Christmas chocolate season is in full swing, and as well as stocking up on tubs of Quality Street and Roses, many will also be buying classics like Cadbury Coins and selection trays.
One sweet treat you might not expect to see people buying at this time of year though, is Mini Eggs.
The colourful chocolate sweets are traditionally found on supermarket shelves in Spring, as Easter approaches, but it seems B&M is getting a head start as shoppers have spotted giant 1kg bags for sale already.
Some fans are overjoyed to see the eggs return, claiming they are ‘the best’ product Cadbury makes and that ‘it’s never too early’ for them.
Abby Brown joked: ‘Well isn’t it the best time of year truly’, as Louise Dunn did her best Mariah Carey impression, saying: ‘It’s Tiiiimmmmeee.’
However, others were outraged by the price of the chocolate as the 1Kg packet costs £14 at the bargain retailer.
On Instagram, @uknewestfoods said: ‘Saying it first, we know these were £10 two years ago.’ To which @maxorchid9 pointed out that the same bag costs a whopping £18 on the official Cadbury Gifts website.
They continued: ‘I usually buy them to make NYC cookies but not sure at this price tbh.’
@josh_earl3 wrote: ‘£14 is wild.’ As @josh_merchant added: ‘For £14 I want an actual chicken laying mini eggs, this is outrageous.’
Several people also started wishing each other a ‘Happy Easter’, and a few suggested the chocolate giant just start selling the sweets all year round at this point as the return of seasonal products gets earlier and earlier.
In case you were wondering, Mini Eggs aren’t the only Easter treat hitting the shops already, as Cadbury Creme Eggs, and Milky Bar eggs havebeen spotted in B&M too. Large Mini Egg chocolate bars are also reportedly selling for as much as £5.50 a pop.
This isn’t the first time the cost of a 1kg pack of Mini Eggs has caused a stir this year, as WH Smith sparked controversy in February as they flogged the bumper bags for £17.50.
Shoppers at the time were furious they cost as ‘much as a mortgage’, and it was the same price as a ‘weekly food shop’.
Mondelēz, who own Cadbury, defended the price hikes, saying they were a ‘last resort’.
A Mondelēz International spokesperson told Metro: ‘Making changes to the price of our products is always a last resort, however, costs across our supply chain have risen steeply.
‘Core ingredients we heavily rely on, like cocoa and sugar are a lot more expensive, while the cost of energy, packaging, and transport also remain high.
‘As a result, we are having to make some carefully considered price increases across our range so we can continue to provide consumers with the brands they love without compromising on taste or quality.’
Mondelēz also added that the cost of our favourite snacks isn’t just their responsibility.
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They added: ‘While products have a recommended price, retailers are free to set their own prices.’
It's not just Cadbury...
Aldi also recently stunned shoppers after introducing a new ‘Chreaster’ product.
The sweet treat is exactly what it sounds like — a Christmas Easter egg. Yep, the German retailer has given the classic Easter egg a festive makeover and it’s bound to cause a stir.
The Dairyfine Hollow Character eggs cost £1.99 and are available in two options: Garry the Gingerbread Man or Parker the Penguin.
The retailer claims the chocolate eggs make the perfect stocking filler for Christmas and are also a great conversation starter — and they’re not wrong as they’ve already garnered attention online.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter) @upton_le shared a snap of the Chreaster eggs in their local supermarket, writing: ‘Merry Chreaster ya filthy animal.’
Hundreds of people liked the post, with dozens responding to share their thoughts. Even the official Aldi account got involved, joking: ‘Babe what’s wrong, you’ve hardly touched your Chreaster egg.’
@JAU_4 found the whole thing hilarious, saying: ‘I love Aldi, just when you think they can’t do better. This is so cursed I actually love it.’
It’s not just Cadbury that’s been impacted by price hikes though, the price of chocolate in general has been soaring to unprecedented levels.
The wholesale price of cocoa has seen a four-fold increase over the past year, with climate change being blamed for poor harvests in West Africa, where the majority of global producers are based.
Despite reduced supply, demand for chocolate is growing, resulting in prices peaking on the London Cocoa Futures in April at £9,648 a tonne.This spike has been passed onto consumers, with Which? deeming chocolate prices the fastest rising of all food categories it researches — in a grim phenomenon dubbed ‘chocflation’.
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