Are Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Smaller? An Investigative Journalism Piece
Saturday, Jun 18th, 2011I have long suspected that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups have gotten smaller. As a wee-lad, it took as much as three whole bites to finish a cup. Now one bite feels all too natural, and I really have to go out of my way to experience a Reese’s Cup in two bites. To be fair I got bigger and that might account for their getting smaller.
Still I’ve never been suspicious of other popular chocolate brands like Snickers or Hershey’s, only Reese’s. It’s really been a longstanding mystery. One I contemplate every time I finish a pack of peanut butter cups. Somehow I always feel there should be more in there.
Last night, I decided to investigate the matter of the mysteriously shrinking peanut butter cups. Like anyone with a degree in journalism would do, I Googled it. What I found was both horrifying and shocking. In a word … horri-shocking.
Turns out the nefarious Hershey Foods Corporation [1] has been duping consumers for years. The cup size has changed, yet we’re paying the same price.
The Evidence
Exhibit A.
The above image is of a Reese’s wrapper purchased in 2003. Note the old Reese’s tagline, “There’s No Wrong Way To Eat A Reese’s.” Also note, utilizing my advanced image manipulation skills, I’ve circled the net weight in ounces and grams.
Exhibit B.
The above image is of a Reese’s wrapper purchased more recently, featuring the new orange swirl design and the current tagline “Get Lost In A Reese’s.”
If you compare the net weight with the wrapper from 03, you’ll see that there’s a three gram difference. Less carbs, less fat and less protein. 20 calories less.
So now you know, the peanut butter cups are smaller. As if Mini Reese’s and Reese’s Pieces weren’t insulting enough. Soon the same wisecrack that came up with the “fun” size will have the idea of selling powdered Reese’s. But we’re Americans I say. Sell us bigger things, diametrically proportionate to our waistlines.
In case I win a Pulitzer for this groundbreaking investigative piece, I’d like to cover all my ground here and attribute the images. I found the images via Google on the website of a candy enthusiast who, for whatever reason, has scanned in the wrappers of every candy he has eaten in the last ten years. He also has a blog about candy wrappers. Not about candy, exclusively candy wrappers. I wonder where that puts him on the autism spectrum.
1/27/12 Update – It looks like I spoke to soon.
- [1] In recent years, the Hershey Foods Corporation was renamed to The Hershey Company which some clever lawyers and brand marketers deemed less nefarious-sounding. ↩
It’s 2011. I just bought a package of Halloween candy that had individual Reese’s as one of the candies. In past years they’ve been the sames size, or slightly smaller, than the normal two packaged Reese’s. However, this year they are PUNY!!! They are the size of a 50 cent piece! I couldn’t believe it! The bag of chocolates cost me over $15.00 at Party City. …Times are changing. Have you looked at tuna, orange juice, or a number of grocery items lately? Same size container, fewer ounces… SAME price. Everything is getting smaller but we’re paying the same amount of money – sometimes MORE. Inflation SUCKS!!!!!
Thank you for posting this. I too recently saw the PUNY little cups and couldn’t believe my eyes. Your posting confirmed that I wasn’t crazy. I’m mad! I want my full sized chocolate and peanut butter heaven.
The individually wrapped, “full size” cups are now .55 ounces. I would bet that a “fun size” cup from the late 70′s would be about the same size. Long live the bean-counters!
Keep in mind that the wrapper size has stayed the same in the multi-packs that have the .55 oz cups too. Just opened one tonight & was astounded to see how small they were – they take up 3/4 of the paper bottom when they used to touch the entire edge. Nice how they didn’t shrink the wrapper to fit too.
The Individual Cups went from 21g to 15g
Wow is this a surprise. I love love love Reeses…but I swear I am done….yeah used to be a ten pack for 99 cents. Then an 8 pk for 1.19 and now?? A 6 pack with an ever smaller Reeses little button…….and how much? $1.59! How can we just stand by?……..stop eating them right now……..whew I will have to rush to finish my 4th 6 pack. But really, the big old beautiful Reeses used to be pretty big…..now?? They only take up a third of the paper they are wrapped up in……..otherwise maybe no one would buy their damned candy…little itsy bitsy pieces!! Well I am done…no more of those candies….I will say adieu in a minute or two……..Honest!!!
Blame Obama
Blame Obama for the inflation
Inflation 2001-2009: 21.2%
Inflation 2009-2017: 14.1%
Wow good very specific choice of dates, to help persuade your argument that “Obama did not cause the inflation to increase” while any semi intelligent person would realize that the economic crash started to really show its ugly face after 08 especially when there is a delay in deflation when it comes to national statistical data.
