A popular chocolate treat is the latest victim of ‘shrinkflation’ as rising costs put pressure on food manufacturers.
Shoppers will soon find the regular 50 gram Snickers bars replaced by 44g versions – with the $2 price tag unchanged.
Coles has already made the switch, while Woolworths appears to be selling the last of its 50g stock.
A Mars Wrigley spokesperson said Snickers’ downsizing comes after “unprecedented cost pressures”; they would not confirm if other products would also downsize.
“While we continue to absorb cost increases, changes to product weight is sometimes necessary to ensure we can continue to supply our much loved chocolate bars to Australian consumers,” they said.
Shrinkflation is a strategy used by manufacturers to cut costs by selling less product without changing the price.
Several Australian shopping cart staples have been downsized in recent years, with reduced offerings at the same price found in products ranging from Tim Tams to beer to toilet paper. Experts say consumers might not be aware they are buying less.
Keep eyes open for shrinkflation
Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, told The New Daily on Friday that companies have been downsizing products for years because consumers take less notice of the loss of a few grams than they would a price hike.
Although many companies are facing supply chain pressures, Dr Leigh said it is important they don’t treat consumers “like mugs”.
“It’s really important that manufacturers are upfront with their customers if they’re planning on cutting down the size of a pack, because you don’t want to take a sneaky approach to price rises,” he said.
Underhand methods to cut costs have landed companies in strife. In 2013, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched legal proceedings against Colgate-Palmolive, Cussons and Unilever for switching-out standard laundry detergents for cheaper ultra-concentrate versions without passing on savings to shoppers.
As a result, Colgate-Palmolive was fined $18 million for limiting and controlling the supply of laundry detergents in the Australian market in 2016.
Gary Mortimer, consumer and retail expert at Queensland University of Technology, said while most shoppers prefer smaller quantities for the same cost rather than stable product sizes at a higher cost, many don’t even realise product sizes have changed.
“Legally, all [companies] have to do is reprint the packaging with the new size printed on it,” Dr Mortimer said.
“But a reasonable customer probably wouldn’t detect if their chocolate bar went from a 225g to 200g, or their packet of chips went from 200g to 185g.”
Latest in series of Mars changes
Snickers’ downsizing comes as Mars Wrigley resumes producing the chocolate bar in Australia, after shifting production to China while the company’s Ballarat manufacturing site underwent a $100 million update.
While Snickers fans may lament the smaller size, it is facing a kinder fate than Mars Wrigley stablemate, Starburst, which was quietly discontinued locally in June.
Mars Wrigley blamed the decision on supply chain issues and cost pressures, much like the problems Snickers is encountering.
However, unlike Snickers, Starburst products were not selling well. Woolworths and Coles had already removed the brand’s entire range from their stores in 2018. A Facebook post from a Coles representative at the time cited reduced consumer demand.
