Page 11 - IAV Digital Magazine #456

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Oreo And Hydrox's 100-Year-Old Blood Feud Is Heating Up Over Claims of Hidden Cookies
By Sam Rutherford
Created in 1908, Hydrox was the original chocolate sandwich cookie, but it was Oreo (which first went on sale four years later in 1912) that ended up dominating the market. In the decades since, Hydrox has been some- thing of a cult favorite com- pared to its younger, more recognizable competitor—a battle for biscuit supremacy that took a dark turn this week with an accusation of cookies being hidden on shelves.
On Monday, Hydrox announc ed on
Facebook that it had filed an offi- cial complaint with the FTC accusing
Mondelez, the owner of Oreo, of making Hydrox cookies harder to find in stores. According to Hydrox, a buyer for “one of the largest store chains” in the U.S. warned them that “Mondelez is going to hide your cookies all over our stores to make sure you don’t get any sales, in hopes of being discon- tinued.”
Fears of discon- tinuation loom large in the minds of Hydrox lovers: After a less-than-suc- cessful effort to rebrand the cookies as “Droxies,” the product was removed from the market entirely by owner Kellogg’s in 2003 before being relaunched by Leaf Brands in
2015.
As proof of Mondelez’s alleged malfea- sance, Hydrox posted pictures showing their cookies obscured behind other products, moved onto shelves out- side customers’ direct line of sight, and more. Hydrox claims that, in some cases, its shelf space was taken by “another flavor of Oreo or Nutter Butters.”
Hydrox thinks that Mondelez’s use of direct store distribution (where the Oreo maker restocks the product instead of gro- cery stores them- selves) allows its delivery person- nel to move com- peting Hydrox cookies to less desirable loca- tions. In response to
Hydrox’s Facebook post, a few users posted comments sup- porting the alle- gations, with one person claiming that an employee at their local gro- cery store said “the Oreo folks threatened to cut back on their deliveries if Hydrox wasn’t dropped.”
When we reached out to Mondelez for comment, a com-
pany spokesman told Gizmodo that Mondelez is “confident that this accusation has no merit. The OREO brand is an iconic one, with a proud and rich history of delivering great tasting products and exciting innovations to our consumers for more than a century. This focus, and our commitment to operating with integrity, has
made OREO America’s favorite cookie.”
As fans of cook- ies of all shapes and types, we hope that Hydrox and Oreo can settle their differ- ences and go back to selling sugary treats based on each cookie’s individ- ual merits. And if one brand ends up prevailing, maybe that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine