Submitted 10 hours ago by sundray@lemmus.org to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1j1kjy7gewo
Factoring in 35 years of inflation. A $0.50 mars bar in 1991 is $1.21 today. The cost of a Mars bar today is at least $1.50 USD (after converting from UK pounds) and that’s being generous.
Companies are greedier than ever and there seems to be no stopping it (meaning because of the oligarchy in the US, Congress will never do a damn thing about it, and certainly the spoiled man-baby’s executive branch will do nothing about it), and no end in sight of it.
Fuck them all.
I would also be surprised if the cost of production, now using cheaper ingredients and far more automation, hadn’t also decreased.
Oh absolutely. Productivity has tripled in many western countries during that time. Wages never kept up with that but prices sure did…
In 1991 those were closer to 30 cents.
I was 12, so I didn’t have 3 cents to rub together, let alone 30. I assumed it was similar to candy bars when I was in high school, which were about $0.50 at the time.
We’ve had the technology to stop this since 1791. Arguments about maturity could be made that put an industrial version as late as 1917.
That’s still over a century ago.
I always had the feeling that they were 56% bigger when I was a kid.
You were just smaller then.
Even the font weight shrank
Also, recipe blogs are a great source of information on shrinkflation. Going to the store to look for a package size that no longer exists is fun.
I’m curious to see how different the ingredient lists are between the two.
I walked through some forest 2ish years ago, next to a football stadium
I found a snickers wrapper with “olympics atlanta 1996” next to the snickers logo
Aww man, that was 10 years ago
Sorry to make you feel old, but it was in fact 20 years ago!
Enshittification is the word of the decade. Century?
I’d sign for enshittification being the worst thing that happens this century. Considering there are years 73 ahead of us in the century, it might only be the precursor of what will actually be the word of the century.
Probably something like “Omnicide”, the way things are going.
Global warming is by far the worst thing but it leads to the same evil root of corporate greed.
I think fascism is worse. I think Russia invading Ukraine is worse. I think the genocide by Israel of the Palestinians is worse. I think wealth inequality is worse. I think the lack of social safety nets in the US, especially universal heatlh case, is worse.
Enshittification is bad, but I really don’t think it’s the worst thing.
And using it to describe everything is the enshitification of the word enshitification
Not when literally everything is enshittifiying.
If its the word of the millenium Im very curious where it goes…
Even the font got skinnier!
The chocolate was thicker too. Easier to peel off and eat separately.
Soon it’s just ars.
WRONG. It’ll be just the one Mar.
Even the design looks better!!! Why!?
I’ve never actually had one. They haven’t sold these in the US in years.
Mars bars are sold in the US under the name Milky Way. Not to be confused with what’s globally known as Milky Way, which is called 3 Musketeers in the US.
um. the us had mars bars and they were nothing like milky ways. they were closer to snickers but with almonds.
Like soccer vs football 🤣
No mars bars at all?
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
I’m sure your customers have been demanding smaller bars that cost more.
Airfried@piefed.social 6 hours ago
“We didn’t only shrink the size, we also lowered the quality of ingredients to maximize profits!”
ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
The only people who enjoy Mars bars are shareholders
daychilde@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
If people weren’t buying more of them, they wouldn’t’ve changed the size.
What people say they want and what they actually purchase are often different.
ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 7 hours ago
Companies have been trying to cheap out in manufacturing costd since manufacturing was invented.
Don’t blame the consumer when the candy bar cartel shrinks their shit then lies about it.
wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Me: doesn’t buy them
Candy: shrinks anyway
Me: “but the internet says that won’t happen!”
nogooduser@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
That’s not a valid conclusion.
The only thing that we can say for sure is that the companies benefit from shrinkflation in some way otherwise they wouldn’t do it.
If sales drop due to the smaller sizes but they still make more profit overall then you can be sure that we’d be getting smaller bars.
brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
You are assuming both options were on the market for consumers to choose from.
These are unilateral decisions.
BillCheddar@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Are you 15? Or do you just lack all common sense and ability to understand the universe around you?
I’m serious. What you’ve written is so far from reality that I feel compelled to make sure you’re OK and not like, IDK, stroking out somewhere.
some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
There’s a large number of people talking glp-1s (ozempic et. al) and they actually are looking for smaller portion sizes, which is driving a huge trend in grocery now of boxing up larger quantities of smaller items.
Of course the industry has used this to their advantage. Instead of just offering a 4-pack of frozen dairy treats at 2 oz each, they can offer an 8-pack at .8 oz each and sell it alongside that one for even more.