Arnott’s is changing the recipe of its Shapes biscuits — and the results are reportedly awful. According to the consensus on social media, the “new and improved” BBQ and Pizza versions have no visible flavouring and lack crunch; essentially robbing them of the brand’s best qualities. Thankfully, there’s still plenty of old stock on supermarket shelves — but it’s running out fast. If you’re an Arnott’s Shapes fanatic, you need to start stocking up and you need to do it now.
Shapes’ bland new flavouring can perhaps be blamed on a recent investigation into false nutritional claims by the ACCC. Last year, the biscuit maker was fined $51,000 for making misleading statements to consumers about the fat content of certain Shapes products.
In the wake of this bad publicity, it would seem Arnott’s is keen to prove Shape aren’t too unhealthy — even if it hopelessly compromises the flavour. The “new and improved” BBQ and Pizza Shapes come with flavour baked directly into the biscuits instead of being sprinkled on top. They also sport a noticeably softer texture.
This has resulted in hundreds of angry customers expressing their disappointment on Twitter. There’s even a petition on change.org to return Shapes back to their original flavour.
The rollout to the new Shapes recipe is expected to take some weeks. In the meantime, you can still pick up the originals from most supermarkets in Australia.
Shapes have a typical expiry date of around eight months, but they should remain perfectly edible for more than a year if kept in their plastic packaging. In other words, it’s possible to stock up your pantry by buying in bulk.
Here are some tips for Shapes hoarders looking to clean up this weekend:
- Ring the supermarkets and convenience stores in your area to confirm availability. Start with the outlets closest to you and work outwards.
- Keep an eye out for discounts to keep costs down. Australia’s major grocery store chains regularly offer two-for-one and half-price deals on Shapes.
- If you can only see the new version on display, rummage around at the back of the shelf — get your arms in deep!
- Ask staff if they have any stock out back. You might get lucky and score a whole factory box.
- Target convenience stores, petrol stations and corner shops — the prices will be higher but this translates to a slower turnover of inventory.
- Make peace with the fact that your favourite snack has changed for the worst and won’t be coming back.
We’ll leave you with this classic Seinfeld clip of Elaine searching for her favourite, discontinued birth-control method. Every time she says “sponges” I now hear “Shapes”.
Comments
15 responses to “Don’t Forget To Stock Up On Original BBQ Shapes This Weekend”
Good free publicity for Arnotts. After the outrage, they will announce the original will come back and all will be good araing.
People said the same thing about Toobs: http://staging.lifehacker.com.au/2015/10/its-a-national-tragedy-toobs-have-been-discontinued/
Six months on, and they’re still nowhere to be found.
Had to Google what they were. Lack of demand killed them which appears not too be the case with the shapes change.
Yeah, I agree – I think Toobs are a different case (I’d love to have them back!)
Ive got a hankering for toobs now you bastard thanks
When Coke changed their formula, they got a massive sales boost – but only when they returned to the original formula.
The funniest thing is: I’m looking at an open packet right now. On the tab where you open the box, there is a red strip with the phrase:
“There Is No Substitute For Quality”
There’s an argument with some validity that the whole New Coke debacle was deliberate to cover up the changeover in the US from using Sugar to High Fructose Corn Syrup to sweeten the product, though the changeover had been happening gradually since 1980. There’s a definite difference in taste.
Definitely a difference in taste – at first it wasn’t too prominent, until I stopped drinking soft-drinks with sugar in them and moved to Coke Zero & shit. Bought myself a can of Grape Fanta import (used to be the only kind you could find!) and it was disgusting.
When you haven’t tasted HFCS even in comparison to sugar in such a long time, it’s gnarly as hell – it kind of tastes like sorbitol if you’ve ever had a cough syrup addiction, lol.
No Sugar > Sugar > HFCS
Coke never returned to their original formula in the US, it’s another formula again, just less terrible than “New Coke”. If Americans want real coke, they have to import it from Mexico.
Yes the new favours are really terrible. The kids were complaining and I the tried them and they tasted so bad I checked the use-by date on the box.
probably taste like cardboard
Had the new ones last week and thought they were absolutely fine. I don’t eat shapes all that often but I hardly noticed the difference. People will moan about anything.
My local coles had a sale on the original varieties 50% off. Ran it until all the original ones were sold out.
oh dear… iv heard things on the news about shapes but havnt paid any attention till now…
This is dreadful news, life as i know it is over…
Still patiently waiting for Allens to change their recipes back so they aren’t so gelatinous.
Been getting by on natural confectionary company and starburst so it isn’t a major dilemma.
But they did say it was the same taste when they changed their packaging…. but it isn’t, it damn well isn’t.
As for shapes, haven’t had them for 10 years plus I have forgotten what the original ones taste like. Probably best to keep it that way and remember the good times 🙂
I remember back in the late 1980’s what BBQ shapes tasted like, like STEAK SMOTHERED IN RICH BBQ SAUCE not this DISGUSTING pepper shit they put on it today they started fucking with foods flavour back in 1997/1998 since then foods have tasted like Shit I remember the ORIGINAL TOOBS they had a Dijonnaise / honey mustard and onion flavour sort of like a McDonalds cheeseburger flavour the new toobs tasted like SHIT as far as I was concerned I didn’t like them at all they tasted like an onion ring which ISN’T toobs they tasted like a Mcdonalds cheese/hamburger DAMMIT the newer ones tasted AWFUL and whatever the hell happened to MUNCHERO’S https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXKlxHptP1o