About this episode
The episode discusses the controversy surrounding Hershey's use of alternative ingredients in Reese's candies and the implications of skimpflation.
Live event info and tickets here. When ingredient costs skyrocket, companies have three basic options: They can raise their prices (a sort of product-specific inflation), shrink the size of the products (often called “shrinkflation”), or, sometimes, find more creative ways to reduce costs by degrading the quality of their products - which our very own Greg Rosalsky has dubbed as “skimpflation.” The latest alleged culprit? Hershey’s. The Hershey Company is using ingredients in some of their Reese’s candies that — legally — they cannot call milk chocolate or peanut butter. This has infuriated Brad Reese, a grandson of H.B. Reese, the inventor of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. On today’s show, why chocolate makers might be skimping on chocolate and peanut butter, what else might explain these ingredients, and how Brad Reese has launched a skimp-shaming campaign to get Hershey’s to go back to using classic Reese’s ingredients. And – EXCLUSIVE – you’ll hear Planet Money break some big news to third-generation peanut butter cup scion Brad Reese. Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift . / Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , the NPR app or…
People in this episode
Hosts: Greg Rosalsky, Sarah Gonzalez
Guest: Brad Reese
Topics covered
- chocolate
- skimpflation
- ingredient costs
- Hershey's
- Reese's
- product quality
Keywords
- chocolate skimpflation
- Hershey's
- Reese's
- ingredient costs
- product quality
- Brad Reese
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Hershey’s, Planet Money
Products: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup
More episodes of Planet Money
- Two indicators for lowering the rent · June 10, 2026 · 18 min
- Why is there a supplement craze if they don’t even work? · June 5, 2026 · 35 min
- There's no business like dough business · June 3, 2026 · 27 min
- The sneaky way companies get new chemicals into our food · May 29, 2026 · 36 min
- The leaked tapes that show how the rich avoid taxes · May 27, 2026 · 26 min
- The giant factory town that might be a giant mistake · May 22, 2026 · 27 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Planet Money podcast page.