'Are Ketchup Flavored Potato Chips What Makes Canadians Different From Americans?'
By Aaron Goldstein (07/12/07)
What is it that most distinguishes Canadians from Americans?
I believe that I have found the answer.
Most people might reply that Canadians have an unhealthy obsession with hockey and curling. Others might say an equally unhealthy obsession with socialized medicine.
But they would be wrong.
What most distinguishes Canadians from Americans is the uniquely Canuck affection for the ketchup flavored potato chip.
I am qualified to make this declaration as I lived for more than a quarter century in Canada and have now lived in the United States for more than seven years.
My first memory of ketchup flavored potato chips goes back to around the summer of 1980 when as a little boy of seven living in Thunder Bay, Ontario I had my first bag of Old Dutch Ketchup Potato Chips. If memory serves me correctly, I believe my maternal grandfather bought them for me during one of my grandparents’ annual summer visits. Granddad would take me along with my brothers and sister for walks along Dease Street. Invariably, we would end up at Stachiw’s convenience store on May Street and Granddad (as many grandfathers do) would spoil his children with chocolate bars, bags of potato chips and other confections. As I recall, I did not often have ketchup potato chips so to have them was a real treat. While I loved the taste my mother didn’t particularly care for the red powder stains it left on the white shirts I would inevitably wear when eating ketchup potato chips.
Another popular ketchup potato chip while growing up was made by Humpty Dumpty. Originally manufactured in Maine, they eventually moved to Eastern Canada and added ketchup chips to their batch. In 2006, Humpty Dumpty was bought out by Old Dutch. Another favorite was Hostess Ketchup Potato Chips which is not to be mistaken for Hostess Twinkies. Hostess Chips was bought out by Frito-Lay in 1987.
Back in May, I visited Canada for the first time in two years spending the week in Ottawa and in Toronto. If there was a store selling food, it had ketchup flavored potato chips prominently displayed. Yet trying to find ketchup flavored potato chips in the United States is almost like searching for country music on a radio station that plays nothing but Mozart and Chopin.
Why is this so? I had to find out. So I went on a quest. Or a perhaps on a Hunt’s.
Given Old Dutch was my first ketchup chip I began with them. Old Dutch’s headquarters are near Minneapolis but they also have a Canadian office based in Winnipeg. Ketchup potato chips are a staple for Old Dutch in Canada ranking along with Salt & Vinegar potato chips as their top two sellers north of the border. However, Old Dutch does not offer the ketchup brand south of the 49th Parallel although not for lack of trying as Courtney Johnson, Marketing Coordinator for Old Dutch Foods, Inc. explains, “We have tried on two occasions in the past to sell Ketchup Chips in the U.S.; once in the early 1980’s and again the mid-1990’s,” said Johnson, “Both attempts resulted in very poor sales.”
In Canada, fans of Frito-Lays can buy Lays Ketchup Potato Chips while tortilla aficionados can buy Doritos Ketchup Chips. Frito-Lay does not offer ketchup chips of any kind in the United States. The same is true with Pringles. Canadians can enjoy ketchup flavored Pringles while Americans cannot.
But what about smaller U.S. snack companies?
A number of these companies have introduced ketchup flavored potato chips to the market only to pull them from store shelves due to lackluster sales. Mister Bee Potato Chip Co., based in West Virginia, manufactured ketchup flavored chips for approximately four years but discontinued about six months ago due to poor sales. Doug Klein, President of Mister Bee Potato Chip Co., told me the inspiration behind making a ketchup potato chip came from home. Klein explained, “I have a daughter who ate all meals with ketchup and I saw it is as great new flavor. I figured most kids eat ketchup of French fries, so it made sense to me.”
Shearer Foods Inc., based in the northeastern Ohio village of Brewster, had a short lived run with ketchup flavored potato chips. For just under two years, they offered Shearer Wavy Ketchup & Fries potato chips to customers in Ohio and western Pennsylvania until discontinuing the product in May 2007. Like Doug Klein at Mister Bee, Shearer Foods wanted to, in the words of Paul Smith, Director of Marketing and Product Management, “reinforce the imagery” of ketchup and French fries. Smith told me over the phone that Shearer Wavy Ketchup and Fries were in the beginning “selling briskly they dissipated precipitously” resulting in the decision to discontinue production. However, Smith has not ruled out bringing the brand back in the future citing that was “an internal favorite” of employees at Shearer. When Smith told me the ketchup chips did somewhat better during the summer, I suggested that Shearer Wavy Ketchup & Fries potato chips could be a seasonal flavor. Smith indicated that was plausible but Smith reminded me, “French fries and ketchup sell well year round.” His point was well taken. The dip in the sales of ketchup flavored potato chips remained a mystery after my discussion with Smith.
