“Unveiling the Sweet Secret: Why Your Favorite Quality Street Tins Are Smaller Than Ever!”

Ah, Christmas—the magical time of year where all your favorite chocolates make a triumphant return, and tubs of goodies like Roses, Heroes, and Quality Street become the centerpiece of our holiday gatherings. Seriously, what’s more emblematic of the season than that shiny, colorful tub overflowing with chocolatey treats, right? But let’s be real; while they may be festive, I can’t help but feel nostalgic about the days when those tubs were actual behemoths, bursting at the seams with sweet delights. As Uncle K**bhead famously quips post-beer, “Back in my day, those tubs were massive!” Well, he’s not just slurring opinions after too many drinks; there might be a grain of truth in those words. Join me as we explore the modern-day phenomenon of “shrinkflation” and how our cherished holiday tubs have undergone a dramatic size reduction. Spoiler alert: your holiday feasts might include a hefty debate about whether bigger really is better! LEARN MORE.

Christmas is here once again and with it, tubs of our favourite chocolate.

While many of us will treat ourselves to confectionary throughout the year, nothing hits the spot quite like a tub of Roses, Heroes, Celebrations, or Quality Street.

The colours, the tub. It is Christmas personified as we pass them around a room filled with our loved ones, which this year will happen while trying not to fall asleep before the final ever episode of Gavin and Stacey.

There has been an apparent downside to this, though. And we’re talking about size.

‘Back in my day the tubs were massive and weighed a tonne,’ so says Uncle K**bhead after having a few too many beers before sitting down for Christmas dinner.

But to be fair, he’s right when he says this. They used to be bigger. Massively so.

One video has gone viral again as we head in to December, with one British woman showing just how many tubs of modern day Quality Street fit in to a ‘retro tub’ of Quality Street from the 1980s.

Videoing herself with the empty retro tub alongside five unopened modern tubs, the Brit managed to fit four newer tubs inside the old-school 2.5kg tin from decades ago.

Tubs are smaller, that’s a fact (Matthew Horwood / Getty Images)

Responding, one viewer said: “Shrinkflation… paying more for less year after year… these companies don’t care they are laughing at us.”

Another wrote: “No surprise there.”

“The tins were eco friendly too … they were used for decades after,” a third user responded.

But the reality of this has left many realising that while they might be smaller, the cost hasn’t actually changed.

And, when doing the sums at LADbible headquarters, you might be better off if you’re buying during a bargain window.

An old school advert for Quality Street (Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Back in the late 1970s and 1980s, nostalgic adverts that you can still see on YouTube advertised 2.5 kilogram tins of Quality Street that punters could pick up for a price of £4.99.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, let’s enter the world of inflation.

A fiver back in 1979 is worth roughly £24 in today’s money.

A bargain to be had at Tesco right now (Tesco)

And right now, Brits can pick up a 600-gram box of Quality Street from Tesco for £3.95 using their Tesco Clubcard.

Now for the maths. An old school 2.5-kilogram tub is roughly 4.16 times as big as a 600-gram tub in 2024. Still following? Good.

Therefore, if we multiply Tesco’s £3.95 price by 4.16, we get a cost of £16.46 for the same weight as the retro tub.

So, in real terms, we’re looking at just under £8 saved for every two and a half kilos of Quality Street we’re munching down on.

Some viewers had picked up on this, with one sarcastically writing: “Tell the lady in the video she was being ripped off 40 years ago, and that she should build a time machine out of the wrappers and ask for her money back.”

Even a £7 tub back in 1980 for the same weight would be worth roughly £29 in 2024, showing that while it might seem we’re getting less, there’s actually more bang for our buck that ‘back in the glory days’.

Size isn’t everything, just ask Quality Street.