After being awakened to the dark history behind the Oreo cookie — its classic shape and design was jacked from Hydrox, lesser-known competitor — we recently learned that “America’s Favorite Cookie” is now being accused of yet another seemingly unethical business practice. Hydrox is coming after Oreo with claims that those who work for Oreo’s parent company, Mondelēz, have been hiding Hydrox cookies in major grocery stores.
In an August 6th Facebook post, the Hydrox Facebook page wrote a status stating they have filed an official complaint against Oreo with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Those at Hydrox “firmly believe the folks @Mondelez” have been immorally hiding Hydrox packages in an effort to damage their brand and snuff out the competition.
“Mondelez uses what’s called in the industry ‘DSD’ or ‘Direct store distribution,'” Hydrox states in its post. “What that means is, they have their own trucks and personally deliver and restock supermarket shelves nationwide a few times a week, versus Hydrox which are restocked by supermarket employees at night and moved from their own warehouses.”
The people at Hydrox believe that, while there to restock Oreo cookies, Mondelēz employees make Hydrox more difficult for consumers to find.
In their post, Hydrox included fan-submitted photos that show their cookie packages behind hanging shelf displays, pushed to the back of the shelf, and even turned around so the “Hydrox” label doesn’t show.
According to Hydrox’s post, the company was made aware of the issue when a major retailer informed them that big brands like Mondelēz are apt to do this kind of thing in hopes that their competitor’s sales plummet.
It is important to state that there is no concrete evidence proving that Oreo does this.
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— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) August 13, 2018
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An Oreo spokesperson told Thrillist on August 9th via email, “We have not been contacted about this, but we are confident that this accusation has no merit.”
The spokesperson continued, “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.”
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... https://t.co/yj0nfPaq4H
— Hydrox Cookie (@HydroxCookie) August 6, 2018
Hydrox concluded its post by stating they’re hopeful the FTC will begin its investigation into Oreo soon. America’s original sandwich cookie has been through the ringer and we hope, on behalf of both cookie companies, the FTC investigation will ultimately bury the century-old hatchet.