Good attempt
I can’t reply to the last guy, but the statistics showed are accurate. Clinton had a $1.2 Trillion surplus that W Bush inherited. The first blunder that hurt the economy was tax cuts for anyone making over $1million dollars a year. This helped the rich increase their wealth, but it did nothing for the middle class and poor. The 2nd thing that hurt was going into Iraq which took a surplus, and dropped us into debt due to the great cost of war. The idea that Obama tanked the economy in 2008 is inaccurate. Obama ran for and won his run president in 2008. He wouldn’t take office until January 20th 2009. Bush made a lot of economic blunders that our country is still dealing with to this day and I suspect will be until we finally pull out of the middle east. For the record, I am not a democrat or republican, I am only stating the facts.
@John – Much better options for ‘picking dates’
2000-2008: 25.0%
2008-2016: 11.5%
2002-2010: 21.2%
2010-2018: 15.2%
I knew it!!! That is why I stopped buying them. I was getting ripped off. Then I bought one today and googled the same thing and found your page. Thank you for the proof. I am sending them a complaint letter. Hopefully they will bring back the original size.
So glad to see others felt the same way, we’ve been discussing how poor the candy was this year. The taste is so not the same and it’s ultra small. I’d rather have Seee’s candies. Taste that and you’ll never want a Reeses again! C’mon Reeses, you can do better!
They taste amazing so all you haters need to quit hating
Loved your piece on RPBC, was wondering if you were able to find images from an ’80 package?
[...] to which we have a right. The blog Dead Caterpillar has done the research and has proved that, yes, Reese’s Cups, over the past ten years, have gotten significantly smaller. The [...]
Thank you for posting this tragedy! I bought Reese’s Cups today, I was craving them. As I opened the package and unwrapped the brown goodness, I unveiled something munchkin-like. Truly, I thought I was going nuts. First, I thought maybe these peanut butter yummies seem much smaller because of my affection for them since I was a kid. But, reality set in … I damn well know I had many Reese’s Cups since my adolescence. Devastation set in. Everything is becoming far more clear now. No wonder I can’t figure out where all my money is going and I’m more broke than I’ve ever been in my life. Companies are screwing us! I KNEW I wasn’t crazy when I picked up that Fruit Loops box and it seemed half the size than I’m used to. We should be warned on the boxes about this and notified that the normal size has been reduced! Why can’t some smart-ass attorney start some class action law suit about this! It’s an outrage!!!! Looks like Capitalism has no ethical standards.
Ok. FIRST they not only have made the cups SMALLER…BUT…Only a few months ago you got 8 cups in a package for $1. Frequently on sale for that, but even when not about 1.25. THEN they cut the package to 6 cups for the SAME price, but added the new 12 cup long package for 1.78 Walmart. STILL….the cups are tiny!! Might as well just buy the store brand miniature cups. They used to be a decent buy for the price. I just bought my LAST Reese’s package. Screwing people over to increase profit when times are rough is just plain evil. Leave my chocolate only….or someone is going to get hurt.
There are many products that have been made smaller, like wagon wheels and ice-cream bars, and there are hardly any chips in a bag. It’s sad the way we are getting ripped off. Take for instance Oreo Cookies. A several years back they decreased the amount of icing that was in the middle, then a couple of years later they come out with “double stuffed” Oreos hoping that we will all think that we are getting something extra special. They have the same amount of icing that they did originally! They must think that we as consumers are all stupid.
Yes, everything from a half-gallon of ice cream (now 1.5 quarts in a package designed to look big) to candy is being quietly and deceptively downsized. I think most people would rather pay more and get the size of product they’re expecting. I know I would.
Walmart has actually quietly made your 1.5 quart ice cream containers smaller, now 1.4 quarts, and put the price up from 1.97 to 2.24!! Robbing gits!!
I have a wrapper from the 80′s, I think its from ’87 or ’88. They used to be 1.8 ounces or 51.03 grams on that wrapper.
Yea they are deceiving us all the way around, i just paid for a “LARGE SIZE” reese’s with 3 cups in it and it was 59g barely larger than the original size package. so they make the original smaller and you pay mor than they start selling you a “Large Size” for even more money and its the size you normally would have bought.
Shame on you greedy corporate swindlers.
