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Vending
Machine 'Fundas'
On
the occasion of 'Let us know US' completing 50 topics, here
is some lighter vein, mouth-watering stuff for you.
Read
at your leisure, perhaps with a pack of potato chips in hand...
Anatomy
of a Vending Machine
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Why
are the Potato chips always placed above the Candy and
Gum in Vending Machines?
Simple
answer: The spirals that hold the salty snacks
at the top of machines are wide and can thus hold products
that are thicker, like chips and pretzels packets. The
spirals on the bottom are narrower and more appropriate
for less bulky items, like chocolate candy and gum.
Can’t
the spirals be interchanged? Yes, they can be, still
the traditional position is followed everywhere. But
why? The potato chips are the highest profit products
in the machine, so putting them at eye level helps generate
even more sales! Bags of potato chips or corn chips
tend to flop forward on the spirals, so placing them
at eye level assures the vendor that the consumer will
not miss them. Okay, that’s the commercial reason.
Now some
physics theory. Because heavier items fall straight
down, vending machine snacks are designed so that cookies,
candy, gum, and other heavy items fall the least distance
to avoid breakage. The chips packets don’t fall straight
down but tend to hit the glass front of the machine,
which further decreases speed!
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Perfect Reason:
If you purchase chips and a candy bar at the same time, it is
better that the candy drops first and the chips then fall on
top of the candy. This is because the chips are less likely
to break or damage candy, whereas if the candy falls on the
chips the bag could break!!
Trivia: The
first vending machines in the United States dispensed chewing
gum, and were installed in New York City train platforms in
1888.
Potato
Chips - Snack of the Nation!
Can you believe this? An act
of nastiness led to the invention of one of the most
popular snack foods of all time, America's national snack.
Potato chips resulted from a cook's moment of anger!
The Anger Story
Potato chip was invented in
1853 by George Crum, who was head chef at Moon's Lake House,
a resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. On that fateful day,
a customer boldly complained that Crum's French fries were
"too thick and soggy" and "not salty enough."
The angered cook set out to wreak some culinary vengeance.
He sliced potatoes paper-thin, fried them to a singed crisped
brown, salted the living daylights out of them, and dumped
them in front of the hard-to-please diner.
The customer tried one, smiled,
then helped himself to the rest of them. Thus were born Saratoga
Chips, as Crum's unintended invention came to be called.
Saratoga chips remained a local
delicacy until the Prohibition era, when an enterprising salesman
named Herman Lay popularized the product throughout the Southeast.
The whispered assertions that potato chips were an aphrodisiac
did not diminish his sales.
Even true stories always leave
room for 'versions', and this one is no exception. According
to the lore that has sprung up around this tale, the hard-to-please
customer in Saratoga Springs was none other than railroad
magnate Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. Not true. The
first fellow to taste a potato chip was just an ordinary guy
off the street who chose the wrong (right?) day to piss off
the cook.
Fact: Americans reportedly
eat an average of six pounds of potato chips per person each
year.
Story
of The Teddy Bear
"Teddy
Bear" the World-famous toy is named after a US President
- Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt.
In November 1902, President
Theodore Roosevelt and some of his friends went on a hunting
trip to Mississippi. After hours of searching, Roosevelt and
his group had not come across any wild animals. Finally, the
group did track down and surrounded a helpless bear. One of
the guides asked the President to shoot the bear so he could
win a hunting trophy. The President refused, and news reporters
throughout the country spread the story of Roosevelt's kind
act. The event was the subject of a cartoon by Clifford Berryman
of the Washington Post with a caption
'Drawing the Line in Mississippi'
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The cartoon was seen
by husband and wife shop owners, Morris and Rose Michtom.
Originally they were from Germany but they owned
a toys and novelty store in Brooklyn, New York.
Inspired by the cartoon
Mrs.Michtom made a toy bear and displayed it in the
shop window. The bear proved enormously popular with
the public.
Morris wrote to Roosevelt
requesting permission to name the bear "Teddy"
after the President and he got the permission!
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Thus was born one of the largest
selling toys. Nowadays, everyone knows these toys as Teddy
Bears, but very few people know that they were named after
President Theodore “"Teddy"” Roosevelt. From now,
you and I are among those blessed few !!!
Grocery
Coupon's Cash Value
Why is it that Grocery coupons
have a cash value of 1/100th of a cent?
History
of Grocery Coupons
Those were
the days of depression, say around 1937. Food items were distributed
as ration. Books of Stamps (like coupons) were issued to citizens.
Some merchants were smart. They claimed that their books of
stamps were worth much more than they really were. They would
then sell merchandise through catalogues at greatly inflated
prices.
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This
caused problems. Because both the cash value and redemption
prices (in stamps) were greatly inflated, honest stamp
issuers were at a competitive disadvantage, because
their own books of stamps didn’t seem to be worth much
in buying power compared to others.
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Several
states tried to eliminate these injustices by making
all books of stamps – and anything of value that might
be used to reduce the price of a product, have a common
value. Grocery coupons fell into this category. Kansas
State enacted most stringent law. Kansas law overrides
the terms and conditions of the coupon for residents
of the state and says that if no cash value is stated
on the coupon, the consumer may cash in the coupon of
face value. (That means, a 50 cents coupon for Tide
detergent liquid can be encashed in Kansas for 50 cents
if no cash-value is printed on it).
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Manufacturers
had two choices: make separate coupons for Kansas, or print
a cash value on every coupon. Do folks really try to redeem
coupons for the lofty sum of 1/100th of a cent? Hmmm… I don’t
think anybody will do that.
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