And we have both for some reason, right next to each other and the same price.
Hellman’s had a commercial:
Bring out the Hellman’s and bring out the best.
I heard that for a long time before I heard about it referring to their other name
I remember it, but haven’t seen it for many years. It was the first non-white bread I ever tasted.
Interesting. In what part of the country?
They’ve been in Atlanta-area Kroger stores for at least a year. I noted when they appeared, because I’d read about them in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum mysteries.
At a party we had over the holidays, a woman from Colorado was commenting on our Faygo pop for the kids and Utz potato chips. She’d never heard of those brands.
This commercial jingle was also used in the West where it went “Bring out the Best Foods, and bring out the best.” so I think they were just using best as an adjective.
South Carolina has Blenheim Ginger Ale. They make original and hot. It used to be made in Blenheim, SC. They have changed ownership several times and can now be found regionally.
In Colorado. We also had both Dryers and Edys Ice cream.
I wonder if that really counts though. I can easily get Cheerwine and Moxie if I go to our local stores that stock unusual sodas, but that’s not too far off in concept than pointing out that I can get all sorts of foreign stuff if I go to an import store. It doesn’t really point out that it’s available in any meaningful way.
I certainly can’t get Cheerwine at the local grocery stores here in Dallas, that’s for sure.
I hate to make you all jealous, but when I heard that the factory was being shut down, I went around to drug stores and gas stations and hoarded as many rolls as I could.
The sad news is, I’m almost out.
(Yeah, by now they’re all past their Sell By Date, but that’s not a problem with a food that was hard and stale when it was made).
Dukes is available in Washington state. Tried a jar, I will stick with my Best Foods (Hellmann’s east of the Mississippi) mayo.
Yeah, it started showing up here in Chicago I want to say about 5 or so years ago. Or at least at my local grocery, and then it started showing up in every grocery. Just bought a jar yesterday. Both Duke’s and Hellman’s have their place. The latter definitely has more zing, but I’ve switched alliance to the former probably because I’m just burnt out on Hellman’s.
I hear the new ones are better.
This is a good application for a website, instead of a book. Click on a brand and it displays info about it and highlight on a map where it can be found. Maybe even include historical data so you can see how some brands expand over time.
Except you have to know about the existence of a brand to look it up.
Better to have it cross-indexed, so you look up “mayonnaise” or “potato chips” and it tells you what they are eating in New Hampshire or New Jersey
That’s a pretty low bar. Says the guy who loves Circus Peanuts.
I mean, can they be worse?
There’s a lot fewer of these than there used to be. It seems like a lot of local and regional brands either make the push and expand get bought out by the big boys and then pushed to expand, or fade away. Also, high-end specialty markets like Wegman’s often carry local and regional products well outside a brand’s area.
When I was a kid, we got our soda from Brookdale Soda and our chips from Charles Chips. Brookdale is long gone. Charles Chips came in big round metal tins and were actually delivered to your house by a Charles Chips truck. Charles Chips is actually still around as a n online vendor. People apparently buy them to get the tins and they are very expensive.
It can be very hard for local brands of chips/snacks or soda to get onto the supermarket shelves because Wise/Frito-Lay/Coca-Cola/Pepsi are so dominant and buy up so much of the shelf space.
I can get Utz chips at gas stations, convenience stores, and smaller markets, but not at my supermarket.
Kutztown Soda is available, but nonfat at specialty markets, especially the Mennonite-run stores in the area.