I often think on the same issues! The 2003 wrapper was after a size reduction in cup size also. I distinctly remember opening a cup wrapper and thinking, “Wow…they shrank these things! That stinks!”. Today, I opened a cup, observed an obvious and abhorrent size difference, and the same thought crossed my mind. The next thing to research…”King Size.” A king size Hershey bar is NOT what it used to be! Manufacturers do the opposite with women’s sizes…making larger clothes and telling women they’re only a size 4!
ok so im from canada and was thinking the samething the pack i just ate while reading this article has three small cups with a weight of 46 grams and the pics were a pack of TWO cups weighing in at 46 grams smaller cups but more and same weight THANK YOU THAT IS ALL
I am also from Canada and i noticed this same thing i am currently eating a three pack right now that is 46g IT’S RIDICULOUS!!!!!!
I moved to England in the 80s and remember the larger cups of my youth. I’ve just finished a 3 pack (still in England) and it’s 51 grams. I knew I was being conned.
I found this post while eating a reese’s researching that very question. My wrapper says .55oz, 15g. Got it in a 12 pack from walmart. *sigh*
Reese’s cups used to be sold singly, wrapped in coated paper. I used to sell them for 5 cents each from 1968-1972. The cup size was 1 oz then. After a large temporary sugar price spike in 1974, the cups shrank to 3/4 oz.
Well, I just opened a single wrapped Reeses Cup that someone put out at work to celebrate Halloween. It is 0.75oz (21g)!!
I feel kinda lucky
I just opened a 3 pack of Reese peanut butter cups – October 19, 2012. 3 cups are 46 g… So looking back at those photos where 2 cups were 45 g then 42 g this new size of 3 = 46 g is PATHETIC. But maybe it’s in part because we as consumers are so concerned about the amount of calories in a portion… so if they make the portions smaller the perception is there is now less fat and calories in what I’m eating. Yet again, either they think we are stupid, or we truly are
you guys are still lucky im in london, uk here just bought 3 pack and total is 51g for all three! seriously and its 70p so thats like over a dollar i would say…
You’re lucky in London then, becasue its on its way to $2 in Canada and its 40g for 3 here. The cup is size has gotten ridiculously small.
I’m from Canada and I just bought a 3-pack of Reese peanut butter cups (3 cups = 46 grams) . I have to agree with HEXXUSS above… The cup size is 3/4 the width of the paper carton inside the wrapper when before the cup size used to be as wide at the top op the cup as the paper carton was. THIS IS ABSURD. This is truly a disappointment and I will not be buying this product again.
SCREW YOU HERSHEY. Quit cutting down the portion sizes…
So glad Mike the 60-70s candy seller chimed in! My mom (born in 1956) has been saying for years that the cups were so much bigger when she was a kid. Now I can say there’s actually more word of mouth evidence to back her up. I also bought her one of the giant 1 pound double packs for Christmas so I can tell her I had them shipped from the past
I have recently noticed that the amount of chocolate seems to have dwindled, and the amount of peanut butter filling seems to have increased. Anyone else think this? I noticed they did not taste the same as I remembered, and breaking one in have it looks obvious to me.
1.8 ounces in the 1980′s. We’re totally ripped off now.
I do feel a little better reading this. I thought I was just a fat ass who craved more candy than the average person. Here I just crave the same amount I’m used to, they’re just playing mind games with us. I’d boycott it if I wasn’t so damn addicted to chocolate. Damn you candy companies and your ultra addictive chocolaty treats calling my name like the sirens song! How can I resist you? I can not ( .. )
I’m so glad I’m not alone! When I opened up the package today and saw this Reese’s PB cup, I said to myself I have GOT to check in to this size. I’m so glad this investigative piece was done. After many years of dedicated RPB cup popping, we deserve more than a shrunk product. This looks like it has class action law suit written all over it!
I’m with Mark, as per above. That 3-pack @ 46 grams was a big let down today that landed me here. Shame on you Hershey!
After buying junk food for the rest of the family, I decided to buy the 12-pack for me and not share (my favorite candy from childhood). LOL! Man! These ARE small. So small, I also had to find out what’s going on. Mike, I could have been one of your customers…I stopped everyday on way home from school to buy a RPBC. A double pack if I was rich enough and had a dime.
And Mapandya, I caught on a long time ago, clothing sizes changed. I started buying used 80′s jeans from Ebay ’cause I know what fits me!
Today I purchased a 3-pack in Toronto, Ontario. Net weight – 46g for THREE CUPS! The madness continues!
Ana in Vancouver Canada here -
Today I got the craving. Bought a three pack and excitedly delved into the peanut buttery goodness….But hold the phone! As the first cup fell out of the package and into my hand I was shocked at it’s tiny nature! What is this, I thought to myself? Have I gotten bigger or has the pb cup gotten smaller?
