# Does America Really Need... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 25, 2011, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511 "2011-09-25T00:01:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/1 "2011-09-25T00:01:36Z")
In the supermarket today I noticed that nearly all the shelves on one of the aisles had nothing but potato chips: regular, crinkled, lime, garlic, super size, jalapena, etc. I may have missed some, but I counted 110 different brands, styles, and types of potato chips a consumer can chose from. Do we really need that much choice? ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/2 "2011-09-25T00:18:28Z")
Yes, we do. Because you don’t understand the superiority of the potato chip that I prefer. [http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004\_09\_06\_a\_ketchup.html](http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_06_a_ketchup.html) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/3 "2011-09-25T00:24:00Z")
They aren’t there because you need them. They’re there because the manufacturers need to sell them. ---
**Author:** ![FeAudrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FeAudrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FeAudrey)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/4 "2011-09-25T02:47:05Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > … 110 different brands, styles, and types of potato chips a consumer can chose from. Do we really need that much choice? It’s not like there was a Federal law requiring diversity in potato chip offerings. The manufacturers produce what they (and their market researchers) think will sell. If the product moves, they continue it; if not, they drop it from the line. It’s common for big city supermarkets to serve customers of dozens of ethnicities/nationalities. Walk up and down every aisle, and be amazed at the range of items offered. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/5 "2011-09-25T10:25:12Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > They aren’t there because you need them. They’re there because the manufacturers need to sell them. … and are \*able \*to sell them. ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/6 "2011-09-25T12:05:39Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > I counted 110 different brands, styles, and types of potato chips a consumer can chose from. Do we really need that much choice? As far as I’m concerned, the only style that needs to stay is dill pickle. The others can go. Can you imagine that dill pickle flavoured chips are not even available in Europe? ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/7 "2011-09-25T13:52:15Z")
> [@Fish\_Cheer](#): > > As far as I’m concerned, the only style that needs to stay is dill pickle. The others can go. Snyder’s of Hanover Kosher Dill chips are the true pinnacle of pickle flavoured chips. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/8 "2011-09-25T14:54:20Z")
> [@Fish\_Cheer](#): > > As far as I’m concerned, the only style that needs to stay is dill pickle. The others can go. > Can you imagine that dill pickle flavoured chips are not even available in Europe? Pickled onion is though, and cheese and onion, beef and onion, onion and rosemary, and roast chicken, prawn cocktail, smokey bacon, scampi, lamb and mint, curry, thai green curry, bacon and egg, fish and chips, worcester sauce, cheese and bacon, mango chilli, turkey and stuffing, Thai Sweet Chilli, Roasted Chicken & Thyme, Roasted Tomato & Aromatic Spices, Vintage Cheddar & Onion Chutney, Balsamic Vinegar & Caramelised Onion, Southern Style Barbecue, Buffalo Mozzarella & Herbs, Oriental Red Curry, Smoked Monterrey Chilli with Goats Cheese, and many years ago, hedgehog. And that’s just the commonly-available ones that are ‘potato crisps’ rather than wheat-based or anything else; plus Idid’t mention the ones the US also has. I don’t think the US has as wide a variety of crisps flavours as England does. 110 is astonishing though. OP, are you including different sizes too? ---
**Author:** ![AdmiralCrunch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@AdmiralCrunch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AdmiralCrunch)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/9 "2011-09-25T14:58:32Z")
Excerpted from Down With Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire by Michael Dobbs > [@](#): > > A turning point in Yeltsin’s intellectual development occurred during his first visit to the United States in September 1989, more specifically his first visit to an American supermarket, in Houston, Texas. The sight of aisle after aisle of shelves neatly stacked with every conceivable type of foodstuff and household item, each in a dozen varieties, both amazed and depressed him. For Yeltsin, like many other first-time Russian visitors to America, this was infinitely more impressive than tourist attractions like the Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln Memorial. It was impressive precisely because of its ordinariness. A cornucopia of consumer goods beyond the imagination of most Soviets was within the reach of ordinary citizens without standing in line for hours. And it was all so attractively displayed. For someone brought up in the drab conditions of communism, even a member of the relatively privileged elite, a visit to a Western supermarket involved a full-scale assault on the senses. > > “What we saw in that supermarket was no less amazing than America itself,” recalled Lev Sukhanov, who accompanied Yeltsin on his trip to the United States and shared his sense of shock and dismay at the gap in living standards between the two superpowers. “I think it is quite likely that the last prop of Yeltsin’s Bolshevik consciousness finally collapsed after Houston. His decision to leave the party and join the struggle for supreme power in Russia may have ripened irrevocably at that moment of mental confusion.” With the end of the Cold War, market liberalization in China, and even the introduction of market reforms in Cuba, I suppose it could be said that America doesn’t _need_ the variety of choices you see in your supermarket. But I’d say that there’s no better way to broadcast the decline of America to the world than to stock our shelves with only one kind of Doritos. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/10 "2011-09-25T15:10:51Z")
