(Coffee Products) Jacobs Doewe Egberts Group sneaky "Shrinkflation" tactics.

Totempole

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A few weeks back I purchased 2 boxes of Jacobs Cappucino sticks (Less sugar variant) from my local Checkers outlet. Their product isn't really on par with Nescafe, but it was reasonably priced at the time.

Anyway, after basically finishing the first box, and opening the second, I immediately noticed something was wrong. The sticks felt like they were half empty compared to the ones I had been using from the previous box.

Then I realized...

Jacobs1.jpeg

The product size had been dropped by 25%. The 18.6g sticks are now 14g.

At first I thought, that they had changed suppliers (The boxes are slightly different), and that the product had changed, given the fact that the equivalent Nestle product is only 12.5g per stick yet is somehow richer and creamier than the Jacobs 18.6g sticks.

Jacobs3.jpeg

Unfortunately this wasn't the case. I contacted JDE group about my concern, and they simply just brushed it off with a pretty generic response, and a "we hope this won't deter you from purchasing our product in the future."

Anyways, I just thought I would "name and shame". These big companies seem to think we don't notice when a product changes for the worse in order to cut costs. I know they're not the first company to do it, and certainly won't be the last, but at least we can vote with our wallets.

/Rant over. :p

Kudos to Checkers though, they had no issues refunding me despite the fact that the box was already opened.
 
Hehe, that's true. I only have instant jacobs when I make a milk coffe. (10% water for initial mixing and then topup with cold milk)

I generally use Nescafe Espresso Instant Coffee. That stuff is the closest thing you can get to the real thing locally. It's almost like the Nescafe Barista Style Coffee Makro and Takealot used to stock.
 
True, and I do whenever I can, but these products are great to use during Loadshedding.
If you can boil a kettle during load shedding you can make coffee, you don't have to rely on instant.
 
If you can boil a kettle during load shedding you can make coffee, you don't have to rely on instant.

I make a flask before loadshedding or otherwise boil water on a small butane gas stove.

I could probably make French Press or similar, I'm just too lazy for that. :giggle:
 
Update:

They've taken things a step further. The box size is about half of what they used to be and the contents have been reduced a by a further 20%. They claim it's a new recipe with 27% less sugar. Fairly easy to achieve if they're already giving you 20% less product. :ROFL:

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