A cleaner clearing a hoarded house in Scunthorpe found a Mars bar from 1991 that weighs 62.5 grams and looks nearly twice the size of the 40-gram version sold in stores today, according to a BBC News report.
Victoria Gordon, 44, who runs the specialist cleaning firm Pocket Rockets from Lincoln, made the discovery on August 5 while sorting through decades-old belongings in the North Lincolnshire property. The bar’s packaging carried a February 19, 1991 date. She almost tossed it in the skip before the size stopped her.
“It was nearly as big as my hand, which was kind of why I noticed it,”
Gordon told BBC Radio Lincolnshire.
“I was like, ‘Wow, look at the size of that!'”
Gordon, who posts under the handle pocketrocketscleaning on TikTok, filmed the find and later bought a current Mars bar for a side-by-side comparison. The older bar is more than 50 percent heavier. Viewers immediately zeroed in on the difference, and the videos climbed past 700,000 views within days. The viral find echoes another recent story of a vintage item uncovered in a relative’s home that turned out to be worth a small fortune.
“Even though I knew it was big, I was surprised when I bought one to compare. It is a shame, really,”
she said. In 1991 a standard Mars bar cost between 25p and 30p. Today the smaller bar typically sells for around £1.20.
Gordon’s company handles hoarded houses, crime-scene cleanups, post-death clearances and other biohazard work. She said finding old items is the part of the job she enjoys most. The find joins a wave of recent viral moments around oversized or older chocolate, including a 10-pound chocolate Easter bunny that became a hammer-worthy indulgence.
“My absolute favourite part of the hoarder clearances are finding treasure like that. I find so many old and vintage things. I find it fascinating.”
She is still deciding what to do with the bar.
“I might be sitting on a gold mine,”
she said.
“I almost put it in the skip but I might do a UK tour with it.”
Gordon noted she has posted hoarding videos before but never seen one take off like this.
The discovery has fueled fresh talk of shrinkflation, the practice of reducing product size while prices rise or stay the same. Historical records show Mars bars once peaked near 65 grams before gradual reductions brought the standard UK version down to the current range. Gordon’s find offers a concrete, dated example that many people recognized immediately.
No one has suggested the 35-year-old chocolate is safe to eat. Gordon has kept it intact and continues to share updates from her clearance jobs as the clip keeps circulating.
