The real Scrooges: how sweets have shrunk over the years

Britain’s go-to festive selection box, Quality Street, is being given a hard time after a Facebook user posted a photo showing how the sweet tins have shrunk from 1998 to 2014.

Charlotte Stacey Hook, from Tyne and Wear, posted the photo on Quality Street’s Facebook page with the caption: “Been putting the Christmas tree up, always keep my tins to put my decorations in after Christmas! Look how they’ve changed in size from 1998 till 2014!”

It shouldn’t really come as a surprise though – the nation’s favourite chocolates and sweets have been downsizing for some time now, although prices remain the same.

For instance, Cadbury’s multipack of Crème Eggs went from six to five in January this year, which got a lot of negative reaction from Crème Egg-lovers.

Cadbury (again) also downsized their Curly Wurly treats, from a five pack to four, as well as their classic Dairy Milk bar that went from 49g to 45g. The prices for each of these sweets stayed the same despite the downsize.

“Shrinkflation”, as reported in the Mirror, was confirmed by the National Office for Statistics. Earlier this year, retail expert John Pal told the Manchester Evening News that this practice has affected just about everything in our shopping baskets.

This includes crisps, fizzy drinks, multipacks of fruit, and even washing powder, he said. It’s a simple case of supply and demand, according to Pal, in which smaller shops want smaller packets for “operational reasons”, and consumers now make more frequent smaller shops rather than big weekly ones.

That may be so, but we still like getting value for our money. Hook’s post received over 86,000 likes, 37,000 shares and 5,800 comments.