Alain Van G.
Shrink product, keep the price - strategy
Just before New Year 2026 I stocked up on Bolsius candles at Albert Heijn – and felt seriously tricked that evening. While my small IKEA candles were, as always, filled to the brim and burned through the whole night, the Bolsius ones were barely 2/3 filled and had to be replaced halfway through the evening. This kind of “shrink product, keep the price” strategy might be great for margins, but it’s terrible for trust. As a customer you only notice it when you are already using them: less wax, less burn time, same price tag. From now on I’ll be paying a lot more attention to how full a candle actually is before I buy it. For me, IKEA wins this one hands down – I’ll be getting my candles from IKEA from now on.