There’s a cookie conspiracy afoot, if you’re to believe the makers of Hydrox. The Oreo competitor you may have forgotten about isn’t nearly as popular as the chocolate sandwich cookie nearly synonymous with the form believes there’s some chicanery afoot as to the Oreo’s popularity and placement on store shelves.
One of the big selling points of Hydrox compared to Oreo cookies is that it’s considered kosher, but as the Jewish Telegraphic Agency noted, the company wants a bigger market share and thinks its visibility is being artificially limited at Oreo’s behest. The JTA reported that Hydrox thinks that Mondelez, the parent company of Oreo, has employees intentionally block Hydrox cookies when it stocks Oreos on supermarket shelves. It accuses
Hydrox actually beat Oreos to market by a few years, first appearing in 1908 while Oreos came four years later. But Hydrox actually ceased manufacturing in 2003, giving Oreo a 12-year period where it essentially became a monopoly in the sandwich cookie market. That seems to have made an impact on sales, despite Hydrox being brought back by Leaf Brands as a cookie in 2015.
Last week, Hydrox shared a post on its official Facebook page confirming that it’s taken these allegations to the Federal Trade Commission.
We @hydroxcookie have been very frustrated with the hiding of our cookies at major retailers by the folks @oreo, so we finally filed an official complaint with the Federal Trade Commission last week in which we claim they have been trying to make it hard to find our cookies in stores nationally, in hopes of lowering sales volume and having us discontinued.
The long note shares some more details about the dispute, and it’s tough to tell from afar if this is just a bitter cookie rivalry with some tinges of misplaced conspiracy or if Hydrox has some proof of its complaint.
Gizmodo reached out to Oreo and the company denied that its employees are messing why Hydrox displays. But it seems this cookie rivalry is heating up in a big way.
(via Gizmodo, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
