Chocolate bar prices are not so sweet

Price Watch: You spot the prices, we ask the questions.

A number of readers have been in touch about the "ever-escalating price of sweets" in Ireland. One Dublin reader complains that high chocolate prices are a scandal because "they're bought by our youngest and most vulnerable section of society".

He uses the price of a bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate to illustrate his point.

"This cost 68c in the small shop in Dublin Castle, which the assistant tells me is the RRP. Go anywhere else, however, and you pay 85c or so," he says.

He suggests that to get a more accurate impression of the rate of price increases we start measuring inflation from the cost of chocolate bars.

Another reader, from Blackrock in Dublin, who is "an eager Cadbury's chocolate bar consumer" echoes our first reader's concerns. She did a price comparison of her own on the cost of a standard bar of Cadbury's Fruit and Nut and found that the same bar ranged in price from 68c in a Londis in Castledermot, Co Kildare to 90c in an outlet in Blackrock, Co Dublin.

We contacted Cadbury's to find out what the company thought of the dramatic price fluctuations of its products. A spokesman said the actual recommend retail price of the two bars was now 71c.

She pointed out that the RRP is only recommended and Cadbury's, as the manufacturer of the chocolate, did not have any control over the prices in various outlets.

"We still consider it a value for money product and we are always working with the retail trade to offer promotions," which lower the cost, she added.

What's more . . .

DON'T BELIEVE THE TAG The price of lunchtime sandwiches in a Dublin deli has prompted another reader to get in touch. Partial to the chorizo roll in the Avoca outlet on Dublin's Suffolk Street, our reader was alarmed and angered two weeks ago to see that the price of the roll had risen overnight from €3.95 to €4.95.

When she queried the 20 per cent increase, she was reassured that it was a mistake and the old price was the correct one.

Ten days later, however, she returned to the store, and noticed that the rolls still had a price of €4.95.

Earlier this week PriceWatch visited the store and confirmed that the price tag was still €4.95.

When we asked about the apparent rise, we were told that there was an ongoing problem with the labelling of the chorizo rolls, but despite what the label said, the price remained €3.95.