I too had to investigate. Google. This piece. My madness is validated. I checked the package and discovered 46 Grams for THREE cups!
This cannot be allowed!! Let’s band together and write a petition in protest to Hersheys. Anyone?
So today a marketer comes in and brings a six pack of the snack size reeses. I get so excited cause I eat the edges then the top then the bottom. Well I unwrap it and long and behold it is a bite size. I tried to eat just the sides like I normally do, but almost ate my finger. Geez, I just wanted a reese cup. At least the reese eggs still taste good and are not that small.
It has apparently worsened since you blew the Reeses’s-gate story wide-open: I just bought a king-size pack, with four cups. At 2.8 ounces, it’s .7 ounces per cup, for a two-cup-pack equivalence of only 1.4 ounces.
At this rate, I expect a cup to be a speck unidentifiable to the nake eye by 2048.
It’s a sad sad day when you realize that not only is the world getting crazier by the day, and more greedy, and more expensive, and your freedoms seem to be fewer as well…. but to come to find out that my all-time favorite treat in all the world has been included in the corporate greed party and been shrunk is just a travesty!
I too scoured the net looking for wrappers to compare old to new and found one posted from 1981 which showed 1.6 oz. or net weight of 45.36g. I’m without words… though I have many choice words in my head for the greedy b@stards that decided to do this, I’ll just hold my tongue on here and boycott in my own way, by never buying another Reese’s PB Cup… ever. I know, it’s a long shot, but dammit I’m mad and there are plenty of other delectable treats out there to munch on that haven’t shrunk!
I also plan on writing to them and letting them know I’m ticked off. I encourage everyone to do the same… stop buying them, write to them, start a Facebook Page for jilted PB Cup lovers, something. With enough voices these days, ANYthing is possible. Let’s let them know that this is NOT OK! Let’s go viral!
WE WANT OUR BIG PB CUPS BACK YOU GREEDY SOB’S!! >:-|
I just hopped online to double-check I’m not crazy — found this post — then sent an email to Hershey’s swearing I’ll never buy another RBPC. You can do it too!
https://www.thehersheycompany.com/contact-us.aspx
Just bought a pack (CDN) and the cup size made me look this up. The current package I have is 46g for 3 cups. The link to that guy Mike’s page above shows a CDN wrapper from 2003 with 52g. So, we’re down 6g and the price is up a dime. How do we communicate this to Hersey/Reese?
According to Wikipedia the sizes vary based on which package you buy:
In the United States, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups typically come in two-, four-, and eight-packs in distinctive orange packaging, set on thin but rigid paperboard trays. The “Classic” two-pack is a .75 oz. cup, the “King Size” four-pack is a .70 oz. cup and the “Lunch” eight-pack is a .55 oz. cup. “Large Size” packs of three .70 oz. cups are also available.
Go buy a two pack at the checkout counter today. They are no bigger than lunch size now.
My friend posted on facebook that the CUPS were smaller and has used your article as confirmation. I too was dooped by Hersey. I don’t eat enough Cups for the difference to be felt and since the change haven’t been robbed enough to deserve a whole cup but whatever…LOL LOL
I knew my Reeses looked small just today. Funny there is a thread about this problem. I think the problem is global. More and more companies are not really increasing the price of candy, but the portion size is getting smaller. We think were paying for the same thing but were actually paying for less.
Well, they did it again. They are now so small they look like bag candy. The eight pack used to be a good value. Not so anymore as 1 cup looks ridiculously small. If they had just raised the price I would have paid it but now I won’t be buying. So long pb cups.
YEP! Just discovered today that the shrink-ray has hit these things in a major way. And yet they still use the same size packaging as always–how insulting! I’d rather them just raise the price than shrink these things down to such a laughably small (and unsatisfying) size. Again: It’s insulting and deceptive.
I remember in the 60′s they went from singles to doubles, but the doubles were smaller. I also remember them shrinking the chocolate And making the whole thing shorter. Less chocolate, Less PB, Less chocolate, Less PB. a Reeses Cup death spiral to oblivion.
It seems like in the Far Distant Past, with a greater percentage of chocolate, it offset the almost too sweet, sweetness of the filling.
Damn those Harvard Business School bean counters. They happily squeeze every little bit of happiness out of life to add a penny’s profit, to a Dead, Nerveless, Soulless Corporation.
Clearly like many folks on here, went looking for answers after biting into a very dinky Reeses. I don’t even think it tasted the same because it’s so small now.
