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The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis: Panic Buying, $12 Bags (bloomberg.com)
Demand for potato chips has surged in Japan this week, with products on offer for 6 times their retail price online after Japanese snack company Calbee halted the sale of some of its most popular chip brands. From a report: Calbee's pizza-flavored chips were going for about 1,250 yen ($12) on Yahoo Japan Corp.'s auction website Friday. One bag usually sells for less than 200 yen. Photos of near-empty shelves at their local supermarkets were trending on Twitter. The crunch came after Calbee warned on Monday that it will temporarily halt the sale of 15 types of potato chips due to a bad crop in Hokkaido, a key potato-producing region. The northern island was hit by a record number of typhoons last year. Calbee, which has a market value of 507.9 billion yen and is 20 percent-owned by PepsiCo Inc., has a 73 percent market share of potato chips. Potato chips are a big deal in Japan, a country also known for its senbei rice crackers and Pocky sticks. Calbee's potato-snack products were the most and second-most popular snacks in a TV Asahi poll of 10,000 people and 13 confectionery makers last year, and the subject of a primetime show that lasted more than two hours.
Reminds me of the butter crisis in Norway a few years ago, the neighboring country Sweden would have Swedes smuggle butter into Norway and actually sell these for as much as 1.000 NOK (roughly 116 USD) per half kilo. Don't believe it? Well - check out the sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... , http://gawker.com/5869463/norw...
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
I'm just asking.... Are you SURE it's just the X-Pat Americans who are buying chips in Japan?
By the Way... Little Kim Un? Is that you?
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
"The crunch came" --- ah, I see what you did there. :-)
You've gone below this level, often...
World War 1 AND World war 2 both started in and where fought at least partially in Europe.... And that's just the highlights since the 19th Century... Welcome to the gutter with the rest of the "civilized" world.
I rest my case...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
As long as cheeto and dew trees are safe, we don't care.
love is just extroverted narcissism
I'm thinking a couple of containers of Idaho's finest russets are all that is necessary to keep Japan in the chips... Somebody call Idaho and start shipping...
Better yet, call a couple of US based chip fryers and start running those fryers 24/7 until we bury them in chips....
Seriously? People are paying $12/bag? Unless there are some *serious* tariffs on the importation of snack foods and potatoes, I detect a HUGE amount of profit is possible here. Surely somebody has started shipping these things to Japan...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Ah, those were the days. Barely lived through that one. =)
The story here, for those fortunate enough to have missed it.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Nerd relevant? WTAF?
When the price of foreign currencies spikes like that, for people holding USD, they're sure going to wish they were holding cryptocurrencies.
TFTFY.
OK, I tried.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
and the Asian market across the street from me has no potato chips. Also, the Safeway a couple of blocks from me doesn't either. Seems like the problem is spreading.
I live in Sweden and bought chips two(?) days ago but ate the last of it today.
So it seem to have spread here too since I'm all out of chips.
Now you may consider this false news because who doesn't eat up all of the content in the bag in one go? Sounds false right?
Well. I also bought one bar of dark chocolate and two with darkish chocolate and mint-crisps and five bags of licorice of which four was "salt" as we call it and "EWW! Why would you eat that?!" as Americans would likely call it.
So yeah.. I didn't finished it all in one day.
AND EAT IT!
*That was a Death Note reference in case you didn't notice.
Kim Il Sung invented the potato chip while leading guerilla war units to fight the Japanese occupiers.
Amazingly, it turns out it was a genius long term plan to bring the morale of imperialist and puppet forces down.
I live in San Francisco. Numerous Asian grocery stores carry these chips near me. They are much less fattening than normal American chips, like Lays. I eat Calbee chips quite frequently, and I'm a white dude, and they have flavors most Americans wouldn't go near (Sriracha Squid flavored, wasabi and so on). I wouldn't say I'd freak out if my local Asian store stopped carrying them or started charging 12$ a bag, but it's still disappointing.
The last time I visited the US, I found biscuit & gravy flavored chips.
I just had to try them and indeed they tasted like chips with gravy on them, I know this because back in the 80's it was in fashion here in Denmark to serve a few potato chips on the plate along with gravy and a slice of some sort of roast.
People have been fighting over the Mid-East from roughly 6000 BC until now. The Euros were not the cause of the current problems. The current problems are millenia old. Funny they cannot seem to straighten themselves out after all these years. They even decided to take a new religion, Islam, and use it to create a new fault line.
It used to be the Shi'ites on Bahrain were docile and not overly upset with their Sunni masters. Then they got pissed. Reporters interviewed the proles to see what caused the uprising. One bright young prole said, Google Earth. From Google Earth the Shi'ites could see for the first time where all the whizzy new development was going and how they were getting the shaft. They got pissed. Recently, Iran decided a good Shi'ite revolt was too good to miss and started supporting the proles. The Saudi's, who see an Iranian behind every grain of sand, are supporting the Sunni overloads.
I suspect some version of this is at work in the other Arab lands.
