TUBS of Quality Street have shrunk yet again – leaving fans with around five or six less Christmas sweets compared to last year.
The iconic purple tubs have been reduced from 600g to 550g, with chocs going down from approximately 63 chocs to 57.
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But the cost remains about £5 to £6 in supermarkets.
It’s the latest blow for Quality Street fans, who have seen the pack weight gradually dwindle, from 1kg in 2010, to 780g in 2015 and 650g in 2020.
Co-founder of bargain-hunting site LatestDeals.co.uk Tom Church said: “At this rate, the tub will quite literally be empty by 2035.
“The shrinking Quality Street tub has become a Christmas tradition. The lights go up, the carols play, the chocolates shrink.
“At this point, I think I would rather pop an empty cracker.
“Quality Street? More like a cul-de-sac of disappointment.”
He added the best way to beat size reductions was to look for cut-price deals, such as multi-buy offers in the supermarkets or Nectar and Clubcard prices.
Last year Aldi slashed the price of its 600g boxes to £3.89 in October, for example.
Consumer champion Martyn James said: “Talk about a decline in Quality!
“Shoppers are sick of skimpflation and shrinkflation.
“They call it what it is: a total rip off.
“Every year, the little treats that we know and love become less generous and more expensive.
“Most people consider this to be out and out greed. If prices have to increase because of costs, then at least be honest about that.
“But sneaking away sweets in one of the nation’s favourite Christmas tubs is unfair and infuriating.
“Better to charge us more than give us less and not tell us.”
On the Tesco website, the old 600g tubs of Quality Street were said to contain approximately 21 servings, with three sweets being one serving.
It works out to about 63 sweets.
This year’s smaller tubs contain 19 servings, which is roughly 57 sweets.
But the famous chocs – including Fudge, Toffee Penny and Orange Crunch – all weigh differently, and there is no set number of any of them.
So each tub may vary slightly in terms of numbers and what you get.
A Nestlé spokesperson said: “Each year we introduce a new Quality Street range with formats, sizes, weights and RRPs based on a range of factors including the cost of manufacturing, ingredients and transport and the preferences of our customers and consumers.
“We think our 2025 range and pricing is competitive with a good variety of choice for Quality Street fans.
“Final prices are at the discretion of individual retailers.”
How to save money on chocolate
We all love a bit of chocolate from now and then, but you don’t have to break the bank buying your favourite bar.
Consumer reporter Sam Walker reveals how to cut costs…
Go own brand – if you’re not too fussed about flavour and just want to supplant your chocolate cravings, you’ll save by going for the supermarket’s own brand bars.
Shop around – if you’ve spotted your favourite variety at the supermarket, make sure you check if it’s cheaper elsewhere.
Websites like Trolley.co.uk let you compare prices on products across all the major chains to see if you’re getting the best deal.
Look out for yellow stickers – supermarket staff put yellow, and sometimes orange and red, stickers on to products to show they’ve been reduced.
They usually do this if the product is coming to the end of its best-before date or the packaging is slightly damaged.
Buy bigger bars – most of the time, but not always, chocolate is cheaper per 100g the larger the bar.
So if you’ve got the appetite, and you were going to buy a hefty amount of chocolate anyway, you might as well go bigger.
