At least they're being honest. I commend people for that.

I really like Hershey products (really, any kind of chocolate) . . . but 'Mounds' has got to be one of the least-appealing names for candy. Ever.

So what's up with my local meijer selling them "buy two get three free?"

Better Stock up!

So goes Hershey, so goes the rest of the chocolate snack industry? Will M&M Mars/Nestle, Cadbury Schweppes, and Ghiradelli follow suit as well like when one airline hikes its fares? Heck, I'd rather they just would because the shrink ray just insults our intelligence.

This doesn't surprise me. I asked Hershey for a relatively small donation of product for my business a few months ago, and the letter I received in the mail basically said "Sorry, we're broke!" with bits of fluff thrown in.

Hey, if they're not shrinking and they're still using cocoa butter instead of "other fats," I'm pretty satisfied.

[dontmesswithourchocolate.guittard.com]

Plus, you can always buy dirt cheap chocolate bars at Walgreens. Just wait a few weeks and your favorite will be on sale.

At least they're honest about it. I'll still be buying my Hershey bar with almonds...mmmmmmmm.

I would be okay with this if the chocolate quality was better. Especially if it didn't feel like chalk in your mouth.

Just in time for Halloween! I've already seen stacks and stacks of candy bags in my grocery store.

Yes, I'd much prefer a price hike than shrinkage. Because sooner or later, they're going to raise prices anyway and then you just get less.

@am84:

What do you expect, get their stuff at sams club, its near-free in bulk

They hiked the price of Reese's Cups? That is evil.

Forum issue: why the heck do I have to allow googleapis (Google API) in order to see comments? The comment section worked just fine in the past without needing googleapis.

If you're eating candy to the point that this has a serious financial impact, then I have absolutely zero sympathy for you.

Didn't they just move alot of there operations to Mexico to reduce cost......

So for Hershey, Reduce cost, and raise prices. Its win-Win..

Hmm... I expected that. Took them long enough to say it.

When the cost to make goods goes back down (it will), we'll see how honest they are in reducing the price.

Man, wax prices must be going up.

@Jandek: I work for a non-profit - our budget is basically $0.

I commend Hershey for this. I'm tired of biting into a piece of "chocolate," only to feel grease and taste vegetable oil. If nothing else, the fairly successful sale of $2.50-$3.00 "premium" chocolates (those ones with the cocoa content marked) should show that folks are willing to pay for real chocolate.

Upon telling my mother of this story, she said she remembers when Hersey raised the price and reduced the size - sometime in the 60's. This is nothing new.

Hershey also own Scharffen Berger and Joseph Schmidt, I'm sure a price hike is in the works for those upper end brands as well.

Hershey tastes like corn syrup & wax with a faint hint of cocoa and finishes by burning your throat. I don't think I have bought any in a decade.

@bohemian: I recall them tasting like soap, but yes, it's crap.

I personally don't see what the big deal is. Yes, the cost of living is rising, but that happens every decade. In 40 years we're going to be saying "i remember when a pack of M&Ms was only $3.00."

I see that things are a bit steeper more quickly, but once things even out, things will still be more expensive than in the year 2000.

@bohemian:

That's how you know it's good. Mmmh. It tastes like burning.

You made a mistake. It should read "Hershey's chocolate scented brown wax bar" not "Hershey's chocolate bar" if you want to be accurate.

Hopefully the Hershey Wax Corporation will get bought out by an actual candy maker. This would also free the United States from the plague of fake Hershey made Kit Kat bars.

A word of advice, seek out proper Kit Kats made in the UK. It is worth it.

The same Hershey that can't even put enough chocolate in a product anymore to call it chocolate?

@Triborough: Hershey=waxcrap.

Even their new Cacao Reserve is a marketing gimmick to distract us true Chocoholics. Sadly, Hershey bought Scharffenberger (my favourite domestic chocolatier).

For now, I'll stay with Belgium, Swiss and then Hershey.

But alas, everything else is going up but my income.

Well that does it for me. Only high end from now on, even if it means less often.

Wow, Chocolate snobs! Neat. How's that working out for you?

