Why do manufacturers have to change products? Why is it that your favourite brands, particularly food-items, sweets, chocolates, biscuits and other products, which you've probably had since childhood, have to be re-packaged, fiddled with, as you have probably been used to them in a certain way for so long? I mean, Rowntrees fruit gums, a favourite of mine, and enjoyed since I was quite young. They had a sort of set of 'bumps' on one side, sort of raised pimples (I can think of no better way to describe them, but quite unique to these sweets.) When Nestle's took over Rowntrees-Macintosh, they attempted to change these sweets, by taking away these 'ridges' or 'bumps' on these fruit gums.Probably been like that for over 100 years or so. Just a way to cut down on production costs, simplifying the making of them in some way (but in reality just changing them without any warning to their loyal customers) The new version of the fruit gum were just plain flat discs of gum and nothing else. I don't think they left them like this for too long, because eventually they changed them back to what they had always been.
They changed the packaging of Smarties, from lovely little tubes with plastic stoppers, which were classic in design. Then they had to change them to being hexagonal instead of tubular (not round) and just plain horrible, without any sort of stopper (made of card, actually quite a clever design from folding the card without having to have a metal or plastic stopper.) But nevertheless, fiddled with by Nestle's. I never liked the idea of this once-great British company being taken over by a foreign company. Nestle took over quite a lot of companies, such as the company which makes Shredded Wheat as well as Lyon's ice-cream. Just made it into a large conglomerate, sadly.
We always had a family-sized tin of Quality Street at Christmas when I was a child. There's something familiar about the sweets you get in the selection. I don't think they've changed them for decades. But I had a box given to me (when Carol was in hospital) and munched my way steadily through the box. There was something not quite right with them, something was different. Why had Nestle thought it necessary to fiddle with such a classic brand? The tasteis as I remember for most of the selection, but I'm sure they're a good deal smaller in size and those with chocolate on them, the layer of chocolate is far thinner. Just a ploy by Nestle to make the sweets smaller and less chocolatey but you still pay more or less the same price as before. Shocking. Pity Rowntrees Macintosh can't be bought back into British ownership and return their products to what they were before Nestle bought the business.
Cadbury's went the same way, a once-proud British company, taken over by Kraft, an American conglomerate, best known for making Kraft cheese, a disgusting tasting mush as well as Bird's coffee. Also, Bird's Mild coffee. Can't think of the actual name of the product. Yuk. If you're going to have a cup of coffee, at least have a cup that tastes of coffee, not bland and tasteless like this brand. If you go through Banbury you pass the kraft factory, which smells of this horrible artificial coffee, which is enough to put you off coffee for life. Just a pity that Cadbury's is now just part of yet another conglomerate. I think when it comes down to brass tacks, the Cadbury shareholders were more interested in the amount they'd make from the shares when they got taken over and couldn't have cared less what happened to the business. A shame, really, but when money is involved, that seems to have priority over what the buying public wants or likes. Infact, I don't believe the public has any say in such matters, except when the company leaves classic brands alone and doesn't have to change them. I can't think of anything that Cadbury's new owners did to change any of their classic products (such as Dairy Milk, Crunchie, or any other chocolate coated brands, including Flake, Double Decker etc etc.) Probably less actual chocolate in them, not that you'd notice.
Another brand that has been altered. Not made by either Nestle or Cadbury's or even Kraft. It's Wagon Wheels, a favourite from when I was at school. But I had one when we bought some a while ago and they seem so much smaller. Thinner, too, with less chocolate. I suppose manufacturers are attempting to be less wasteful of materials, more environmentally-friendly, making products more efficiently, but it's a bit of a cheat to make them smaller and expect you to pay the same. Originally these chocolate-coated biscuits were quite big (or is it they seemed so when I was a child, and now I'm an adult they only seems smaller because I've got bigger? Just an illusion ? Probably not. They just seem smaller.
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