The package said .55oz for 1 cup. Now I’m sitting here completely unsatisfied. Ugh…
I use to eatReese’s PB cups all the time but overdid it and quit eating them for quite a while. Bought one yesterday and couldn’t finish it. It has lost much of the peanut butter and chocolate flavor sand just tasted like eating a spoonful of sugar! I believe they changed the recipe.
I believe they most certainly did change the recipe. All I taste is chemicals. When I was a kid, reeses were prized possessions … the crown jewels of my goodie or Halloween bag. I’d do anything for a reeses.
But they no longer have that power over me.
Yes, you are right. Somewhere around the 90′s I started feeling a sugary crystallized sounding crunch in the peanut butter somehow. It used to absolutely melt all over your mouth. Plus it seems that the chocolate is harder or something and more concentrated around the edges. The whole things has just seemingly changed and it is not the yummy, melt in your mouth prized candy that it once was when I was growing up in the 80′s. SAD.
CANDY IS FOR CHILDREN, NOT FOR HYPER CRITICAL FAT SAD ADULTS COMPLAINING ON A FORUM.
j/k im sad too that the cups are little
and fat
I think God is sad about this, too. “You shall not steal.” A 16th century catechism says this about the 8th commandment:
Q. What does God forbid
in the eighth commandment?
A. God forbids not only outright theft and robbery,
punishable by law.
But in God’s sight theft also includes
all scheming and swindling
in order to get our neighbor’s goods for ourselves,
whether by force or means that appear legitimate,
such as
inaccurate measurements of weight, size, or volume;
fraudulent merchandising;
counterfeit money;
excessive interest;
or any other means forbidden by God.
In addition God forbids all greed
and pointless squandering of his gifts.
That about covers it. The catechism then goes on – in brilliant fashion – to turn the “thou shalt not” into a positive…
Q. What does God require of you
in this commandment?
A. That I do whatever I can
for my neighbor’s good,
that I treat others
as I would like them to treat me,
and that I work faithfully
so that I may share with those in need.
(Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 110-111)
The weasel that got the bonus for shrinking reeses and showing there boss how much more profit they make….needs to be Fired for the hollidays
I just bought a three pack here in Toronto… I forget the price but I won’t for the rest of my life forget how damn small they were! I used to love the things when I was a kid – I even wanted to work in the factory (ah, stupid kid dreams) – and now it seems I have to buy the ‘king size’ or whatever to get cups of a reasonable size! It just seems that in this age of the Baconator we’re moving backwards with candy.
Two and a half years later this article still resonates with people. I wonder if you get more cups for your money buying the smashed up ones at Menchie’s – as in, just fill your yogurt cup with them, no yogurt?
I’ve found a suitable replacement: peanut butter cups at Trader Joes. They have dark chocolate/regular and actually taste like real peanut butter and chocolate.
I just bought a pack today and I barely wanted to finish them. Are they using powdered peanut butter now?
Just picked up a ‘king size’ pack today… 4 cups, 62g. Compared to the 2003 45g 2 cup package that is 22.5g to 15.5g per cup, a third smaller!
Very interested in how long it took me to question the size of the Reese’s. As did another poster, I called the regular sized candy the 5 cent size. (I’ll be 70 soon). The old ones could substitute for lunch if necessary. Now it hardly satisfies one’s craving. Still my favorite–the combination is majical .
This is a travesty! We must all boycott Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups! We need bigger cups!!
The Reeses’ peanut butter cups I just bought are only .55 OZ (15 grams) per single cup. I feel I was intentionally cheated as is the rest if the public. You always hear about a new larger size but never hear when you get less for your money. Boycott Hershey.
I to have noticed the smaller size in the cups. I will also not buy them any more. Also the York Mint patty, which I have eaten since a kid, is made in Mexico so I will not buy them any more. Bring the work force back to the USA.
I agree with Richard ( My first name too ), lets boycott.
Honestly, I haven’t bought a Reese’s in years because I’ve always relied on free candy from Halloween and my child’s Halloween loot to sustain me throughout the year. Well, I bought a few “King” size and was sorely disappointed.
Similar behavior by the aristocrats cost them their lives in the French Revolution.
In Canada I just had a peanut butter cup package from a vending machine.
46 Grams. THREE Cups. That means each cup is now only 16-17 grams! They were very un-satisfying. Bring back the bigger cups of yesteryear!
Now (2014) each cup is 0.55 grams… so a 2-pack is 1.10 grams. That is 31.25% less peanut butter cup than in 2003!
