Visited the Supermarket this morning to get some bags of flour as there may be a bread shortage due to action from the farmers.

I couldn't help but notice that food prices continue to rise. A pack of nine Cadburys chocolate bars have gone from a pack of nine to a pack of seven but still the same price £3

Also a bag of toffee have gone up from £1 to £1:35 a bag. Each individual sweet appears smaller too.

And the bag of  Chocolate raisins are now £1:50 & they were just £1 till recently. 

So it's not just that prices are going up. You are getting less for your money too. 

Anyone else notice the packaging getting smaller?

Small Easter eggs are insanely priced this year, but to some extent prices do increase every year.

All we can do is choose wisely where to shop and try to avoid spending more on items, especially those which are self-indulgent. Some people are aligned with supermarkets to the point they don't shop around, and this isn't all that smart. If you can afford to spend more on items priced cheaper elsewhere, I don't think it's a worry, but those who don't like to shop or are a bit idle just need to be wiser.

The issue does become more of a concern for people who are struggling or are disabled, but supermarkets at the end of the day know shoppers will vote with their feet, and the minority of smart shoppers is outweighed by those who will just pay regardless.

Please avoid making this political. The discussion can centre on the main topic, and efforts have already been made to keep it centred on the talking point.

@Chris

Talking about Cadburys Creme Eggs

Cadbury Creme Eggs in the UK have shrunk in size and multi-packs now come with fewer eggs, while the price remains the same or even increases.

Shrinking Size:

A single Cadbury Creme Egg in the UK now weighs 34 grams, while in 1977, they weighed 39 grams. 

Source Google.

Why do they do this? It's just a form of cheating the consumer isn't it.

Here follows a list of food favourites that have reduced in size over the years but have remained the same price or even increased in price pro rater. I'm sure we can add very easily to this list.

Chocolate:

Mars – Galaxy chocolate bars 

Toblerone chocolate bars 

Twix 

Kit Kat Chunky bars 

Maltesers, M&Ms and Minstrels 

Milk Chocolate Raisins 

Dairy Box 

Chocolate-coated ice lollies 

Chocolate buttons 

Biscuits:

McVitie's  Digestives, Club biscuits and Penguin bars 

Digestive & Rich Tea biscuits 

Crisps/Snacks:

Walkers crisps 

Potato snacks 

Other:

Hellmann's mayonnaise jars 

Peanuts 

Milk chocolate bar 

Christmas chocolates 

Potato snacks 

Christmas sweets 

Source Google.

Cadbury has admitted to making their chocolate bars smaller, saying it was a "a last resort". Chocolate lovers are upset after they saw that their favourite treats have shrunk. Cadbury got a question on X from someone who wondered why their Wispa bar was so tiny.

Source Google.

One of the worse examples of shrinking the product but increasing the price was found during an investigation by "Which"

This was Listerine Fresh Burst mouthwash, which shrank from 600ml to 500ml - but the price for this product rose by 52 p in Tesco.

This meant that shoppers paid 21% more for 17% less. When compared to the unit price per 100ml, this was a price increase of 46%.

"Source Daily Mirror via Google" 

If you're wondering which products are shrinking, our favourite snacks are among the worst hit. Consumer organisation Which? surveyed shoppers to find out which products have noticeably shrunk.

They found that chocolate (50%), crisps (40%), biscuits (39%) and snack bars (35%) are the most common victims:

For example a well-known brand of multi-packs of crisps has cut two bags of crisps from its 24-bag multi-packs, however it costs the same

(Researched via Google).

If you think that Easter Eggs are getting smaller they are.

Why are Easter eggs shrinking and costing more?

Rising cocoa costs: A major factor is the increased cost of cocoa, a key ingredient in chocolate, which has been driven by factors like weather patterns and global supply issues. 

 Price increases across the supply chain are also playing a role. Companies try to absorb rising costs by reducing product size rather than raising prices directly. 

But it's the apparent underhanded way that they do this is the galling thing for lots of consumers.

As an example A Twix white chocolate Easter egg at Tesco shrunk from 316g to 258g, while the price increased from £5 to £6. 

(Info from Google)

Every year since I was a child, I have noticed product packages getting smaller. I feel consumers aren't as savvy as they should be. If more people spoke up and companies focused less on squeezing as much profit as possible, and instead sold products that flew off the shelves, it would be fairer. I understand there are outside factors, but most of it ends up being at the expense of the consumer.

More on Easter Eggs.

Easter eggs from big brands such as Cadbury, Mars and Terry's are getting more expensive, with some eggs increasing in price by up to 50 per cent while shrinking in size.

(Source Google)

 

Some of us can remember buying black jacks at 4 for a penny. An old penny mind, where there were 240d to a pound.

Black jacks were small square aniseed flavoured chews.

You can buy black jacks online 400 at a time, at a cost of £13:99. That's 3.47p per black jack. That's a massive price hike.

Just to add a bit of more info about why the price of chocolate has increased, I recently finished working for a chocolate processing company last year and there’s been a big downturn in cacao bean production since 2023 from West Africa, which is the largest producer by far. They’ve been badly affected due to the change in rain patterns (they’ve had none basically) and increase in temperature. Then they’ve had issues with diseases spreading amongst the remaining crops, sometimes to the extent that the ground can’t be re-used for next seasons crops. That’s why the price has risen drastically and sadly it’s not going to be any better in 2025…

No idea if it’s a short-term issue, but cacao trees are really tricky to grow to regardless as they need a lot of attention and very specific moisture levels. I’d say in 10 years or so I’d fully expect a non-cacao chocolate to be widely available. From what I can recall there’s a company in Germany doing this right now and I know companies in the UK are trailing similar methods too.

This is very much a long-term trend - Wispas definitely used to be larger than they are now (and they're half air anyway). On the other hand, I can't remember Creme Eggs ever being more than 34g!

One of the sneakiest things is that products are being sold at less than their advertisied weight. The box of grass seed I bought the other week was the lightest 2kg ever.

Thanks for the insight @menzinho, as chocolate is highly processed it's easy to forget that it's originally a crop and can be affected by crop failures. For the last couple of years I've been buying nicer chocolate (the fewer ingredients the better) but less of it.