The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis: Panic Buying, $12 Bags (bloomberg.com) 110
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.
The butter crisis in Norway... (Score:5, Interesting)
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/... [wikipedia.org] , http://gawker.com/5869463/norw... [gawker.com]
Reminds me of the great Sriracha shortage of 2013 (Score:3)
Ah, those were the days. Barely lived through that one. =)
The story here, for those fortunate enough to have missed it. [go.com]
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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.
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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
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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
Djungelvrål would be a nice one to get, it's all salt on the surface so
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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!
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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.
"The crunch came" (Score:1)
"The crunch came" --- ah, I see what you did there. :-)
Not nerd news (Score:3)
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https://consumerist.com/2017/0... [consumerist.com]
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But, they are also saying pocky's might be impacted. That's a real problem!
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Way to go Idaho! (Score:2)
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
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Well, you see, they could, if Japanese agricultural protectionism didn't get in the way. But it does and so they can't.
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Japan has protective trade policies (i.e. no imports) on many food items it considers strategically vital. Potato is one of them.
I agree with this for the most part, you don't wanna be at the mercy of your neighbors when fecal matter starts flying. Only the very shortsighted or stupid think all nations will get along singing kumbaya all the time. Ability to keep your population alive when international relations go south is pretty damn vital.
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Sure, potato is hardly critical foodstuffs in Japan *now* when things are going swimmingly. But envision another WW2 type scenario. You are blockaded by US (or some other) navy, whole sections of the country is devastated by aerial bombardment and rice production has gone to shit. You need any and all foods you can get your hands on to keep your people alive. Potato is one of those foods that for small amount of land and other resources, you get quite a lot of calories, is easy to grow on your poor island s
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The US Armed Forces are already on it! They have announced that they are going to drop their newest invention on Japan: The MOABOC - The Mother Of All Bags of Chips!
A military spokesman is quoted as saying, "It's the right-sized bag, for the right-sized job."
Out of consideration of civilians, gallons of sweep-syrupy soda will also be dropped.
. . . and some weed to give them the munchies, in case they need help getting started on the chips . . .
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The MOABB's (Mother of All Beer Barrel Bombs)
http://spitfiresite.com/2012/0... [spitfiresite.com]
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Considering Pepsi (who owns Frito-Lay) also owns a good chunk of the relevant Japanese comapny, I think there would be worry about cannibalizing sales.
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> 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 en
Remember to take a potato chip... (Score:1)
AND EAT IT!
*That was a Death Note reference in case you didn't notice.
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Best comment here.
SIlly people (Score:1)
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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.
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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 :)
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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...
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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
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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.
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Because the tongue is a sensitive organ that causes the brain to release endorphins when stimulated in ways pizza spice can.
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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.
Guilty as charged (Score:1)
No humor and no mention of climate? (Score:2)
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 tha
Beware (Score:2)
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.
Grim Situation (Score:2)
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.
My tamagochi ... (Score:2)
I think it just died.
I mean, as in: right now!
I feel so sad.
(Did I break the Haiku rules again? Damn!)
Too bad there's nothing that can be done (Score:2)
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.
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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?
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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.
Re: I'm glad I'm European (Score:2)
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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.
Don't be fooled by labels - WWI and WW2 are just labels put on times. As the European colonial empires began to fade in the early twentieth century, they wished to re-exert their influence in the world and began a sequence of events that led into what was called WWI, and that sequence has not drawn
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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 uprisi
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Little Kim Un.... Is that you playing on one of the 21 computers you have?
Re:LOL at the dumb fat Americans (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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Spotted the hipster. Calbees chips have the same calorie content as American chips.
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