I ate some of that damned licorice in Norway, it was kind of like chewing on a battery. We were moving a boat in foul weather and I was cold, bored, wet, and a bit seasick. Somehow that nasty awful rotten candy took my mind off it and made me a bit less sad that I was alive.
Man, you really need that seminar!
Pizza flavour is the best flavour :) sadly usually lacking in North America
Pizza flavoured crisps sound interesting to me - bring them on to combine two of my favourite junk foods! Pizza's no more weird than pickled onion, worcester sauce or prawn cocktail flavoured crisps - which are my current top 3 flavours...
Awesome post!
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
So now I guess this is just another meta-comment on the increasingly sad state of Slashdot? I was really disappointed by the lack of jokes on the rich target, but saddened by the lack of mention of climate or famine. Also not a single comment moderated "insightful", but maybe that's just what passes for truth in advertising these days?
On the official topic, I was actually ahead of the story when I saw it on TV, but I didn't realize what the full story was until later on. In one sense it is kind of funny that this is the leading edge of climate-change-induced famine as manifested by potato-chip panic in an advanced society. For all the other senses, it won't be funny when the famines become more severe even in those so-called advanced societies that have mostly brought it upon themselves. Harvesting the seeds of the climate change they planted, as the religious folk might like to say.
So let's change the topic again with the best joke I've heard this week, as mutated for the topic at hand:
Pepsi: Watch this ad! No, wait. Don't watch that ad!
United: Ha! You call that a PR disaster?
Spicer: Hold my beer (and potato chips).
(#PresidentTweety: Great job, Spicy! That's the way to change the subject! Even better and cheaper than missiles and daisy cutters!)
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
I'd rather be a fatass American than a poor worthless European piece of trash.
At least the poor European has real social services to fall on -- the fatass american won't be able to afford healthcare insurance for his heart bypass.
back in the 80's it was in fashion here in Denmark to serve a few potato chips on the plate along with gravy and a slice of some sort of roast.
....still doing this every Jul :)
Go eat something healthy for a change. There's no need for this kind of idiocy. We're more civilized in Europe and would never sink to this level.
Oh yeah? What about FRENCH fries!? They are just as calorie laden as potato chips and not nearly as tasty. Why did the French invent them if they are so civilized?
I'm so glad they we call them FREEDOM FRIES now.
and the Asian market across the street from me has no potato chips. Also, the Safeway a couple of blocks from me doesn't either. Seems like the problem is spreading.
I live in the SF Bay area and just bought an assortment of Calbee chips for the regular price. I guess the store owner didn't hear about the shortage. Yum Calbee French Salad chips!
> no potato chips due to a bad crop in Hokkaido, a key potato-producing region. The northern island was hit by a record number of typhoons last year...blah-blah...
Don't buy such cover stories. Last time there was a big potato it shortage happened in nazi Germany. Since they had no domestic mineral oil supplies and the romanian oil fields were lost to soviet invasion by 1944, the lack of kerosene (jet fuel) production meant the mass application of V2 (A4) ballistic missiles suffered a big setback. Germany's solution was to convert the V2 to alcohol-LOX fueling: they simply confiscated over 75% of the entire potato yield in the Reich and in the occupied territories, had it fermented and used the spirit to fuel the V2, of which over 3500 were launched against Belgium, Netherlands and Britain.
Similarly, it is quite likely that the oil-less Japan (they only have coal resources domestically) is now trying to amass potato crop for industrial alcohol production, likely in connection with some aero-space project, quite likely a clandestine military one, else they could simply buy more mineral oil from Russia or the Arabs in public tanker ship exchanges. I think USA, China and Korea better watch out!
That is such an unrealistic conspiracy theory.
The real truth is that the Emperor is taking over the country and he's amassing a stockpile of artillery for his potato guns. Everyone knows the destructive power of a potato gun, when I was a kid, one of my friends knocked a can off a fence 100 yards away with one. Yeah, that's right, we measured in yards in those days, the socialist "meter" wasn't even invented. We had plans on building a bigger gun that could hit the moon, but ran out of time before summer ended... plus we found his brother's stash of marijuana.
Has anybody checked the radar at Pearl Harbor? 'cause this is a Japanese national crisis. And everybody knows where the most chips per capita are in the world. That's right, 7-11.
Stay awake tonight, guys.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports of potato-hoarding warlords in the north of Hokkaido have emerged as authorities remain unwilling to even estimate the number of deaths the crisis has caused.
I don't know. Why in the world would they want rice combined with seaweed and raw fish?
You know, Japan is a foreign country. Foreign countries have different food than we do. We like to think of hundreds of year old foods when we think of foreign food, but if the foreign country is modernized it'll have junk food and the junk food is going to be different from America just like the traditional food is going to be different from America.
Besides, you can get pizza-flavored potato chips in the US, they just aren't that popular.
Are you paid for this or some sort of "true believer"?
I'm still not used to political wonks in this place despite it being infested with them ever since "social media worker" was a thing.
This doesnt mention that you dumb twat
Because the tongue is a sensitive organ that causes the brain to release endorphins when stimulated in ways pizza spice can.
