THERE’S nothing sweeter than a cold chocolate covered ice cream, especially in a heatwave – but customers are in uproar with Magnum.
Commonly sold in packs of four in the supermarket, a box of Magnums will set you back roughly £3 – but they’ve shrunk in size.
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The multi-packs have been made smaller by Unilever to help make up for higher costs in raw materials, according to The Grocer.
Each ice cream used to be 110ml, but you’ll now get 100ml – that’s 10ml less per treat or 4Oml across the pack of four.
The price of the hot weather snack is set by Unilever, which makes the ice creams, and has a recommended retail price (RRP) of £3 which has stayed the same.
But prices can vary as supermarkets have the overall discretion when setting the price of Magnum’s.
A spokesperson for Unilever said: “We regularly review our product sizes and pricing, and we are committed to ensuring shoppers enjoy great value for money from our brands.
“Like many manufacturers we are currently experiencing large increases in the costs of some of our raw materials including some of the high quality ingredients in Magnum.
“When this happens, we will always try to absorb as much of the cost pressures ourselves before increasing our prices.
“The retail price of our products is always at the sole discretion of the retailer and we, like all manufacturers, only provide a RRP.”
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It’s the latest example of something known as shrinkflation, which is explains when items shrink in size or quantity, while their prices remain the same or increase.
Shrinkflation most commonly affects food and drink products – and it’s an easy way for the manufacturers to cut costs.
One notable example, was The Sun’s discovery that Cadbury Wispa bars shrunk by 7% – with the price remaining at 80p.
A number of supermarkets are selling the newer, smaller, pack of Magnums for more than RRP according to data from Priceable.
Other items recently affected by shrinkflation include bottled beers, frozen vegetables, cheese, tea and coffee.
The new size Magnums are on sale for as much as £3.70 for the box of four.
Tesco also only charged £1.90 for the older and larger pack of four Magnums but have now upped the price to £3.
While Iceland’s hiked the price from £3 to £3.50 a the same time the size has shrunk.
Here’s how much you’ll pay for multi-pack of Magnums at major supermarkets.
- Ocado £2.50
- Waitrose £3.70
- Sainsbury’s £2.50
- Iceland £3.50
- Asda £3.25
- Morrisons £3.20
- Tesco £3
You can compare the prices of products across a range of supermarkets by using sites like Priceable and Trolly.co.uk.
It’s important to remember that prices can change from day to day if new offers come about about if the supermarket raises prices – so take any prices you find online with a pinch of salt.
If a Magnum usually makes your day, you could be missing out on some big savings – as it is more than double the price of many supermarket own-brands.
If you were to buy Iceland’s “4 Belgian Milk Chocolate Majestics” you’d get 120ml per lolly and in total it only costs £1.
While Sainsbury’s own brand “Indulgence Ice Cream” comes in a pack of four and it’ll only set you back £1.50.
We’ve already compared Magnum with its supermarket rivals in a recent taste test – the findings may surprise you.
