate in Kit Kat bars (where they increased the size of the biscuit wafer) etc.

In the end it's all just down to corporate thugs sitting in board rooms thinking of schemes to keep their profit margins up at the expense of the customer...
Click to expand...
Some rusks even went down to 400 grams :-(
 
Batista

Batista

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#31
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Sep 2, 2011
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7,562
#31
Lupus said:
Nope they actually used to be 100 grams, then went up to 150 grams for the party pack. It's the Pringles you should look at, 200g,160g,120 and now 110.
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I was shocked the other day, opened up a can of pringles and HALF the canister was empty!
 
C

Currantly

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#36
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Dec 24, 2014
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#36
f2wohf said:
The price is double in Europe (R39 vs 19) for 59% more chips (175 vs 110g) so in the end SA still has a better value for money.
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Pringles were 200g when I was in the UK (they still seem to be 200g) and always on special somewhere.
 
F

f2wohf

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#37
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#37
Currantly said:
Pringles were 200g when I was in the UK (they still seem to be 200g) and always on special somewhere.
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I took french prices.

Tesco’s price is 2.26 for 200g so R43.

Makes 81% more pringles for 126% more expensive.

SA is still the best value. I don’t count specials as you can find some in SA too.
 
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