# Fruit Stripe Gum = "Toys R Us" gum? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 11, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480 "2012-03-11T20:07:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/1 "2012-03-11T20:07:51Z")
I was just chatting with a friend, and the topic of how wonderfully awesome Fruit Stripe gum is. I called it “Toys R Us” gum, because when I was growing up, my sisters and I for some reason associated it with the store. But he’d never heard that. I googled it, and it appears [I’m not the only one](http://www.grubgrade.com/2009/08/21/remembear-this-fruit-stripe-gum/) who’s made the connection. I’m mostly assuming that: 1. Perhaps it was mostly available (or exclusively available for a while) at the Toys “R” Us checkout lanes. 2. [Yipes the Zebra](http://www.grubgrade.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Fruit-Stripe-Gum.jpg) resembled Gregory the Giraffe at the time? Or at least it was a colorful zoo animal. 3. Like toys, they’re the most enjoyable the first 5 minutes, then lose all flavor. Anyone else have the same notion? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/2 "2012-03-11T20:20:39Z")
Yes!!! I remember that! The commercial where they’d go, “Yipes! Stripes! Fruit Stripes Gum!” I loved that gum. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/3 "2012-03-11T20:24:19Z")
I never associated it with Toys R Us. Probably because the nearest one to my house was over 30 minutes away by car, and we couldn’t afford anything from there anyway. I do remember the gum though. My sister used to go through 5 packs a week back in the old days. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/4 "2012-03-11T21:51:15Z")
Omigosh, I had a boyfriend in the '80s whose general expression of surprise was “_yipes stripes!_” With raised eyebrows and exaggerated double-take. Hadn’t thought of that in years. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/5 "2012-03-11T21:59:33Z")
Worst gum ever. Starts so good, then fades to nothing in seconds. Never associated it with Toys backwards-R Us, but guessed it must be the giraffe connection. Joe ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/6 "2012-03-11T22:01:04Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Yes!!! I remember that! The commercial where they’d go, “Yipes! Stripes! Fruit Stripes Gum!” I loved that gum. “Its the yummy fruity one, \_\_\_ **fun** ” My brain says: “stick of stripes for fun, yip yop, boaloo, pip pop” The only time I remember getting it, I was at Toys R Us ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/7 "2012-03-11T22:03:18Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > Worst gum ever. Starts so good, then fades to nothing in seconds… But that what makes it so awesome! It’s the crack of gum. The flavor would run out before your next breath, and while you inhaled, you’d pop the next colorfully striped stick into your mouth. It tasted like magic for those few, fleeting, blissful moments. _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/8 "2012-03-11T22:05:05Z")
> [@sitchensis](#): > > “Its the yummy fruity one, \_\_\_ **fun** ” > > My brain says: “stick of stripes for fun, yip yop, boaloo, pip pop” > The only time I remember getting it, I was at Toys R Us Me too! I don’t ever recall seeing it at the grocery store. I think they were really aiming toward their demographic. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/9 "2012-03-11T22:29:38Z")
I grew up seeing Fruit Stripe at supermarkets and Woolworth. I don’t associate it with Toys R Us, but only because I had never seen a Toys R Us until sometime in my twenties. I recall Toys R Us commercials on TV in the 80s, but there wasn’t one within 100 miles of us, so I had never been. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/10 "2012-03-12T00:15:03Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > Worst gum ever. Starts so good, then fades to nothing in seconds. Never associated it with Toys backwards-R Us, but guessed it must be the giraffe connection. > > Joe Or, as I call it, generally to a slug on the arm from my partner in the passenger seat, “Toys-[_Ya_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ya_%28Cyrillic%29)-Us”. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/11 "2012-03-12T00:23:25Z")
I was chewing Fruit Stripe Gum back before there WAS a Toys 'R Us, so I never associated one with the other. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/12 "2012-03-12T00:40:17Z")
