Chocolate Company Insults Consumers

Mondelez International Inc., the company responsible for the chocolate delight known as Toblerone, recently changed the chocolate bar’s size and shape, according to the official Mondelez website. This has bolstered concerns over consumer rights and corruption in the food industry.

The signature triangles on the bars have been spaced out more, and the gaps between them have increased, making the bar look like a set of gapped teeth.

More importantly, the new Toblerone bars have decreased in total. The smaller version have dropped from 170 grams to 150 grams, while the larger bars have dropped from 400 grams to 360. The recommended prices, however, have remained the same.

This is not just a petty issue. This is a matter of larger companies pushing consumers around. It would be acceptable if the price of the chocolate went down, but now Mondelez is expecting consumers to pay the same amount for less product.

With the madness of the recent election, this issue has been overlooked. We cannot continue buying these bars for the same price as before. Mondelez thinks that they can sneak this change past the people and not be caught, but we must take a stand.

If we want a better and more fair chocolate industry, we need to boycott Mondelez and Toblerone until they restore the size and shape of the bar or lower the price.

What I’m really upset about is the implication that companies expect consumers to be complacent, allowing themselves to be sold a substandard product.  The audacity of this particular company is not unique. It is just another example of corporations abusing a public they believe to be ignorant and apathetic.

M&M’s is another example of big business attempting to abuse their customers. According to a statistic published by Philips Exeter Academy, the company Mars no longer fills the candy bags with different colored M&M’s proportionally, and no longer has the same amount of candies in every bag. Previously, every pack of M&M’s was the same, with equal amounts of each color, but now, everything is variable.

This strategic decline in quality again suggests that corporations have little respect for consumers. They see the world as being filled with inattentive, easily manipulated people.

We all need to wake up, notice and take action.

We need to be aware of these injustices within the food industry. Do not buy any products from these companies. Give big chocolate a reason to respect the consumer.