I guess the price of vegetable oil has gone up, that's their number one ingredient.

So when will the gub'ment admit to the inflation we are facing and do something about it?

Thanks Hershey.

I strongly support price increases over quality decreases or size shrinkings.

Well, I guess I'll have to go through the Chocolate World tour at Hershey Park a couple more times so I can get my free candy bar at the end.

Remember when a snickers bar used to cost 25 cents? It's been what, like at least 75 cents to a dollar for as long as I can remember.

Hope they go out of business for abandoning some plants here in the US to take them out of the country.

But like others said, the prices must have risen on wax, vegetable oil and high fructose corn syrup because that is what their products taste like.

You know there is better chocolate out there than Hershey's. I mean I love a Reese's cup every now and then, but most of the straight up chocolate I eat is not hershey's.

@AdvocatesDevil: No, you're the snob. Personally attacking people in a smug tone because they like things of high quality makes you the snob. You are the one asserting that because the "snobs" do not conform to your own personal worldview they are somehow elitist. Just like smug environmentalists, and smug anti-TV people. Nothing wrong with their opinions, just the way they present them. Some of the commenters were sarcastic, but they never called anyone out or mocked anyone for the decision to consume Hershey's. You think you can take the high ground, but snobbery has nothing to do with preferences, and everything to do with the attitudes regarding them

Ew, I wouldn't pay 11% more for Hershey's crap.

I've always thought if I were them I'd be pretty embarrassed, since they have the licence to make Cadbury chocolate, which is a lot better than their own.

That's fine with me. And 10-11% for a normal sized Hershey bar isn't much around here. The local grocery store chain sells them 3 for a $1! So. Oh noes! $0.37 for a Hershey bar!! :-p

I didn't realize carnuba wax and high-fructose corn syrup had increased in cost so dramatically. Maybe they should switch to sugar and cocoa - Lindt doesn't seem to be having any problems...

It kind of sucks to be Hershey right now. In their press release they indicate that raw material prices have gone up 20-45% since the beginning of the year. Cocoa just reached a 28-yr record price on the NY commodities market (incidentally, Herhsey no longer processes cocoa; they buy their chocolate mass from Barry Callebaut, which has also raised its prices). With the big confectioners hawking candy in China and India, demand is going up. Social turmoil (we're looking at you, Ivory Coast) and natural disasters continue to hurt cocoa supplies, so those costs are going to continue to rise.

The good news for fine chocolate people is that rising costs should be muted for higher-end companies. Places like Scharffenberger and Valrhona already pay above-market rates for their beans and (theoretically) don't mess with the commodities market.

I tried Hershey Chocolate once on a trip to Canada and I have to say it certainly didn't appeal to me. It didn't even taste like chocolate. Just tasted 'processed'. They can raise the price to $100 a kilo for all it matters to me. They want to work on making the product better, not more expensive.

@peggyhill: i can't beleive you lumped Ghiradelli in with Nestle and Hershey

@TomCruisesTesticles(!):

Second that. High-enders will buy the occasional Snickers bar, and the low-enders might treat themselves to a 70% cacao bar. YMMV.

Hershey's Special Dark has been my favorite, but last year I tried the really really good chocolates (especially the ones with the 85% cacao) and they are heavenly. Well worth the $2.50 I was paying for the bars.

I would die for Fannie Farmer mint chocolates, however. No childhood trip to the mall would be complete with a fistful of those suckers jammed into my mouth. Alas, Fannie Farmer is no more.

While Hershey's Kissables can no longer be legally called chocolate because they contain vegetable oils:

[consumerist.com]

Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars and Kisses are still chocolate, as defined by the FDA. That means that these candies contain "a combination of chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, sugar and milk or cream. Milk chocolate must contain at least 10% chocolate liquor and at least 12% total milk ingredients." No vegetable oil. No wax. The reason that Hershey's bars are different than European style chocolates is because their cocoa is processed in a slightly different manner, and they add more sugar.

If it says "chocolate" it's pure chocolate. If it says "chocolate candy" or "chocolaty" or "chocolate flavored," then it contains chocolate, but only for flavoring.