Are our ‘Smarties’ shrinking ?
Posted by Big John on September 3, 2012
It’s now September and the children return to school this week after the long summer break, autumn has officially started, football (soccer) is back on sports TV, and it will soon be time to put away the shorts and T shirts and dig out the sweaters and wooley socks, so what do I expect to see on my next shopping trip to Sainsbury’s ?
“Merry Christmas!” … Yes, the aisles will soon start to fill with all those Christmas goodies and I will soon be tripping over those piles of tins of bloody ‘Quality Street’ ! Although this year they may be easier to avoid as Nestle have reduced the size of the tins by 18%. Needless to say the price has not been reduced !
It would seem that the move to reduce product sizes is increasingly widespread throughout the confectionary industry as supermarkets and food brands attempt to counter rising production and food costs: or to put it another way, ‘rip-off’ anyone with a ‘sweet tooth’.
Now I must say that I am not a big sweet (candy) eater. It’s probably something to do with my childhood when sweets were rationed and only consumed in very small quantities as a special treat. However, I did grow up to enjoy a ‘Mars’ or a ‘Bounty’ bar, ‘Rolos’ were pretty good, but I never liked those green wine gums.
Kids now seem to eat sweets by the handful and mothers buy them by the trolley (cart) load, but when I am sometimes offered to help myself from some youngster’s bag of ’pick and mix’ they seem to taste of very little, and when on the rare occasion that I get the urge to ‘raid’ a vending machine for a chocolate bar, it will appear to have shrunk on it’s way to my hand, and I have to wonder how long it will be before ‘After Eights’ become …
… ‘Before Six-Thirties’ ?
grannymar said
Black magic are no longer the treat they were and Double centres seem to have disappeared altogether. Pity.
Ginnie said
We must be on the same wave length, John, because my blog entry today is about the wonderful UNSWEET animal crackers that I loved as a child.
Anton UK said
And in other news today, Mars have issued a legal letter to a restaurant in Scotland instructing them to change their menu description as they (Mars) do not endorse deep fried Mars Bars.
I’m off to Scotland soon and I’m determined to try one even though Michael Mosley says fasting is the best medicine. Did you see the program? Fast one day feast the next day and live to be a sprightly 100.
Perhaps Nestle are acting in our best interest; It is Quality Street not Quantity Street after all.