I did a search and see that Philster mentioned this 5 years ago , so clearly I’m not the first to think of this but it was never directly asked - why is it that in this land of supersizing, I can get a huge whopper and a king-sized fry, but am forced to take 12+ ketchup packets to provide enough for the meal? I know I use more ketchup than average, but it’s not an absurd amount, is there some sort of physics preventing the creation of a ketchup packet 3X larger?
So you use less.
You pay for supersizing, whereas ketchup is free – to you. There is no benefit to the manufacturer of ketchup packets to retool whole processing lines, from getting bigger packets from the packet manufacturer to adjusting their machinery to handle bigger packets and sploot more ketchup into them. “They need more ketchup for their supersized fries? Let them take more packets!”
And, as **Shamozzle **said, the fast food establishment has an interest in limiting the number of “free” packets you take.
Because many people only need 1,2 or 3. Making them bigger would mean a lot more wasted product.
I recall going to a “high end” (read:not McDonalds) restaurant and getting ketchup in much bigger packets…maybe the equivalent of 3-4 normal packets. It was made by Heinz, or the other one, and was in a black package with a flat bottom (you could stand it up).
A solution to your problem does exist. I suggest you write your congressperson.
(Jeez. I don’t want to admit how long this post just sat here while I searched and searched for a picture of these damn ketchup packets. Just come to Saint Paul, MN and go to…I think it was Sweeney’s. They have just the ketchup for you.)
If anything, packets seem to actually be shrinking. Butter now comes in marble-size pieces, it takes about twenty of those to put an adequate amount of butter on a three-pancake breakfast. I guess the thinking is if you want free stuff that badly, you’ll take the trouble to open a zillion packets; if not, wastage is minimized. Same thinking that leads to public restrooms having toilet paper that won’t dispense more than one small sheet at a time.
I’ve never seen that for toilet paper, but the paper towel machines that work the way you describe are even more evil than hot air hand dryers. The best I can ever do is hope the lock is broken and open the case. Next best choice is hope there are two or three dispensers and wave my hand in front of all of them, and hope the timer resets by time I get back to the first one.
One cool, restroom cost save that I love, though, is the foaming soap.
The “product” is the portability of ketchup and the cost is the individual packet, not the ketchup. Imagine getting your drink in 10 little cans instead of 1.
The amount of ketchup in a standard size package is actually a pretty good serving for use on a sandwich.
You could just carry around your own ketchup, in a hip flask or something.
I ran into those too, recently. Unfortunately, I was in a “ketchup not needed” scenario, so I was not in a position to avail myself of this fine product. Only saw them once, though…
You can get that for home too, you know. Target or Wal-Mart or even Dollar Tree. I buy one or two bottles a year, and refill it with cheap shampoo - diluted 1:1 or even 1:1.5 with water. Eventually the handle gunks up and won’t pop back up easily, and then I pitch it and start over.
Here’s the thing though. It seems to me that it would be cheaper/easier/use less packaging to make the packets twice as big and have people use half as many than to have people use twice as many that are half as big.
But imagine if the only way drink was available was in 2 liter bottles.
I use 1 packet, 2 at most, and never any on fries. Plus, I don’t want half full packets in my trash. I’d guess that the size of the packets selected is kind of the LCD of ketchup most people use.
One of the predominantly Southern fast food places (Whataburger, I think), hands out ketchup in the same-sized containers that McDonalds uses for barbecue sauce. Or at least they did about 2 1/2 years ago when I was last down there.
I meant in the sense of toilet paper rolls that combine an extremely stiff, hard to turn roll with perforations that tear excessively easy. If you just grab the end of the paper and pull, you get two or three squares. So the only way to get a decent handful of paper is to laboriously turn the roll by hand, getting an inch of feed at a time.
My wife and I were eating at a sandwich shop that has bottles of ketchup on the tables. A guy with an order to go stopped at our table and asked if he could have the bottle of ketchup from our table. We assumed he was just going to put some of it in one of the plastic containers from the sauce bar, but he put it in the sack with his sandwich and walked out the door
More wasted than now when every time I get fast food, half a dozen ketchup packets go in the trash with the wrapper and pickles? (I don’t use ketchup but they always seem to include it when I go through the drive-thru.) I feel like telling them to keep the ketchup and give me a damn straw and a napkin…but that would be too easy.
When they sell them, like at the fast food places in Europe, they tend to be larger.
I asked the exact same question here a few years ago. People replied that some people only want a tiny bit of ketchup. I don’t buy it. I am far from a ketchup fiend but I believe that either you like ketchup or you don’t. A tiny packet that is a supply for 3 or 4 fries doesn’t do anyone any good. Packets of mayonnaise come in much bigger packets and I can’t see people wanting a higher volume of mayonnaise than they do ketchup unless it is a Dutch establishment
VINCENT
But you know what they put
on french fries in Holland instead
of ketchup?
JULES
What?
VINCENT
Mayonnaise.
JULES
Goddamn!
VINCENT
I seen ‘em do it. And I don’t mean
a little bit on the side of the
plate, they fuckin’ drown 'em in it.