They shrunk them again and this time they are playing us for fools. They think we are stupid. I opened a cup and it seemed like it was 15 to 25% smaller while it wrappings stayed the same size. The cup now floats around in that super over sized orange square. I was sure it has shrunk but the package still claims to be .55 oz. per cup. Then I found the shrinkage labeled right on the package. That .55 oz. cup that used to weigh 21 grams now only weights 15 grams. It’s on the new label. That .55 oz. cup is now 25% less in gram weight.
[...] http://www.deadcaterpillar.com/are-reeses-peanut-butter-cups-smaller-an-investigative-journalism-pie... [...]
[...] tree DEFEATED me. I haven’t thrown a tantrum like that since I found out Reese’s shrunk the size of their cups. I mean we are talking foot-stamping, twinkle-light-hucking outrage, complete with [...]
Thank you, I may have waisted my lunch hour reading all these post, But couldn’t resist, now there are 68 people like me that opened the package and said WHAT. shrunken ups.
Keep up the good work.
Have you noticed all the empty space in a potato chips bag? Its ridiculous
yep, sure have and that also bothers me. oh SURE (don’t know how italics work here >.>), the bags LOOK full but we all know it’s 25-50% air in the bag. they just keep shrinking the supply while maintaining the prices.
old article but it was among the first links i saw about this via google.
so, back in 2003 the size of reese’s cups were NET WT 1.6 OZ (45 g)?
guess how big the 2 i just opened were…NET WT .55 OZ (15 g). 15 g…a third of the 2003 size. wtf? seriously, wtf? i can almost guarantee you the price hasn’t changed all that much since then either (it might’ve actually gone up for all i know).
wish they’d quit shrinking our food and raising the prices. so yeah, i just had 2 reese’s cups, 2 bite sized reese’s cups. do i even want to know how tiny or microscopic the reese’s mini’s are by now?
Not only are they cheating on the size but also the thickness of the chocolate which no always seems to stick to the wrapper so you can always see the filling and the chocolate stuck to the wrapper!
Now the 3-pack is down to 46g, this is beyond ridiculous. And though your post initially states they charge the same price for a lesser amount, the reality is that the prices are going UP, while the sizes are going down.
And I conquer with the above poster… whatever they’ve done to the chocolate coating, half the bottom stays stuck to the wrapper. Extremely annoying. No wonder Hershey is closing factories. Cheats.
Hello there, I’m glad you published this I just purchased a 4-pack of reeses and I noticed how small they were. 4 cups is only 62 grams this will be the last time I buy Reese’s peanut butter cups
Don’t blame Reese’s. Blame the Federal Reserve.
When did reeses change their wrapping??
Unrefutably the worst, I opened a reeses cup that was smaller than the white cardboard square it sits on ,the cups used to be bigger than the cardboard, I checked the oz. .55oz.(15g) google says the original size was 55g???
Great article, I linked to it from mine: Reese`s Peanut Butter Cups Christmas Tree Fail.
I agree, there alot smaller and the plain bars also. And you use to get a ten pack, then 8, then 6, now the other day I went to store and you only get 5. Whats going on Hershey? My pays not going up but your products are getting smaller
[...] Peanut Butter Cups can be messed with. Since you’ve been a kid, they’ve gotten smaller. And for what? [...]
I just bought a 4 Cup package of Reese Peanut Butter cups and the total weight is 62g. 15.5g/cup. They looked small, and I’m glad I bought another snack for the game lol.
I just bought a 3-pack last night. Total weight: 46 grams!
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5105246/Photo%202016-07-09%2C%2012%2016%2037%20PM.jpg
I’ll get strait to the point i havent had a reese cup in almost 12 years and the other day for some reason i bought one.Iwent straight back to my childhood and the first thing i thought was damn they look smaller i put the hole cup in my mouth and wrote the size issue off to me being bigger. Ichewed up the cup and soon after spit it out thinking it was old or spoiled.Iwent back in store and told the girl at the counter to the rest of the cups off the shelf because they were spoiled looked at the date on wrapper and said it was fresh.Itold to eat the other cupand see what she thought she ate the cup and and said it was great and nothing was wrong so i bought another one to see if maybe it was just the one cup i had. But no it tasted like poo its not just the size they changed the cup has been changed inside and out for the worst!!
Just bought a 5 pack, 77g. This is 15.5 per cup. The packaging is the same so the weight ratio of package to consumable has increased.
Also, worthy of note:
Wrapper states 8g sugars per 1 bar serving. This means sugars are over 50% of the weight.