The plot thickened like the bottom of a ketchup bottle with Snyder of Berlin, a subsidiary of Birds Eye Foods. They, too, put out a ketchup potato chip several years ago called Snyder of Berlin Ketchip Kettle Style potato chips. Get it? Ketchip. But it too met with poor sales and was discontinued after about a year in the marketplace. Based in Berlin, Pennsylvania, Snyder distributes its product in ten states but is most prominently available in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and in West Virginia. Michelle James, Marketing Manager at Snyder of Berlin, described ketchup chips as “kind of a fad.” James explained that several of their competitors had put out ketchup chips and decided to follow suit only to see the market had been saturated like, well, a bottle of ketchup poured on French fries.
But where does that leave Canadian ketchup chip connoisseurs living in America? Surely there must be ketchup chips somewhere in the land of the free? How many miles (or should I say kilometers) must a lonely Canadian travel to find a purveyor of ketchup flavored potato chips?
Fear not. I have been able to find not one but two brands of ketchup flavored potato chips. The first brand is made right here in Massachusetts. To be precise, Wachusett Ketchup Potato Chips are made in Fitchburg, about 50 miles north of Boston and just south of the New Hampshire border. (In case you are wondering, I ordered a box containing 36 one ounce bags and am quite happy about it.)
Ed Krysiak, one of the owners of Wachusett Potato Chips, has been making potato chips for more than half a century. Krysiak told me over the phone that Wachusett has been making ketchup flavored potato chips on and off for about fifteen years. While not as popular as some of it others brands, Krysiak told me over the phone the ketchup brand does well in upstate New York “close to the Canadian border.” Ah, yes those Canadians. Indeed, many Canadians who live near the U.S. border find it cheaper to buy their gasoline and groceries in New York rather than in Ontario. And it certainly doesn’t hurt U.S. retailers if they supply a few bags of ketchup flavored potato chips for their Canadian customers.
A short time later while walking down Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge one recent Sunday afternoon I found myself thirsty and in need of a beverage. So I entered Central Convenience, a small store beside the Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub which is a landmark in Cambridge’s Central Square. After selecting my drink I decide to check out their potato chips (as I do in many other stores) and head to the back. Much to my shock and amazement but staring right at me were Uncle Ray’s Ketchup Potato Chips in both large and small bags.
Based in Detroit, Uncle Ray’s might very well be the most unique snack company in all of North America. Ray Jenkins has been in the potato chip and snack business nearly as long as Ed Krysiak of Wachusett. After a brief retirement, Jenkins got back into the snack business by launching Uncle Ray’s in 1995. What makes Uncle Ray’s so unique is not so much what’s on the inside of the bag but what’s on the outside. On the back of bags of ketchup potato chips and nearly all other Uncle Ray’s products are life lessons Ray has learned that are inspired by his Christian devotion. It also doesn’t hurt that Uncle Ray makes one hell of ketchup potato chip.
John Cieslowski, Procurement Manager at Uncle Ray’s, told me over the phone that ketchup chips had long been a “personal favorite” of Jenkins. Again, not unlike with Mister Bee’s and Shearer, Jenkins figured since people put ketchup on fries and potatoes why not ketchup potato chips? So Uncle Ray’s decided to launch his own brand of ketchup chips in the late 1990’s. Given Detroit’s proximity to Windsor, Ontario it is no surprise that these ketchup chips sell well in Canada. (It should be noted that in Canada, Uncle Ray’s products are currently sold under the name Cabana. However, Cieslowski told me that the name will be eventually changed to Uncle Ray’s.) While not as big a seller as Uncle Ray’s Regular or Barbecue potato chips, the ketchup chips hold their own in markets dispersed throughout North America but sell best in Canada. Cieslowski added the brand has improved its sales after revising its formula two years ago.