Toys R Us used to have[colorful stripes on the outside of their buildings](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6JOCpADOJWg/Rlm8KI-1TXI/AAAAAAAAAn0/4sg1Y6dK5v0/s400/DSC06748.JPG) (and if I recall correctly, along the inside wall when you first walked in). Combine that with the zebra/giraffe thing, and I also have some sort of weird connection between TRU and FS gum. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/13 "2012-03-12T00:46:08Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Or, as I call it, generally to a slug on the arm from my partner in the passenger seat, “Toys-[_Ya_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ya_%28Cyrillic%29)-Us”. I knew I liked you. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/14 "2012-03-12T00:46:57Z")
> [@sitchensis](#): > > “Its the yummy fruity one, \_\_\_ **fun** ” > > My brain says: “stick of stripes for fun, yip yop, boaloo, pip pop” > The only time I remember getting it, I was at Toys R Us I think my [“yip yops” and “pip pop” are a little off](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSTGOyDFPrU) ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/15 "2012-03-12T01:48:00Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > I was chewing Fruit Stripe Gum back before there WAS a Toys 'R Us, so I never associated one with the other. Yeah, me too. I think I bought this gum at a five and dime chain called Mott’s (now gone). Mott’s had a lot of cheap candy. Some of it was in orderly packets on a shelf, but there was a lot of stuff that was in glass bins, and you just grabbed as many as you wanted. Most of this candy was, indeed, priced at a nickel or dime each. There were things like foil-wrapped chocolate footballs and the sort of cheap gum that came in little muslin drawstring pouches. We prized the pouches over the gum, in fact. But Mott’s had a wider variety of candy than most grocery stores back then, and it offered stuff like Blackjack and Clove gum. I enjoyed making gum wrapper chains, and Stripes gum wrappers made particularly nice links for such chains. When I was in middle school, I was in the habit of carrying half a dozen packs of gum in my purse, held together with a rubber band. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/16 "2012-03-12T01:58:02Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > cheap gum that came in little muslin drawstring pouches. Weren’t they colored bright yellow and supposed to be gold nuggets? Then, of course, the 80s brought “Big League Chew”, which was gum in the form of one of the more disgusting yet socially acceptable in professional sports circles (at the time) habits, chewing tobacco. Kind of. What it actually was was just chunk gum (like Hubba Bubba or Bubble Yum) extruded into long, skinny shapes and stuffed into a foil pouch. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/17 "2012-03-12T02:14:38Z")
Yep, the gum was colored bright yellow and shaped like gold nuggets, and had a name associating it with gold. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/18 "2012-03-12T02:19:43Z")
[Gold Nugget Gum](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0026RWR7Y/ref=asc_df_B0026RWR7Y1930281?smid=AA6MR5993HU8E&tag=nextagusmp0388929-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395105&creativeASIN=B0026RWR7Y) ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/19 "2012-03-12T03:01:59Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > [Gold Nugget Gum](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0026RWR7Y/ref=asc_df_B0026RWR7Y1930281?smid=AA6MR5993HU8E&tag=nextagusmp0388929-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395105&creativeASIN=B0026RWR7Y) I remembered Gold Rush Gum, so I went looking. Who would have thought there was more than one brand of gold gum pellets in a cloth bag? In addition to Gold Nugget, there was also: [Gold Rush](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Rush-Grape-Bubble-Gum-Bag-1970s-Boy-and-Girl-/260974679091?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cc34d9433) and [Gold Rocks](http://www.oldtimecandy.com/gold-mine-gum.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480/20 "2012-03-12T03:49:56Z")
Speaking of Toys R Us, does any one else remember back in the 70s character apperances at the stores? Usually Geoffrey the giraffe and superheroes or other characters? The TV spots had a pre-recorded jingle that went “Hey there kids it’s Geoffrey. When you come to ToysRUs you can meet me. Along GiGi and little baby G. And now guess who else you can see!” Then a local voice over would announce the other characters, what store locations they’d be at, and what times. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fruit-stripe-gum-toys-r-us-gum/615480.md?page=2)