Brad Reese bought a bag of Reese's Mini Hearts for Valentine's Day. One bite in, he knew something was wrong.

What Hershey Did

The mini hearts weren't made with milk chocolate and peanut butter — the ingredients that made Reese's famous. Instead, the label listed "chocolate candy" and "peanut butter creme." Those are cheaper formulations that don't meet the FDA's standards to be called the real thing.

Reese, whose grandfather H.B. Reese invented Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, went public with his outrage — open letter, media appearances, a revamped website declaring him the defender of "Reese's Brand Integrity," and an orange baseball cap that says "Make Reese's Great Again."

Hershey's response? They called it an innovation.

Why This Is Bigger Than Candy

What Brad Reese is describing has a name: skimpflation. It's what happens when a company faces rising costs and, instead of raising prices or shrinking the package, quietly downgrades the product itself — and hopes no one notices.

Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, found that shrinkflation alone accounted for as much as 10% of inflation in certain product categories in 2024, including snacks, paper towels, and toilet paper. She argues these reformulations often mean more processed ingredients — which carries real health implications, not just taste ones.

Hershey had real cost pressures to deal with. Cocoa prices hit record highs in late 2024, driven by climate-related crop failures in West Africa, where about 70% of the world's cocoa is grown. The Trump administration's tariffs on cocoa-producing nations made things worse — though cocoa was eventually exempted in November.

The cost crunch is real. But so is the swap.