Reese’s heir vs. chocolate skimpflation

Key Takeaways

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  Hershey's is using skimpflation to hide rising costs - the company is substituting real milk chocolate and peanut butter with 'chocolate candy' and 'peanut butter cream' to bypass FDA labeling requirements while maintaining margins.

  “They replaced milk chocolate with chocolate candy. And they replaced the peanut butter with peanut butter cream.”

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  The Reese's brand was built on specific ingredient standards - founded by a former Hershey dairy farmer, the product's success relied on a unique peanut butter formula and real milk chocolate that defined the brand for a century.

  “My grandfather's genius was to perfect the peanut butter. The key has always been the peanut butter.”

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  Brand heirs are leveraging public platforms to fight corporate degradation - despite his family selling the company in 1963, Brad Reese is using LinkedIn and open letters to pressure Hershey's into preserving his grandfather's original product identity.

  “My grandfather, HB. Reese, who invented Reese's, built Reese's on a simple, enduring architecture. Milk chocolate plus peanut butter.”

Episode Description

Live event info and tickets here.  When ingredient costs skyrocket, companies have three basic options: They can raise their prices (a sort of product-specific inflation), shrink the size of the products (often called “shrinkflation”), or, sometimes, find more creative ways to reduce costs by degrading the quality of their products - which our very own Greg Rosalsky has dubbed as  “skimpflation.” The latest alleged culprit? Hershey’s. The Hershey Company is using ingredients in some of their Reese’s candies that — legally — they cannot call milk chocolate or peanut butter. This has infuriated Brad Reese, a grandson of H.B. Reese, the inventor of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.  On today’s show, why chocolate makers might be skimping on chocolate and peanut butter, what else might explain these ingredients, and how Brad Reese has launched a skimp-shaming campaign to get Hershey’s to go back to using classic Reese’s ingredients. And – EXCLUSIVE – you’ll hear Planet Money break some big news to third-generation peanut butter cup scion Brad Reese. Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter. This episode was hosted by Greg Rosalsky and Sarah Gonzalez. It was produced by James Sneed. It was edited by Kenny Malone, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below: See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy