First, it was smaller chocolate bars, then chippies - what's next? Shrinkflation is making our favourite snacks less satisfying, while prices stay the same... or even go up.
It’s like all our fave snacks aren’t quite how we remember them. So, what’s the deal? After digging into it, I can confirm we’re not imagining things. It’s definitely not just because we’ve grown up!
Here are some of the Kiwi snacks that have downsized:
Burger Rings
A Kiwi Reddit user kicked off a debate with the question, "Have Burger Rings shrunk?"
And while a few people asked, "Or have you grown?" it’s been confirmed that the chips have indeed changed.
The biggest letdown? They no longer fit perfectly on our fingers for snacking off one by one.
Turns out, this all went down in 2021. Bluebird’s former GM, Daniel Engeman, told Fair Go that the switch was due to needing updated equipment to keep making their snacks locally.
And it wasn’t just Burger Rings - Twisties, Cheezels, and Rashuns were affected in size and taste too!
Cadbury Favourites
Cadbury has also faced some heat for choosing to axe two iconic choccies from their Favourites boxes last year.
Dream and Flake were removed from the variety packs and instead replaced with their bougier alternatives Caramilk and Twirl - so for that they are off the hook.
But the worst of it came when they followed it up by reducing the size of the boxes from 373g to 340g and larger packs from 570g to 520g… Why? A Cadbury spokesperson told News.com.au it was due to “rising input costs”.
Unfortunately, ‘shrinkflation’ really did come into play with the changes not having eased up on our wallets. The price for many Cadbury goodies has either stayed the same or has risen in price.
Whittaker’s
Thank goodness, Whittaker's blocks haven't gotten smaller, but you are getting less bang for your buck than you used to. To avoid compromising the quality or quantity, the NZ chocolate company has introduced multiple price hikes over the last two years to keep up with rising food and production costs.
The most recent was just back in May this year, due to another "significant rise" in ingredient costs.
Pringles
Many of us have asked ourselves whether we’ve just gotten bigger when reaching for a can of Pringles, only to find our hands can’t quite make it all the way down to grab the chip crumbs at the bottom.
But it’s confirmed that it’s not entirely about our growing hands; it’s more about the shrinking chip and can sizes.
According to Pringles, they were downsized back in 2016 to fit a new manufacturing facility with different equipment from the original US factory. "As our Malaysia plant was already servicing our Asian market, we decided we would standardise production and roll out the same Pringles recipe, chip size and packaging from this location for Australia and New Zealand,” a spokesperson told Yahoo last year.
Snickers
Another fave hit by shrinkflation is Mars' Snickers bars. According to Consumer NZ, these choc bars have downsized by 12%, from 50g to 44g.
Mars New Zealand told Consumer NZ it was necessary to downsize due to "a range of external factors".
"While we continue to absorb cost increases, changes to product weight is sometimes necessary to ensure we can continue to supply our chocolate bars," a spokes person said.
When the bars noticeably shrunk back in 2022, Pixie Caramel, Toffee Pops and Moro Bars were also affected.
There ya have it! Now if they dare touch any more of my faves, I might just have a meltdown.
