I was in a rush and I needed to pick up a quick snack that I could eat during class. I chose these Nature Valley bars which said they had ten bars inside. What I failed to notice is the tiny print at the bottom where it says 5 x 2, i.e., 5 packets with two bars.

Lo and behold when I open a pack during a break, I find two bars inside. I didn’t want to eat two bars, just one. You can’t even just leave the other fucking bar inside because they create so MANY crumbs. How the fuck are you supposed to seal it???

Stupid-ass deceptive printing got the better of me. It’s not the end of the world, just mildly infuriating.

    • glimse@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      It’s easy. Do what the other commenter said and break them before opening. They suggest in half, I prefer in thirds. Then after you eat the solid pieces you dump the crumbs into your mouth. If they made them less crumbly, I don’t think they’d be as good.

  • dmention7@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Not discounting your mild infuriation, but I am 100% certain that if they switched to being individually wrapped tomorrow, a complaint about excessive packaging would be one of the top posts here.

    I’m not sure about Germany, but these have been sold in the US for decades now, and have always been 2 bars per wrapper as long as I can remember.

    • A Basil Plant@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 months ago

      … I am 100% certain that if they switched to being individually wrapped tomorrow, a complaint about excessive packaging would be one of the top posts here.

      You’re undeniably right. The best situation would be to not have any wrapping at all… but with the crumb situation, that’d be another top post here :/

      • glimse@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I’m all for reduxcing packaging but…ewww I’m not eating these from an unsealed box. Bugs love the crumbs…I can imagine they’d love the full bars, too. Not to mention rodents.

        The box would have to be fully resealable, too, or they’d be gross so they’d need to replace the cardboard with plastic

        • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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          5 months ago

          so like just put them in resealable plastic bags, that’s a better use of the plastic than 5 small packages and means you don’t need the cardboard either!

          • glimse@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            To make them not turn to dust in transit, they’d need to be in a hard shell sleeve wrapped in plastic like Oreos…and they’d still likely get crushed a bit.

            I’m not a packaging engineer but that seems like more plastic with little added benefit

    • IceFoxX@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      I am rather surprised that OP expected 10 “large” bars. He wanted to eat 1 large bar, but instead just acted like a child with 2 small bars (2 small bars = 1 large bar). Complaining for bullshit reasons.

      I am also sure that 2 small bars would weigh less than 1 large bar.

        • IceFoxX@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          I realize that my answer was wrong and ignorant. I also disregarded the fact that OP could be assuming 10 small individually wrapped bars.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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    5 months ago

    Every product that comes with individually wrapped pairs or triplets is like this. They tell you how many individual consumables are in the box in huge font, with clarification that it’s 2xX or 3xX in tiny unreadable font.

    It’s shitty as fuck.

  • Ech@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    For the rest of the box, break the bars in half (while still in the wrapper) and eat the two top halves for the equivalent of one bar. The you can wrap up the remaining halves more securely.

  • skeptomatic@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    Your failure was not getting the Sweet and Salty Peanut chewy granola bar. Damn good!

  • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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    5 months ago

    Lol this was one of the earlier nature valley bar, before their single packed one. They were around 15 years ago at least. Always been packed per 2 with the hope that you will just eat 2 at a time

    • Mom Nom Mom@nom.mom
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      5 months ago

      When the first flavors of Pop-Tarts were released in 1964 (strawberry, blueberry, apple currant, and brown sugar cinnamon), the packaging machines were expensive, resulting in hefty up-front costs. So, to be economical about their investments, the company decided to package the product in twos at the start (explained in the book “Better Than Homemade: Amazing Foods that Changed the Way We Eat” by Carolyn Wyman).

      “To package them singly would have required twice as many machines. Kellogg’s didn’t want to invest in a lot of machines until they knew how it would sell," said Bill Post, who managed the first plant to produce Pop-Tarts.

      https://www.allrecipes.com/why-are-pop-tarts-packaged-in-twos-8347034

      Not a new thing at all
      ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • alucard@sopuli.xyz
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    5 months ago

    They have always been packaged that way in the US. The peanut butter ones somewhat mitigate the crumb situation.

  • Blackout@kbin.run
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    5 months ago

    This is the type of complaint you would expect a granola bar eater to have.