The Justice Department is investigating price fixing in the chocolate industry. Mars, Nestle, and Cadbury were contacted after a preliminary analysis showed that the 100 Grand bar actually cost far less than advertised. [Slashfood]
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Comments:
@randotheking: No kidding. Chocolate prices are the least of our worries. If chocolate gets expensive, you can stop buying it. Unlike, say..gasoline, heating oil, prescription drugs....etc.
LOL this seems to be a joke...
100grand costs far less to make than it's name states? LOL.
I thought it was real at first until I was like why are they using a 100grand as a reference? LOL
...because we're all dangerously underweight as a result of the chocolate famine in America.
oops thats supposed to read "Norreasha Gill (or her lawyers)"
Because price fixing is illegal no matter what it is.
Hey, maybe with a few more court decisions about little things like this (though the players are mostly big) the telecoms will be easier to take on?
Too bad international airline flights won't be. (Seriously, compare air fares to, from, and in Asia to those to, from, and in Europe.)
This is a joke (I hope.) Laugh.
How are they fixing the price? It's their produce and they can sell it for however much they want.
Don't like the price, don't buy it. That an industry still has some pricing power is, I think, a good thing. When the chinese start making cheaper chocolate, American jobs will be lost!
Seriously people? This is a joke. 100 grand? costs less than its name suggests? put 2 and 2 together.
***SPOILER**** Answer is 4!
Hmm... chocolate would seem to have a very elastic demand compared to something like electricity and oil. Typical government crap--divert attention from shit that matters to people.
its a conspiracy by big chocolate
If there's evidence of collusion in this area, doesn't that indicate the possibility that those companies are fixing prices on other merchandise? It's something worth looking into, I should think.
The chocolate company that makes me cry the most is Godiva. Their chocolate is incredible yet they just raised prices again and the items I usually purchase shrank. Needless to say I rarely buy there anymore.
@tk427:
I remember her, too, but I couldn't find anything on the net for an update.
This [www.gklaw.com] says that the FCC fines can be high & that stations have even had their licenses revoked for this kind of contest.
I know that they've lost in court, too (think Hooter's Toy Yoda contest).
It's a form of false advertising when you think of it.
WOW! CHocolate price-fixing!
All this proves is the chocolate lobby has much lesser influence than Big oil (duh!)
Yep! Lets go after M&Ms instead of something EVERYONE is effected by like say.... oh I dont knwo.... gasoline?
Every time I get a snack attack at work and am forced to stand before the vending machine, I look at the crazy prices they want for a candy bar and think, "If only the government would do something thing about this."
Thank you, Government, for listening. Although it does prove that they really are using my fillings to monitor my thoughts.
A $100,000 bar, after inflation and taxes, would only be worth about $40,000. I claim false advertising on the part of Nestle.
@picantel:
Forget Godiva and their overpriced chocolate -- buy Trader Joe's Belgian chocolates instead. The quality is just as good, but they co$t far less. (I don't work at TJ's, but I do know my chocolate :)
If there isn't price fixing for chocolate, then why is virtually every chocolate bar at Walgreens or Longs the same exact price?
Actually, you can get much better quality at a far lower cost at Trader Joe's. Their TJ's 1lb bars are around $4.00.
Everything costs much less to make than it's sold for. Companies would not be able to afford payroll, machine leases, and building rent without doing so. This is why you pay $1.50 for $0.02 worth of soda at McDonalds.
This is definitely not a joke, though I was suspicious myself at first because the the 100-Grand picture.
@tk427: Same here. I just submitted an inquiry to This Is True's Stella Awards [www.stellaawards.com] . I hope they pick it up and give us a report.
If they want to go after the bad guys in the candy industry, they need to start with Archer-Daniels-Midlands that controls the corn syrup market, and the big FL and MN sugar producers who control the price of sweeteners in the US along with their enablers in the Congress who continue to vote for sugar subsidies and import quotas.
While keeping foreign countries from dumping low-cost products on the US market may be admirable in some circumstances, in this case the high cost of sugar goes to Big Sugar fat cats who pay immigrant day laborers practically slave wages - while at the same time good paying union jobs in the candy manufacturing industry get moved to Canada and Mexico where the candy companies can buy sugar at the much lower world market prices.
For the chocolate that is still made here, a lot of the over-priced sucrose is replaced lactose, which is a essentially a byproduct of the cheese making process - however, many people (like me) can't digest lactose and so can't eat chocolate made by the big US candy manufacturers.
Also to note, for those who did not know, Hershey's is the one who makes Cadbury candy. Maybe the Cadbury spokesman had no comment because they were talking to the wrong person...
Seriously though, candy isn't too bad. Sure, prices could be better. But, they haven't really upped the prices noticeably, that is until you notice that the candy bars got smaller. Anyone notice how those York Peppermint Patties shrunk big time?
woah! woah! woah! hold on a second here.
we still have an anti-trust department?!? news to me!
@mac-phisto:
Yes you would have thought they just closed up shop and went home especially after the Microsoft case.
For those who wish to know more about basic antitrust you may want to look to the FTC's guide at [www.ftc.gov]
@ShadowFalls: WTF...one of my friend in the UK kindly informed me that no, only Europe and Canada get genuine Cadbury...we get crappy Hershey chocolate disguised as Cadbury. :(
@Jim (The Canuck One): Mmmmmmm...chocolate....half price....aaaaaaaaaa..*drool*
Oh yea, kick some ass! Its criminal that they a re shrinking the sizes of the bars and raising the prices, then when you wanna buy one you gotta go to the shop down the street...no not that one, the other one 2 miles away because their frikin Reeces Cups are 25 cent cheaper!!!!! GRAHHHHHHHHH!
...I sorry. I need my fix and these grifters are shorting me. Both Mars and Hershey can go to hell.
Wtf? That shit is so cheap... Why is the gov. wasting time on a chocolate bar instead of going after the real price gougers.