Wrapper now says “Mfd in Mexico for HB Reese Candy Co.” I wonder if people would have supported NAFTA if they knew it included surrendering our liberty by creating a foreign dependence on Mexico for our supply of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups?
I loved your article it made me laugh
I had nitced too and they are getting smaller too.
You don’t even know how to spell “noticed”
I have noticed for a long time that they are way smaller so after reading this I sent them this email
I’m very disappointed in the size and quality of your Recess Peanut Butter Cups, they have become unworthy of the prices we are charged also I have visited your Hershey store in Chicago the 1st time I went on business and the service was pathetic so now every time I go to Chicago for business and vacation I go across the street to the Ghirardelli store, the products are 1000x the quality and the customer service is spectacular.
It’s to bad because I grew up with Hershey and Ghirardelli and had a hard time choosing between the two but now there is no choice.
I bought a pack from the candy machine today. I noticed the difference as soon as I picked up the package. It was too light. It also fell apart. By making them smaller, I think they threw off the balance. This isn’t the only product shrinking. Has anyone noticed the incredible shrinking pizzas at Papa Johns? They slide around in the box.
A 16 inch pizza is a 16 inch pizza so shut up like honestly do you think that there are different variations of 16 inches or 14 inches? NO YOU ARE JUST TAKING THIS WAY TO FAR AND BEING OVERDRAMATIC!
All you haters need to quit hating! They are back to the original size now chill out! You guys are acting like little whiny children all because they reduced the size by 0.1oz (3g). It’s not that big of a deal, they still taste amazing and you guys are taking this so called controversy to a whole, new, unnecessary level!
please get back on your meds.
Cadbury cream eggs shrunk too, possibly by 1/3rd.
It all started when Hershey bought Cadbury; like Walmart buying Nordstrom’s. I’m sitting here on New Year’s Eve eating a Reese’s in about one-&-a-half bites. OUTRAGEOUS! Long ago, before electronic calculators, it would take 3-4 bites to devour a Reese’s. I’m DONE with them now… as I have been with all other Hershey crap chocolates for half a century. It’s not capitalism– it’s the lower standards of consumers who are ignorant – yes, ignorant- of the erased past, which, believe it or not, may have been better in SOME ways. Cadbury WAS better; that’s why Hershey bought it. Tried it lately? Hershey with a “C.” (Why are avocados so small? People forgot how big they used to be.) Erased history, grasshoppers.
Just bought some of these and they are much smaller than they were. .55 oz. and I didn’t notice any reduction in price. Seems consumers notice the decrease in size of candies at the same price sometimes higher yet we do nothing about it.
I found a picture of a wrapper from the 1980′s and it says 1.8 oz (51.03g). That’s a 17% decrease. I found that up until 1991 the “Standard” cup was .9 oz, in 1991 it was reduced to .8 oz, and then in 2001 it was reduced to .75 oz.
Have you seen this blog post on Mouse Print, titled “Reese’s Snack Sizes — Trick or Treat?”
It says that individual “Snack Size” cups differ in weight, depending on the size of bag you buy.
In truth, there are actually three different Snack Size cups:
.55 oz / 15 g
.60 oz / 17 g
.75 oz / 21 g
I just unwittingly bought the .55 oz cups, and they were pathetic! I was SOOOOO disappointed!
Ralphs still carries the .75 ounce cups, so I’m going back to get a proper fix.
(NOTE: Check the individual cup wrappers to get the clearest and most straightforward weight information. Give a pass to the muddier info on the rear of the bag.)
https://www.mouseprint.org/2015/10/26/reeses-snack-sizes-trick-or-treat/#comments
Today I opened a Reese’s cups, and felt it was amazingly small. Like you, I Googled for info and found you. The weight of my Reese’s today is .55 ounces!
I found your site after buying some reese’s that seemed to me way smaller than I remember. Like the person above: .55 oz! WTF is going on in america? Price inflation in a different way.
I’m here reading this because I just bought a pack of Reese Peanut Butter Cups and they looked a little small to me. Well now they’re even smaller than when this spectacular article was written. The new “small” ones were 43g for two, so they’re 21.5g each. Well I just bought a 3 pack that weighs 46g. That’s 15.3g each! What a joke! Don’t tell me I’m getting three of them, when actually it’s just the size of two that have been divided up into three.
I’m going to turn to healthier snacks. Bananas are $0.69 per pound, and probably won’t give you cancer and heart disease.
