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It’s an ancient Mars-ian artifact.
It’s not just fast food that’s subject to shrinkflation. A 35-year-old Mars bar found in a hoarder’s house in the UK proves that chocolate bars, too, used to be bigger.
“The size difference was greater than I expected,” Victoria Gordon, 44, told Jam Press of the sweet find.
The Brit runs a cleaning business that specializes in remediating everything from crime scenes to biohazard sites. While cleaning out a hoarder house in the seaside English county of Lincolnshire this week, she stumbled across the vintage chocolate bar, which she shared in an online video.
In the clip, Gordon holds a “massive” unit of nostalgic candy while wearing rubber cleaning gloves.
The cleaner noted that the ancient confection dated back to 1991. Out of curiosity, she decided to buy a modern one to see how it stacked up to its predecessor.
Gordon was awestruck by the size difference.
“Even though I knew it was big, I was surprised when I bought one to compare. It is a shame, really.”
Gordon blamed the discrepancy on “shrinkflation,” a trend where companies downsize food portions while upping the price.
For reference, a Mars bar cost between 25p and 30p (or between $0.34 and $0.40 in US dollars) in 1991. With inflation, that same bar should run about $1 at the bodega, but average prices now hover around $1.62.
Plus, the standard-sized Mars bar of yore (or at least of the grunge era) tipped the scales at 65 grams, compared to just 51 today.
While the petrified confection might seem revolting, Gordon said that her “favorite part of the hoarder clearances are finding treasure like that.”
“I find so many old and vintage things,” she gushed.
Unfortunately, the Mars company isn’t the only food firm being accused of scaling back their serving sizes.
In June, a fast food fan accused McDonald’s of serving sodas in cups the size of a “sewing thimble.”
(They demanded that the Golden Arches bring back “$1 any size soft drinks” to atone for their carbonated sins.)
Chick-fil-A also caught flak for allegedly shrinking their signature sandwiches.
The conversation was sparked by a Reddit user who shared before-and-after photos comparing their Chick-fil-A Deluxe Sandwich order from today with one from 2021.
To make matters worse, the 2026 version was decidedly flatter with a runty-looking patty — which the Redditor tried to rectify but to no avail.
“I went back to the store and told them that it looked like someone stepped on it… they remade it and still failed to make it at least resemble the photo I posted,” they said.
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