Of course, when one thinks about ketchup most people will immediately think about Heinz. Herr Foods, based in Nottingham, Pennsylvania just southwest of Pittsburgh, at the behest of its CEO and Chairman JM Herr, launched a ketchup flavored potato chip in 1996 with moderate success. However, when one of Herr Food’s seasoning suppliers approached them with the idea of putting in ketchup flavor from Pittsburgh based H.J. Heinz Company, creativity poured out like a Heinz ketchup bottle and the product was re-launched as Herr’s Heinz Ketchup Potato Chips in 1999. It has been selling well in parts of the Northeastern United States (particularly in Philadelphia and in New Jersey) and, surprise, surprise, in Canada. In fact, sales to Canada outpace U.S. sales as Herr’s Heinz Ketchup Potato Chips can be readily found in Sam’s Clubs and Costco’s stores. Melanie Coldiron, Promotional Events Coordinator for Herr Foods, attributes the success of Herr’s Heinz Ketchup Potato Chips to the esteem in which both companies are held in the marketplace. “As both companies have a great reputation for high quality products, Heinz and Herr Foods Inc. coming together in this partnership has led to the success of Herr’s Heinz Ketchup Potato Chips,” said Coldiron in an e-mail.
Uncle Ray’s, Wachusett and Herr Foods have succeeded with ketchup potato chips where other companies have failed because they have access to the Canadian market whether selling their product directly in Canada as is the case with Herr’s and Uncle Ray’s or having proximate access to the Canadian market as is the case with Wachusett. One must wonder if Mister Bee’s, Shearer and Snyder of Berlin would still offer ketchup flavored potato chips if they were to gain access to the Canadian market? Again, we know that in general terms ketchup potato chips sell enormously well in Canada and but do not sell well in the United States. We know the what but we still don’t know the why.
We do know that ketchup chips have been in Canada for a long, long time. Yum Yum Potato Chips, a snack company located near Montreal, has been making ketchup potato chips since 1967. Renee-Maude Jalbert, Yum Yum’s Marketing Director, did her best to shed some light. “I know there are some differentiation in flavor preferences between USA and Canada but I can’t really explain why. For instance, Ranch, which is very popular flavor in the U.S., is not popular at all in Canada,” Jalbert said, “Same for Sour Cream & Onion or Sour Cream and Cheddar…they are not very popular here. The most popular flavors in Canada are BBQ, Salt & Vinegar, Ketchup and All Dressed.” But the success of ketchup flavored potato chips in Canada might have to do with its sweet taste. Jalbert noted that she had once tried Shearer Wavy Ketchup & Fries. “It was a completely different ketchup than what we find in Canada. It had a very strong vinegar taste. Our ketchup is very sweet as the first ingredient in the seasoning is sugar,” Jalbert remarked.
Perhaps some questions cannot be answered and are meant to remain mysterious. After all, Americans love ketchup just as much as Canadians whether it be on hamburgers or hot dogs. I thought I might have to give up this quest and be content with my bags of Wachusett and Uncle Ray’s. But a colleague of mine satiated my spirit as well as my stomach and shed some light on the darkness. As she put it to me, “Americans like ketchup. American like potato chips. But just not together.” After so much anticipation it suddenly hit me. Why hadn’t I seen it all along? Then again Heinz sight is 20-20.
Across the Ambassador Bridge and dozens of other border crossings, Canadians seem willing to put ketchup on other foods as well. Belinda Simms from Old Dutch Foods, Ltd in Winnipeg asked her colleagues what foods they use with ketchup. Simms told me in an e-mail, “The usage ranged using Ketchup on everything from eggs to chicken noodle soup.” Simply put, if Canadians like putting ketchup on their eggs and their chicken noodle soup then why not ketchup with potato chips? But instead of having going to the trouble of buying a bag of regular potato chips and a bottle of ketchup why not just put some ketchup like seasonings on the chips and voila a nation’s appetite has been satiated.
Whether this state of affairs is a product of a limitation of the American imagination or a survival skill gained while living in a country where one lives under three feet of snow for months at a time is still subject to inquiry. Perhaps the Government of Canada could launch a Royal Commission on Ketchup Potato Chips to explore its contribution to its elusive national identity. It might be a stretch to replace the maple leaf with red powdered potato chip but I believe that the case can be made that the ketchup flavored chip is as much a national symbol in Canada as the beaver, maple syrup and Gordon Lightfoot. If that is the case then American potato chip makers who wish to mix their potato chips with ketchup powder are probably better off selling their wares in Canada.
(Printer friendly version) Email: Aaron Goldstein