Bought a King size pack of Reese’s peanut butter cup because I’m a sucker for 10/$10 King size candy bar sale which is rare for Meijer these days.
and man I remember things cups being huge when I was little, I don’t really like these either, they taste awful. So glad I only bought 1 and picked other candies instead.
It’s obvious they’ve been shrinking them! But I want to know exactly how much they weighed in let’s say, 1980?
So funny to find this blog after thinking size matters. When in 6th grade, (1968) I bought a Reese’s right before class one day. The bell rang and I headed to class. Just before I walked in the door I popped that bad boy into my mouth hoping to relish it during the “Pledge of Allegiance”. The teacher (spotting my very full mouth) called on me to lead the pledge that day. Caught cold but I survived. Every time I eat a Reese’s I think about that funny part of life. Today it takes at least three to four of them to achieve the same effect. And yes, something happened to the taste as well. I’m not sure I can stop eating Reese’s at this stage of my life but shame on you Hershey’s. Size matters!
Talk about space in the bag. What about the air between the movie theater box candy box and the bag, then the air in the bag itself.
Absolutely disgusted by this. I suspected it. I’ll never eat another. Pitiful
#NOTSORRY
Neither am I, they still are my fav snack.
I am here at this site because I too have been deceived. I haven’t had a Reese’s for quite a while and when I picked up the package i noticed it was smaller. Still taste great. We are all doomed! Doomed I say!
Latest update! I got a 3 pack of Reese’s today and they looked tiny! I found this site and my assessment was confirmed – it’s 3 for 46g!!! Same weight as 2 in 2003. Unbelievable.
This is crazy! Its all true. I love you diane!i got to try all the reeses flavors!
Fuck u greedy assholes, stay in Mexico, that’s were u belong , Mr Hershey is rolling over in his grave he was an honest fair man
I think the Snack Size might have just shrunk… From 21g per cup to 15.5g per cup. The 21g size was packaged as 14 single cups in a bag, while the 15.5g size was packaged as 8 cups in a carton, bought more recently. Will try to keep buying the 21g size.
You racist arragont american fuck.
Youll never will a pulitzer.
The only thing you will win is enemies.
Groundbreaking investigating.
Big fucking deal you can a label.
You want biggrr things.
Arent americans the fattest country on the planet not.
Not to mention have the loudest mouths.
Your an idiot
Dearest Kevin,
This is Santa! I’ve decided that, for Christmas, and since you can’t write a grammatically correct sentence to save your life, and since they’ve shrunk the reese’s cups, I am going to eat your entire family for Christmas! You must feel so lucky you useless puke hole. Thanks for being my Christmas dinner, even though it’s a worthless one. You loose, just like you always do.
Yummy Christmas,
Starving Santa
Take notice some Reeses contain corn syrup now.
Why not just raise the price and leave the size as is. We used to pay 5 cents for a double cup pack of much larger cups in the 60s. Covid is causing sizes to go down and prices to go up. In reality covid cases have morffed into a much weaker disease. Time to put an end to this and start living again.
Damn, I want my bigger Reeses back ! When I was child, I used to get super excited over a 51 gram package whereas now the 46 gram package leaves me completely indifferent. LIfe is cruel and so is Hershey!
I also googled and found this article because I just knew they were smaller in circumference from when I was a child. So disappointed. Thanks for your hard hitting journalism.
I told my girlfriend this, but she didn’t believe me!
Long ago as a wee lad, PB cups weighed half a pound and were big as a dinner plate (or at least it seemed so to a l’il feller) and cost a nickle. Now they are the size of a nickle and cost as much as a dinner plate!
Thank you for your hard-hitting journalism!
I’ve just opened a “King Size” Reese’s here in Canada. It contains FOUR cups, which are tiny things for a grand total of 62g.
22.5g per cup back in the day….15.3g in the 3 pack I bought.Turns out it wasn’t me going crazy but my chocolate bar shrinking!
Could use a re-write without the racism. Good to know I’m not crazy though. Tiny cups.
Well, it’s 2023 and the 3 pack of cups I just bought reads 46g for 3!!
I looked this up because they have become noticeably smaller. This sucks. Each cup is barely a bite now. Almost time to completely stop purchasing…
Just paid $2.29 for 46 grams, 3 dismal sized cups.
That’s the end for me with Reese Peanut Butter cups. I’m embarrassed to buy and eat them. Nothing makes me feel good buying this poorly manufactured product.
Chocolate bar companies are missing the mark completely.
Make them all 50 cents and they will fly off the shelves, instead of having to put them on sale when they are stale or all melted in the sun.