Omigod, you know what would be\* awesome?\* Chicken-flavored potato chips! Like Chicken in a Biscuit, only _potato chips!_ ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/11 "2011-09-25T15:14:15Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Omigod, you know what would be\* awesome?\* Chicken-flavored potato chips! Like Chicken in a Biscuit, only _potato chips!_ Apparently they have those in [France](http://www.whytraveltofrance.com/2006/06/14/roasted-chicken-flavored-potato-chips/). ---
**Author:** ![DaveBfd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DaveBfd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveBfd)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/12 "2011-09-25T15:15:35Z")
we have a lot of chicken chips up here. teriyaki chicken, tandoori chicken etc 😛 Plain chicken… I dont think so. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/13 "2011-09-25T15:35:20Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Omigod, you know what would be\* awesome?\* Chicken-flavored potato chips! Like Chicken in a Biscuit, only _potato chips!_ There are some mentioned in the list above. ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/14 "2011-09-25T15:40:28Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > There are some mentioned in the list above. And they were lost in the confusion! QED. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/15 "2011-09-25T15:40:45Z")
The sad thing is that in spite of this abundance of flavors, it’s still hard to find Ketchup flavored chips in many American stores. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/16 "2011-09-25T15:43:37Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > They aren’t there because you need them. They’re there because the manufacturers need to sell them. Or because we need to buy them. We need to buy _something_, and the manufacturers give us convenient justifications–namely, dill-flavored potato chips, &ect. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/17 "2011-09-25T17:01:12Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Pickled onion is though, and cheese and onion, beef and onion, onion and rosemary, and roast chicken, prawn cocktail, smokey bacon, scampi, lamb and mint, curry, thai green curry, bacon and egg, fish and chips, worcester sauce, cheese and bacon, mango chilli, turkey and stuffing, Thai Sweet Chilli, Roasted Chicken & Thyme, Roasted Tomato & Aromatic Spices, Vintage Cheddar & Onion Chutney, Balsamic Vinegar & Caramelised Onion, Southern Style Barbecue, Buffalo Mozzarella & Herbs, Oriental Red Curry, Smoked Monterrey Chilli with Goats Cheese, and many years ago, hedgehog. And that’s just the commonly-available ones that are ‘potato crisps’ rather than wheat-based or anything else; plus Idid’t mention the ones the US also has. I don’t think the US has as wide a variety of crisps flavours as England does. > > 110 is astonishing though. OP, are you including different sizes too? No. I shudder to think of the total if I did. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/18 "2011-09-25T17:19:38Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > … and are \*able \*to sell them. That’s the real truth. Manufacturers of the various items that are sold in grocery stores introduce literally _thousands_ of new items every year (mostly new flavors, new sizes, etc. of existing brands; totally new brands are fairly uncommon). Every time a grocery store decides to begin stocking a new item, they’re going to be getting rid of an existing item to make room. If an item doesn’t sell well enough, the retailer isn’t going to hesitate to cut it in favor of a new item which sells better. This is true on both the small scale (i.e., replacing one snack-food item with another) and on the larger scale (i.e., taking an area of shelf space which used to be occupied with a different category, and placing snack foods in that space). In short: there are that many types of potato chip because consumers _buy_ that many types of potato chip. Whether we _need_ that many is another discussion entirely, but has no relevance to what your grocery store puts on the shelf. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/19 "2011-09-25T17:26:49Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I don’t think the US has as wide a variety of crisps flavours as England does. Probably not–crisps seem to be bigger in in the UK. Me, I only like tortilla chips and maybe some SunChips sometimes. How popular are tortilla chips in the UK, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2011, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511/20 "2011-09-25T17:32:23Z")
> **[The Wildest Potato Chip Flavors](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/crazy-potato-chip-flavors_b_807545)** > > The Wildest Potato Chip Flavors It could be worse. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-america-really-need/597511.md?page=2)