BUENA PARK, Calif. - Knott’s Berry Farm products will no longer be sold at grocery stores.
The J.M. Smucker Company, which owns the grocery store brand but not the theme park, quietly discontinued the line of jams, jellies, preserves, and cookies on Monday.
“Knott’s Berry Farm brand has been discontinued and is no longer being sold,” a message on Knott’s Berry Farm’s website read.
Was their stuff any good? I don’t know if I have ever had any, I assume that I did but I am not positive…
Yes, it was. Being a SoCal native, I grew up on it. Loved their boysenberry syrup when I was eating such things.
I grew up in Orange County and the only jam we ever had in the fridge was Knott’s Boysenberry Preserves.
FWIW, like a lot of OC notables, Walter Knott was a raving fascist. Maybe someone brought that to Smucker’s attention.
I hear the story is more mundane. It was high quality, premium price. Then Smucker degraded the quality to reduce the cost and still sell it at a premium price. Over time this weakened the brand as did the association of quality = organic in many consumers’ minds. It no longer did enough volume to command shelf space and the death spiral was on.
Enshittification strikes again.
Not so much:
Sorry, there are no products in this collection.
Correct. I’m sure they can make a really nice jam for $7 and sell it for $12.99 at the theme park.
What they can’t do is make it for $4 and sell it for $6.99 in a grocery store.
Huh. I see three pages of products…
I wonder if it’s because I’m in Canada. I can see the Peanuts toys and some candy, but no jams or anything.
Yes, very good jam.
Sound like they were in a jam.
I mistakenly thought Boone’s Farm and wondered what the pre-teens were gonna sneak drink now. And that just reminded me of how old I am. But then I looked it up and Boone’s Farm is still a thing. Only it isn’t jelly.
With a name like Fuc…I mean Smuckers…
Yay. We just got season passes. Time to start planning some wacky Smokey and the Bandit style bootleg runs east of the Rockies.
I drank some of that as a misbegotten teen. If I recall, it tasted like jelly-- super sweet, which is probably one reason it appealed to youngsters.
Those margins seem really low to me. I bet the $12.99 jam costs more like $4 to make. (Though I suppose the actual margins don’t really make a difference to your point.)
When I say “make”, I mean the wholesale price from whoever is manufacturing it (either JM Smucker or some other contract manufacturer) to Knotts Berry Farms theme park operator.
I doubt that Knotts Berry Farm is a vertically integrated producer now, it it ever was.
I’d hoard the jars I have left, but they are all half-empty and in steady rotation.
Sigh.
Now what will I have on my English muffin in the morning?