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This year, the Hamburg Consumer Centre is once again looking for the „Cheat Pack of the Year 2021". Consumers can now make a final online selection from five candidates from the products reported to the consumer advice centre that have caused consumer displeasure.
With the annual negative prize, the Consumer advice centre Hamburg draws attention to hidden price increases that it either identifies itself or is notified of by consumers. Often in focus: Price increases due to changes in bottling volumes.
„Again and again, well-disguised changes in filling quantities are the means of choice to push through sometimes drastic price increases,“ reports Armin Valet from the Consumer advice centre Hamburg. „It works so well because retailers, who alone set the sales prices, go along with it and politicians let the companies get away with it.“ Consumers often don't even notice the trickery and therefore pay significantly more for certain products. Valet is therefore in favour of more transparency in the supermarket.
The candidates for the "2021 cheat pack"
The five candidates for 2021 include some big names. So has Bahlsen with a new design its „Africa“ waffle renamed „Perpetum“ and relaunched at the same price, although the filling quantity per pack was reduced from 130 to just 97 grams. The costs consumers 34 per cent more at the checkout and at the same time leads to more resources being used: around 2,600 more outer packaging, plastic trays and plastic sleeves are now needed per tonne of wafers.
The situation is similar for the second candidate for the „Deceptive packaging 2021″ from. With the „Paprika sauce“ from Homann only 400 millilitres of sauce are now bottled instead of 500 millilitres. At the same time, the retail price has risen. According to the consumer advice centre, the old product cost 0.99 euros at Kaufland in Hamburg and now costs 1.49 euros since the changeover. This corresponds to a price increase of over 80 per cent.
Also in a multipack „KitKat“ from Nestlé suddenly contains less. The multipack with five bars (5 x 41.5 grams) has become a four-pack (4 x 41.5 grams) - and at the same price as before. This means that the Chocolate bars have become 25 per cent more expensive for consumers.
Less content for the same price is also available with the „Knorr Cream sauce“ from Unilever. Since 2021, the company has been offering the sauce as a 2-pack and no longer as a 3-pack, but at the same price as before. The filling quantity of the individual packs and the recipe have remained unchanged. The sauce is therefore up to 50 per cent more expensive for consumers.
Candidate five not only raises the price, but also turns the screw on the packaging. The „Wurzen wafer flakes“ from Griesson - de Beukelaer are now in a visually packaging twice as large as before. One would assume that the content has also grown. Unfortunately, this is not the case - just Three per cent more waffles (103 grams instead of the previous 100 grams) are in the new packaging. However, the selling price has risen by up to 27 per cent. A bad deal not only for consumers, but also for the environment, as additional packaging material has to be used.
Transparency is required
Not all companies responded to the consumer advice centre's enquiry as to what had caused these packaging changes. In most cases, increased production costs or optimised packaging processes were mentioned. It is clear that this can be reflected in the price of the products. But these Changes should be comprehensible and Clearly communicated for consumers become. In addition Conservation of resources and Sustainability important factors, by which companies are measured today. The numerous submissions that the consumer advice centre receives every year show that consumers notice „inconsistent“ changes - and in a negative way.
Until 24 January the Vote on the „cheat pack of the year 2021 still open.
Source: Consumer advice centre Hamburg
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