We had hedgehog flavored crisps in the UK once. There are some crisps that are made directly from apples rather than potatoes. The Far Easterns have squid flavored ice cream and Doritos. We also have blue corn and black pepper crisps which are more unusual colours. For really spicy crisps, there is Bombay Mix and Chili Peanuts. I'd like to know if there is anything more spicy.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
I'd guess if they didn't have container transport for 200 years, they would have to adapt to what they could grow on land and catch from the sea. Breeding fish in paddy fields and catching them as the rice fields are drained is an interesting way of getting two harvests from one.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
I admit that I do really like those potato chips. You're missing out on something delicious.
I think it just died.
I mean, as in: right now!
I feel so sad.
(Did I break the Haiku rules again? Damn!)
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Why do you write bolocks like this?
Everyone would probably prefere to be fat over being poor.
Putting 'nationalities' in fromt of such statements only shows how uneducated you are ... poor European? By what terms? The moun tof poor and homelss people is in the US much higher than in Europe ... get a clue. In europe only such people are homeless that denie social/public service.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Potato chips have a much higher fat to carbs ratio than frensh fies.
Frensh fries were invented by the belgic, btw.
And correctly done frensh fries are made from rather thick potato sticks.
All of the above is mot necessarily unhealthy, if eaten in moderation.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Not sure about morale but I can confirm it works excellently for the nipples.
Ezekiel 23:20
Go eat something healthy for a change. There's no need for this kind of idiocy. We're more civilized in Europe and would never sink to this level.
Oh yeah? What about FRENCH fries!? They are just as calorie laden as potato chips and not nearly as tasty. Why did the French invent them if they are so civilized?
I'm so glad they we call them FREEDOM FRIES now.
Freedom fries go especially well with coffee from my freedom press.
It's just like when the Hostess union destroyed the company.
Looks more like management continually screwed up by not moving the company with the times. Maybe better labour relations from the beginning would have helped a lot.
We were moving a boat in foul weather and I was cold, bored, wet, and a bit seasick. Somehow that nasty awful rotten candy took my mind off it and made me a bit less sad that I was alive.
Yepp! Happiest people on the planet! Used to be the Danes but they got it too. "Turkisk Peber" is from Denmark, produced by Fazer (Finnish) nowadays but .. .. that may not be your thing, but you could actually rinse it off and the licorice inside is harder and .. different.. creamier? Toffieer? Or maybe it's just all that salt before-hand which trick you. That's Swedish licorice. Lkerol (also Swedish) Salmiaki is likely sold quite a lot here but is salmiak all over and a lot of it and even I don't like it but I buy it anyway because .. salt (not NaCL, NaCL+licorice doesn't taste the same ..)
Djungelvrål would be a nice one to get, it's all salt on the surface so
The bags I bought was Finnish "Kouvolan Lakritsi" but basically simply because it seem to be the only product they produce and then I don't have to worry about gelatin and such.
The Turkisk peber have ... pepper in it, so it's a different thing. There's also things like "Salta kanoner" (Salt cannons) or whatever which maybe are similar.
The finns (sold here to and likely the same in LIDL under their own brand) also have "Panda licorice" which may be better from a non-Nordic perspective because not only isn't it salmiac licorice but it's also mild in taste and less chewy than Djungelvrål. I don't really want to buy it because since it's so mild I'll eat more of it and that's of course than than eating less of it. Djungelvrål give more flavor for the weight & volume and Lkerol is made of gummi arabicum and Stevia among other things and is sold in small pastill cardboard cases so that will have even less weight and sugar in it. Most licorice seem to be based of wheat-flour and sugar/molasses, sometimes glucose syrup or corn-starch and pretty rarely gelatin, of course hard versions will mostly just be sugar and some syrup maybe but ... hard? :/
Anyway, salt licorice, alcohol, spiced whine, "beautiful women" (how would I know?!) .. makes it work! :D
Sweden is fucked and done by now though. Best place in the world in the 80s and so shitty now. Good work!
If only there were a way to move potatoes from areas where they are plentiful (say, Idaho) to areas experiencing a shortage. But, no, it's impossible.
Spotted the hipster. Calbees chips have the same calorie content as American chips.
Interesting info about the candy, thank you! I'm sorry you see Sweden as fucked now. It seemed nice when I was there a few years ago, and I like the social structure (what I know of it as an outsider)
Man, you really need that seminar!
If you'd read just a tiny little bit about geopolitics then you'd know also how these things work.
Wars aren't started 'to help a people', or 'to spread democracy', or 'to save people from a rude dictator'.
That's only PR and propaganda in order to gain support from the people for a war that only serves the rich in becoming even more rich by fighting for a 400 billion gas reserve between Iran and Qatar. Who ever wins the pipeline (through Syria) wins.
That's the only (plus a few more) reason why 'Assad has to go'. Because he said "no" to Qatar but "yes" to Iran.
The US wants to get rid of the Assad clan already since the sixties, but now they have some financial backers that actually are willing to pay for the war.
Who do you think bought all those Toyotas for ISIS?
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.