Beer and Potato Chips
Potatoes move by rail much in the same way that grain does to reqional processors. For instance Frito Lay is a major customer on the SUZYQ to Conklin NY. I am paying 4.75 or even more for a bag of chip. Beer is still pretty cheap but even Budwiser can be out of my price range. Been drinking Gennese Beer. 5.50 for a can of Bud on Amtrak is enough to make me brown bag it next time I take the train. I know that grain prices are set by futures contacts but perhaps the potato guys have to wait behind the grain guys when it comes to rail cars for potato meal.
Surely it has to be the fault of either Obama or Bush. Or both.
Dave Nelson
23 17 46 11
The Organization of Potato Exporting Countries (OPEC) cited unrest in potato producing countries and possible Iranian blockade of potato ports in Maine as reasons behind the high cost of crude potato's. China has also been accused of forcing the cost of a BAP (Bushel and a Peck) upward due to investment speculators on the world market.
Simply put, America needs to remove itself from the world market and increase domestic potato farming.
Norfolk Southern contributes to the problem as train crews are forced to increase the number of snacks taken on the job to hold the grumbellies over while sitting dead in the water during melt downs. As the demand for potato chips increase the OPEC nations may not be able to sufficiently support it.
Potato famine in Idaho.
Norm
railtrail Beer and Potato Chips Potatoes move by rail much in the same way that grain does to reqional processors. For instance Frito Lay is a major customer on the SUZYQ to Conklin NY. I am paying 4.75 or even more for a bag of chip. Beer is still pretty cheap but even Budwiser can be out of my price range. Been drinking Gennese Beer. 5.50 for a can of Bud on Amtrak is enough to make me brown bag it next time I take the train. I know that grain prices are set by futures contacts but perhaps the potato guys have to wait behind the grain guys when it comes to rail cars for potato meal.
Possibly, If New York State would allow for fracking of vegetable oil, it would bring the price down? And if They( da' State Goberment) would quit pushing rails-to-trails there.. Frito-Lay could bring in potatoes, in bigger lots than a haversack full?
Ah, but trolls love their beer and potato chips.
Yup, New York's protectionism knows no end. No Maine badaydas, no State of Maine boxcars, no Lionel.
Perhaps you are shopping at the wrong place. I havent paid more than $2 for a bag of chips.
Try Aldi.
Ed
Potatoes are about $.50/lb. Chips are $4/lb. Check how much shelf space Walmart allocates for chips and you will know how much profit they make. Old Dutch is a local company and we try to buy something that Frito-Lay doesn't make.
railtrailI know that grain prices are set by futures contacts but perhaps the potato guys have to wait behind the grain guys when it comes to rail cars for potato meal.
Potato meal?
ndbprrBecause you and everyone else is willing to pay $4.75 a bag (or at least enough people that it hasn't hurt sales).
ndbprr: You are very correct. If they can sell a bag for $4.75 without loosing enough sales to offset any price increase, they'll do it. And they should. That's the most efficient way to price potato chips (or about anything else.)
You understand more about economics than say, about 95% of the population.
Hence the phrase "what the market will bear..."
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Let's understand that you are not just paying for the potato chip; you are paying also for the packaging. The packaging is manufactured by someone else and has to be shipped to the potato chip company. Potato chip company employees that have nothing to do with the manufacture of potato chips are still needed to run the machines that package them while other employees take the finished potato chips to the warehouse. They are then loaded into trucks for shipment nation wide. It is a long process to get your potato chip to your local 7-11. The cost of packaging and shipping adds much to the cost of any manufactured food product; oftentimes more than the actual cost for the production of the potato chip itself.
Leave the troll to cheap chips and swill as he rides the (freight) train. My understanding is he rides the boxcars, not the Amtrak diner.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
tree68 posted "Hence the phrase "what the market will bear..." ".
Actually, I believe that phrase started with a railroad rate guy as "what the traffic will bear . . .".
Paul_D_North_Jr tree68 posted "Hence the phrase "what the market will bear..." ". Actually, I believe that phrase started with a railroad rate guy as "what the traffic will bear . . .". Don't forget that potato chips probably load pretty 'light' - i.e., they 'cube out' in filling a trailer, container, or boxcar before they 'weigh out' (unless they're stacked tightly like the Pringles brand). So the inability to carry more in each load and hence spread out the transport costs adds to the cost of those that can be carried . . . - Paul North.
Hence the high cube 86 foot potato chip cars
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Potato Chips would Cube Out a boxcar before weighing out. i think we have just found a product to move in empty high cube autoparts cars.
There's a very large Lay's facility west of Casa Grande, Arizona, that receives corn oil and other ingredients by rail, but as near as I know all chips leave in trucks because they don't go far enough away for rail travel.
You mean the can is worth more than the beer?
Oh. The agony!
ndbprrThere is nothing purchased by the consumer in an aluminum can that costs more then the can itself. The can is always the higher cost and always will be.
The same is true of the paper cups used by the fast food joints for soft drinks (and coffee, for that matter). That's one reason they allow free refills - once you've paid for the cup, they've made their money. The coffee and soda is worth pennies.
It always tickles me when I ask for a large coffee cup full of hot water. No coffee, no tea, just hot water - I generally have my own tea bag. They almost always give it to me free...
One thing not mentioned in the potato chip discussion is the cost of the air they fill the bags with ("You mean that's all the chips I get? The rest is air?")...
If they didn't fill them with air, you wouldn't get chips. You'd get crumbs.
Norm48327 If they didn't fill them with air, you wouldn't get chips. You'd get crumbs.
The "air" is Nitrogen gas, added as a preservative so the chips will stay crisp longer. Also seals out humidity.
Yes, but. (Sorry, just had to borrow that phrase.)
Air is 78% Nitrogen.
I like kettle chips......
MurrayI like kettle chips......
With beer in an aluminum can?
Back on track here what is a winter freeze going to do to price of all my snack foods, Chips Crackers Cereal and beer. Not to mention that Cereal is way over priced. The Cheerio Plant in Buffalo gets there grain by ship longer freeze means that they have to use more expensive rail.
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